“I think he would, if your mother asked him.  He’s very kind, though he does not look so, and he lets me do what I like, pretty much, only he’s afraid I might be a bother to strangers,” began Laurie, brightening more and more.

“We are not strangers, we are neighbors, and you needn’t think you’d be a bother.  We want to know you, and I’ve been trying to do it this ever so long.  We haven’t been here a great while, you know, but we have got acquainted with all our neighbors but you.”

“You see, Grandpa lives among his books, and doesn’t mind much what happens outside.  Mr. Brooke, my tutor, doesn’t stay here, you know, and I have no one to go about with me, so I just stop at home and get on as I can.”

“That’s bad.  You ought to make an effort and go visiting everywhere you are asked, then you’ll have plenty of friends, and pleasant places to go to.  Never mind being bashful.  It won’t last long if you keep going.”

Laurie turned red again, but wasn’t offended at being accused of bashfulness, for there was so much good will in Jo it was impossible not to take her blunt speeches as kindly as they were meant.

“Do you like your school?” asked the boy, changing the subject, after a little pause, during which he stared at the fire and Jo looked about her, well pleased.

“Don’t go to school, I’m a businessman—­girl, I mean.  I go to wait on my great-aunt, and a dear, cross old soul she is, too,” answered Jo.

Laurie opened his mouth to ask another question, but remembering just in time that it wasn’t manners to make too many inquiries into people’s affairs, he shut it again, and looked uncomfortable.

Jo liked his good breeding, and didn’t mind having a laugh at Aunt March, so she gave him a lively description of the fidgety old lady, her fat poodle, the parrot that talked Spanish, and the library where she reveled.

Laurie enjoyed that immensely, and when she told about the prim old gentleman who came once to woo Aunt March, and in the middle of a fine speech, how Poll had tweaked his wig off to his great dismay, the boy lay back and laughed till the tears ran down his cheeks, and a maid popped her head in to see what was the matter.

“Oh!  That does me no end of good.  Tell on, please,” he said, taking his face out of the sofa cushion, red and shining with merriment.

Much elated with her success, Jo did ‘tell on’, all about their plays and plans, their hopes and fears for Father, and the most interesting events of the little world in which the sisters lived.  Then they got to talking about books, and to Jo’s delight, she found that Laurie loved them as well as she did, and had read even more than herself.

“If you like them so much, come down and see ours.  Grandfather is out, so you needn’t be afraid,” said Laurie, getting up.

“I’m not afraid of anything,” returned Jo, with a toss of the head.