They found Aunt Carrol with the old lady, both absorbed in some very interesting subject, but they dropped it as the girls came in, with a conscious look which betrayed that they had been talking about their nieces.  Jo was not in a good humor, and the perverse fit returned, but Amy, who had virtuously done her duty, kept her temper and pleased everybody, was in a most angelic frame of mind.  This amiable spirit was felt at once, and both aunts ’my deared’ her affectionately, looking what they afterward said emphatically, “That child improves every day.”

“Are you going to help about the fair, dear?” asked Mrs. Carrol, as Amy sat down beside her with the confiding air elderly people like so well in the young.

“Yes, Aunt.  Mrs. Chester asked me if I would, and I offered to tend a table, as I have nothing but my time to give.”

“I’m not,” put in Jo decidedly.  “I hate to be patronized, and the Chesters think it’s a great favor to allow us to help with their highly connected fair.  I wonder you consented, Amy, they only want you to work.”

“I am willing to work.  It’s for the freedmen as well as the Chesters, and I think it very kind of them to let me share the labor and the fun.  Patronage does not trouble me when it is well meant.”

“Quite right and proper.  I like your grateful spirit, my dear.  It’s a pleasure to help people who appreciate our efforts.  Some do not, and that is trying,” observed Aunt March, looking over her spectacles at Jo, who sat apart, rocking herself, with a somewhat morose expression.

If Jo had only known what a great happiness was wavering in the balance for one of them, she would have turned dove-like in a minute, but unfortunately, we don’t have windows in our breasts, and cannot see what goes on in the minds of our friends.  Better for us that we cannot as a general thing, but now and then it would be such a comfort, such a saving of time and temper.  By her next speech, Jo deprived herself of several years of pleasure, and received a timely lesson in the art of holding her tongue.

“I don’t like favors, they oppress and make me feel like a slave.  I’d rather do everything for myself, and be perfectly independent.”

“Ahem!” coughed Aunt Carrol softly, with a look at Aunt March.

“I told you so,” said Aunt March, with a decided nod to Aunt Carrol.

Mercifully unconscious of what she had done, Jo sat with her nose in the air, and a revolutionary aspect which was anything but inviting.

“Do you speak French, dear?” asked Mrs. Carrol, laying a hand on Amy’s.

“Pretty well, thanks to Aunt March, who lets Esther talk to me as often as I like,” replied Amy, with a grateful look, which caused the old lady to smile affably.

“How are you about languages?” asked Mrs. Carrol of Jo.

“Don’t know a word.  I’m very stupid about studying anything, can’t bear French, it’s such a slippery, silly sort of language,” was the brusque reply.