“Stop jabbering, girls, and I’ll tell you everything,” said Jo, wondering if Miss Burney felt any grander over her Evelina than she did over her ‘Rival Painters’.  Having told how she disposed of her tales, Jo added, “And when I went to get my answer, the man said he liked them both, but didn’t pay beginners, only let them print in his paper, and noticed the stories.  It was good practice, he said, and when the beginners improved, anyone would pay.  So I let him have the two stories, and today this was sent to me, and Laurie caught me with it and insisted on seeing it, so I let him.  And he said it was good, and I shall write more, and he’s going to get the next paid for, and I am so happy, for in time I may be able to support myself and help the girls.”

Jo’s breath gave out here, and wrapping her head in the paper, she bedewed her little story with a few natural tears, for to be independent and earn the praise of those she loved were the dearest wishes of her heart, and this seemed to be the first step toward that happy end.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A TELEGRAM

“November is the most disagreeable month in the whole year,” said Margaret, standing at the window one dull afternoon, looking out at the frostbitten garden.

“That’s the reason I was born in it,” observed Jo pensively, quite unconscious of the blot on her nose.

“If something very pleasant should happen now, we should think it a delightful month,” said Beth, who took a hopeful view of everything, even November.

“I dare say, but nothing pleasant ever does happen in this family,” said Meg, who was out of sorts.  “We go grubbing along day after day, without a bit of change, and very little fun.  We might as well be in a treadmill.”

“My patience, how blue we are!” cried Jo.  “I don’t much wonder, poor dear, for you see other girls having splendid times, while you grind, grind, year in and year out.  Oh, don’t I wish I could manage things for you as I do for my heroines!  You’re pretty enough and good enough already, so I’d have some rich relation leave you a fortune unexpectedly.  Then you’d dash out as an heiress, scorn everyone who has slighted you, go abroad, and come home my Lady Something in a blaze of splendor and elegance.”

“People don’t have fortunes left them in that style nowadays, men have to work and women marry for money.  It’s a dreadfully unjust world,” said Meg bitterly.

“Jo and I are going to make fortunes for you all.  Just wait ten years, and see if we don’t,” said Amy, who sat in a corner making mud pies, as Hannah called her little clay models of birds, fruit, and faces.

“Can’t wait, and I’m afraid I haven’t much faith in ink and dirt, though I’m grateful for your good intentions.”

Meg sighed, and turned to the frostbitten garden again.  Jo groaned and leaned both elbows on the table in a despondent attitude, but Amy spatted away energetically, and Beth, who sat at the other window, said, smiling, “Two pleasant things are going to happen right away.  Marmee is coming down the street, and Laurie is tramping through the garden as if he had something nice to tell.”