She did neither, but she remembered the scene, and gave the Professor her heartiest respect, for she knew it fee him an attempt to speak out then and there, due to the fact his sense of right and wrong might not permit him be silent. She started out to see that person is a higher possession than cash, rank, intellect, or beauty, and to experience that if greatness is what a wise man has described it to be, 'truth, reverence, and accurate will', then her friend Friedrich Bhaer changed into not best good, but amazing.
This notion reinforced each day. She valued his esteem, she coveted his respect, she desired to be worth of his friendship, and just whilst the want turned into sincerest, she got here near to dropping the whole thing. It all grew out of a cocked hat, for one nighttime the Professor came in to provide Jo her lesson with a paper soldier cap on his head, which Tina had positioned there and he had forgotten to take off.
"It's glaring he does not appearance in his glass before coming down," concept Jo, with a smile, as he stated "Goot efening," and sat soberly down, quite unconscious of the ludicrous comparison among his subject and his headgear, for he became going to examine her the Death of Wallenstein.
She stated not anything at the beginning, for she favored to pay attention him laugh out his huge, hearty laugh while something humorous occurred, so she left him to find out it for himself, and currently forgot all about it, for to listen a German read Schiller is rather an soaking up career. After the studying got here the lesson, which changed into a lively one, for Jo changed into in a homosexual mood that night time, and the cocked hat kept her eyes dancing with merriment. The Professor didn't understand what to make of her, and stopped at remaining to ask with an air of slight surprise that changed into impossible to resist. . .
"Mees Marsch, for what do you giggle to your master's face? Haf you no appreciate for me, that you move on so horrific?"
"How can I be respectful, Sir, when you forget about to take your hat off?" stated Jo.
Lifting his hand to his head, the absent-minded Professor gravely felt and removed the little cocked hat, checked out it a minute, after which threw lower back his head and laughed like a merry bass viol.
"Ah! I see him now, it is that imp Tina who makes me a idiot with my cap. Well, it's miles not anything, but see you, if this lesson goes no longer properly, you too shall put on him."
But the lesson did now not cross in any respect for a few minutes because Mr. Bhaer caught sight of a photo on the hat, and unfolding it, said with wonderful disgust, "I want these papers did not come inside the house. They are not for kids to see, nor young people to examine. It isn't well, and I haf no endurance with those who make this damage."
Jo glanced at the sheet and saw a pleasant illustration composed of a lunatic, a corpse, a villain, and a viper. She did not love it, however the impulse that made her turn it over became now not one in every of displeasure but fear, because for a minute she fancied the paper became the Volcano. It become now not, but, and her panic subsided as she remembered that although it have been and one in every of her own memories in it, there might have been no call to betray her. She had betrayed herself, however, by way of a glance and a blush, for though an absent man, the Professor noticed a good deal greater than human beings fancied. He knew that Jo wrote, and had met her down among the newspaper offices more than once, however as she in no way talked about it, he requested no questions no matter a sturdy preference to peer her paintings. Now it took place to him that she was doing what she turned into ashamed to very own, and it stricken him. He did no longer say to himself, "It is none of my commercial enterprise. I've no right to say whatever," as many human beings would have performed. He most effective remembered that she changed into younger and bad, a female a long way faraway from mom's love and father's care, and he was moved to help her with an impulse as short and natural as that which might prompt him to position out his hand to keep a baby from a puddle. All this flashed through his mind in a minute, but now not a trace of it seemed in his face, and by the time the paper became grew to become, and Jo's needle threaded, he was equipped to say quite clearly, but very gravely...
"Yes, you're right to put it from you. I do not assume that good young ladies ought to see such matters. They are made best to a few, however I could extra instead deliver my boys gunpowder to play with than this awful trash."
"All may not be terrible, handiest stupid, you know, and if there is a call for for it, I don't see any harm in presenting it. Many very first rate people make an honest residing out of what are called sensation stories," said Jo, scratching gathers so energetically that a row of little slits observed her pin.
"There is a demand for whisky, however I assume you and I do no longer care to promote it. If the decent humans knew what damage they did, they would no longer sense that the residing turned into sincere. They haf no right to position poison inside the sugarplum, and permit the small ones consume it. No, they should assume a touch, and sweep dust in the road before they try this component."
Mr. Bhaer spoke warmly, and walked to the fire, crumpling the paper in his hands. Jo sat nonetheless, searching as though the hearth had come to her, for her cheeks burned long after the cocked hat had grew to become to smoke and long past harmlessly up the chimney.
"I need to like a great deal to ship all the rest after him," muttered the Professor, coming again with a relieved air.
Jo idea what a blaze her pile of papers upstairs might make, and her tough-earned money lay rather closely on her judgment of right and wrong at that minute. Then she idea consolingly to herself, "Mine are not like that, they're best stupid, in no way terrible, so I won't be concerned," and taking up her e-book, she stated, with a studious face, "Shall we pass on, Sir? I'll be very good and right now."
