LITTLE WOMEN

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy

By Louisa M. Alcott

Author of "Little Men," "An Old-Fashioned Girl," "Spinning-Wheel Stories," etc.

With more than 200 illustrations by Frank T. Merrill and a picture of the home of the Little Women by Edmund H. Garrett

Boston: Little, Brown, and Company

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Preface

Adapted from John Bunyan

Go, then, my little book, and show to all
who welcome you what you keep close inside—
your heart, your story. May what you reveal
do good for those who read it, and inspire
them to walk their own life's journey better
than you or I have walked ours.
Tell them of Mercy, who began her journey early.
Let young women learn from her example
to value the world that is still to come,
and so grow wise. For even small, hurrying feet
can follow the paths that faithful people
have walked before them.

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Contents

Part First

1. Playing Pilgrims
2. A Merry Christmas
3. The Laurence Boy
4. Burdens
5. Being Neighborly
6. Beth Finds the Palace Beautiful
7. Amy's Valley of Humiliation
8. Jo Meets Apollyon
9. Meg Goes to Vanity Fair
10. The P.C. and P.O.
11. Experiments
12. Camp Laurence
13. Castles in the Air
14. Secrets
15. A Telegram
16. Letters
17. Little Faithful
18. Dark Days
19. Amy's Will
20. Confidential
21. Laurie Makes Mischief, and Jo Makes Peace
22. Pleasant Meadows
23. Aunt March Settles the Question

Part Second

1. Gossip
2. The First Wedding
3. Artistic Attempts
4. Literary Lessons
5. Domestic Experiences
6. Calls
7. Consequences
8. Our Foreign Correspondent
9. Tender Troubles
10. Jo's Journal
11. A Friend
12. Heartache
13. Beth's Secret
14. New Impressions
15. On the Shelf
16. Lazy Laurence
17. The Valley of the Shadow
18. Learning to Forget
19. All Alone
20. Surprises
21. My Lord and Lady
22. Daisy and Demi
23. Under the Umbrella
24. Harvest Time

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Chapter I

Playing Pilgrims

"Christmas won't feel like Christmas without any presents," Jo grumbled, stretched out on the rug.

"It's so awful to be poor!" Meg sighed, looking down at her worn old dress.

"I don't think it's fair that some girls get to have plenty of pretty things, while other girls have nothing at all," Amy added, sniffing as though she'd been personally wronged.

"We still have Father and Mother, and we have each other," Beth said contentedly from her corner of the room.

The firelight lit up the four young faces at these cheerful words, and for a moment they all brightened. But the light faded from them again when Jo said sadly:

"We don't have Father—and we won't, for a long time yet." She didn't add the word "perhaps never," but each of her sisters silently added it in her own mind, thinking of their father, far away where...