Page 244 - LITTLE WOMEN

Little Women

talk, ‘I never saw any hunting, but I suppose you know all
about it.’
‘I did once, but I can never hunt again, for I got hurt
leaping a confounded five-barred gate, so there are no

more horses and hounds for me,’ said Frank with a sigh
that made Beth hate herself for her innocent blunder.
‘Your deer are much prettier than our ugly buffaloes,’
she said, turning to the prairies for help and feeling glad
that she had read one of the boys’ books in which Jo
delighted.
Buffaloes proved soothing and satisfactory, and in her
eagerness to amuse another, Beth forgot herself, and was
quite unconscious of her sisters’ surprise and delight at the
unusual spectacle of Beth talking away to one of the
dreadful boys, against whom she had begged protection.
‘Bless her heart! She pities him, so she is good to him,’
aid Jo, beaming at her from the croquet ground.
‘I always said she was a little saint,’ added Meg, as if
there could be no further doubt of it.
‘I haven’t heard Frank laugh so much for ever so long,’
said Grace to Amy, as they sat discussing dolls and making
tea sets out of the acorn cups.
‘My sister Beth is a very fastidious girl, when she likes
to be,’ said Amy, well pleased at Beth’s success. She meant

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