"I shall wish so," turned into all he said, however he supposed more than she imagined, and the grave, kind appearance he gave her made her sense as if the words Weekly Volcano had been published in big kind on her forehead.
As quickly as she went to her room, she were given out her papers, and punctiliously reread each certainly one of her memories. Being a little shortsighted, Mr. Bhaer occasionally used eye glasses, and Jo had attempted them once, smiling to see how they magnified the quality print of her book. Now she regarded to have at the Professor's intellectual or moral spectacles additionally, for the faults of these terrible testimonies glared at her dreadfully and filled her with dismay.
"They are trash, and will soon be worse trash if I pass on, for every is extra sensational than the ultimate. I've long past blindly on, hurting myself and other humans, for the sake of cash. I recognise it's so, for I can not read these items in sober earnest with out being horribly ashamed of it, and what must I do if they have been visible at home or Mr. Bhaer got preserve of them?"
Jo became warm at the bare concept, and stuffed the whole package into her stove, almost placing the chimney afire with the blaze.
"Yes, it is the first-rate area for such inflammable nonsense. I'd higher burn the residence down, I think, than permit different people blow themselves up with my gunpowder," she thought as she watched the Demon of the Jura whisk away, a touch black cinder with fiery eyes.
But when not anything remained of all her 3 month's paintings except a heap of ashes and the cash in her lap, Jo appeared sober, as she sat on the ground, thinking what she should do about her wages.
"I suppose I haven't carried out a lot damage yet, and can preserve this to pay for my time," she said, after an extended meditation, adding impatiently, "I almost want I hadn't any judgment of right and wrong, it is so inconvenient. If I did not care about doing proper, and failed to experience uncomfortable whilst doing wrong, I need to get on capitally. I can't assist wishing once in a while, that Mother and Father hadn't been so unique approximately such matters."
Ah, Jo, in place of wishing that, thank God that 'Father and Mother had been precise', and pity from your heart the ones who have no such guardians to hedge them round with standards which may appear l
ike jail walls to impatient adolescents, but as a way to show positive foundations to build man or woman upon in womanhood.
Jo wrote no extra sensational memories, figuring out that the money did not pay for her share of the sensation, however going to the other intense, as is the manner with human beings of her stamp, she took a route of Mrs. Sherwood, Miss Edgeworth, and Hannah More, and then produced a story which might have been extra nicely referred to as an essay or a sermon, so intensely moral was it. She had her doubts approximately it from the beginning, for her energetic fancy and girlish romance felt as unwell comfortable in the new fashion as she would have completed masquerading in the stiff and cumbrous costume of the final century. She despatched this didactic gem to several markets, but it discovered no customer, and she become willing to consider Mr. Dashwood that morals failed to promote.
Then she tried a baby's story, which she may want to effortlessly have disposed of if she had no longer been mercenary sufficient to demand filthy lucre for it. The handiest man or woman who supplied sufficient to make it really worth her even as to attempt juvenile literature became a worthy gentleman who felt it his venture to transform all the global to his unique perception. But a good deal as she favored to put in writing for youngsters, Jo could not consent to depict all her naughty boys as being eaten by way of bears or tossed by mad bulls because they did now not go to a particular Sabbath school, nor all the properly toddlers who did cross as rewarded by every form of bliss, from gilded gingerbread to escorts of angels after they departed this life with psalms or sermons on their lisping tongues. So nothing got here of those trials, and Jo corked up her inkstand, and said in a suit of very healthy humility...
"I don't know some thing. I'll wait until I do before I strive once more, and interim, 'sweep mud in the street' if I cannot do higher, it truly is honest, as a minimum." Which decision proved that her 2d tumble down the beanstalk had done her some correct.
While those internal revolutions have been going on, her outside lifestyles were as busy and uneventful as common, and if she now and again looked critical or a little sad no person discovered it however Professor Bhaer. He did it so quietly that Jo by no means knew he changed into looking to look if she could accept and profit by way of his reproof, but she stood the take a look at, and he changed into satisfied, for although no phrases exceeded among them, he knew that she had given up writing. Not handiest did he wager it via the truth that the second one finger of her right hand become not inky, but she spent her evenings downstairs now, changed into met no extra amongst newspaper places of work, and studied with a dogged persistence, which assured him that she became bent on occupying her mind with something beneficial, if not excellent.
He helped her in many approaches, proving himself a true buddy, and Jo changed into glad, for while her pen lay idle, she was getting to know different training except German, and laying a foundation for the feeling story of her very own existence.
It turned into a pleasant winter and a long one, for she did now not depart Mrs. Kirke until June. Everyone regarded sorry whilst the time came. The kids have been inconsolable, and Mr. Bhaer's hair caught instantly up all over his head, for he constantly rumpled it wildly while disturbed in mind.
"Going domestic? Ah, you're satisfied that you haf a home to move in," he said, when she told him, and sat silently pulling his beard inside the corner, at the same time as she held a touch levee on that last night.
She turned into going early, so she bade them all good-bye in a single day, and when his flip came, she stated warmly, "Now, Sir, you might not neglect to come back and spot us, in case you ever tour our way, will you? I'll by no means forgive you in case you do, for I need all of them to understand my pal."
"Do you? Shall I come?" he asked, looking down at her with an eager expression which she did not see.
"Yes, come subsequent month. Laurie graduates then, and also you'd revel in graduation as something new."
"That is your great friend, of whom you speak?" he stated in an altered tone.
"Yes, my boy Teddy. I'm very pleased with him and should such as you to look him."
Jo seemed up then, quite unconscious of anything however her own delight within the prospect of displaying them to each other. Something in Mr. Bhaer's face all at once recalled the reality that she may find Laurie more than a 'excellent friend', and clearly due to the fact she specifically wanted not to appearance as though whatever changed into the matter, she involuntarily began to blush, and the more she attempted no longer to, the redder she grew. If it had no longer been for Tina on her knee. She didn't realize what would have emerge as of her. Fortunately the kid become moved to hug her, so she controlled to hide her face an immediate, hoping the Professor did now not see it. But he did, and his own modified again from that short-term tension to its ordinary expression, as he stated cordially...
"I worry I shall no longer make the time for that, however I wish the pal a good deal success, and you all happiness. Gott bless you!" And with that, he shook arms warmly, shouldered Tina, and went away.
But after the boys had been abed, he sat long earlier than his fireplace with the worn-out look on his face and the 'heimweh', or homesickness, lying heavy at his coronary heart. Once, when he remembered Jo as she sat with the little baby in her lap and that new softness in her face, he leaned his head on his palms a minute, after which roamed about the room, as if in search of some thing that he could not find.
"It isn't always for me, I must not desire it now," he stated to himself, with a sigh that become nearly a groan. Then, as though reproaching himself for the longing that he could not repress, he went and kissed the two messed up heads upon the pillow, took down his seldom-used meerschaum, and opened his Plato.
He did his first-class and did it manfully, but I don't assume he determined that a couple of rampant boys, a pipe, or maybe the divine Plato, were very quality substitutes for spouse and toddler at domestic.
Early because it turned into, he changed into on the station next morning to peer Jo off, and thanks to him, she began her solitary journey with the satisfactory reminiscence of a acquainted face smiling its farewell, a bunch of violets to keep her business enterprise, and exceptional of all, the glad thought, "Well, the wintry weather's long past, and I've written no books, earned no fortune, but I've made a friend worth having and I'll try and hold him all my lifestyles."
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
HEARTACHE
Whatever his cause could have been, Laurie studied to some motive that yr, for he graduated with honor, and gave the Latin oration with the grace of a Phillips and the eloquence of a Demosthenes, so his friends stated. They have been all there, his grandfather—oh, so proud—Mr. And Mrs. March, John and Meg, Jo and Beth, and all exulted over him with the sincere admiration which boys make mild of on the time, however fail to win from the arena by way of any after-triumphs.
"I've got to stay for this confounded supper, but I will be home early day after today. You'll come and meet me as common, ladies?" Laurie said, as he placed the sisters into the carriage after the joys of the day were over. He said 'girls', but he supposed Jo, for she became the only person who saved up the vintage custom. She had no longer the heart to refuse her great, a success boy whatever, and answered warmly...
"I'll come, Teddy, rain or shine, and march earlier than you, gambling 'Hail the conquering hero comes' on a jew's-harp."
Laurie thanked her with a glance that made her assume in a surprising panic, "Oh, deary me! I understand he's going to say some thing, and then what shall I do?"
Evening meditation and morning paintings relatively allayed her fears, and having determined that she would not be vain enough to think humans were going to recommend when she had given them every motive to understand what her answer could be, she set forth at the appointed time, hoping Teddy wouldn't do whatever to make her hurt his bad feelings. A name at Meg's, and a refreshing sniff and sip on the Daisy and Demijohn, nevertheless similarly fortified her for
the tete-a-tete, however while she noticed a stalwart discern looming within the distance, she had a sturdy choice to show about and run away.
"Where's the jew's-harp, Jo?" cried Laurie, as quickly as he turned into inside speakme distance.
"I forgot it." And Jo took heart again, for that salutation could not be called lover-like.
She always used to take his arm on those activities, now she did no longer, and he made no complaint, which became a bad signal, however talked on rapidly approximately all kinds of far flung topics, until they grew to become from the street into the little route that led homeward via the grove. Then he walked more slowly, unexpectedly misplaced his fine glide of language, and now and then a dreadful pause passed off. To rescue the communique from one of the wells of silence into which it saved falling, Jo stated unexpectedly, "Now you should have a terrific lengthy holiday!"
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