Little Women Letters from the House of Alcott

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fer to the world new and beautiful thoughts. He was laughed at and misunderstood; but the

ed quite the opposite. His close communion with Nature brought him nearer to the truths of life. For him God ceased to be a mythical object to be studied and read about on Sunday; b

old his little daughters, "were set by the schoolmaster in books made of a few sheets of foolscap, stitched together and ruled with a l

a sudden punch from a neglected handle, as the plow struck a stone, would bring him back to earth with a thump. He sowed seeds in the moist, sweet earth, but his face was turned to the skies, and he knew the clouds and the stars. When he gathered firewood, his eyes were keen for

y on a vegetable diet. But in boyhood it was not always clear whether humanity or the craving for knowledge made him so considerate of the plodding team in the field. Never was team more carefully tended. Many were its hours of grazing, when the noonday sun rode high in

uality of mind which later led him to set down in letters and unpublished manuscripts his inmost thoughts. He cultivated the same habits of thought

reread and commented upon. Years later he mentions in his journal that he made it a practice to read "Pilgrim's Progress" every year,

r determination to gain one. The modern boy has the world of books opened wide to him through the library and the free school. The treasures of art are spread ou

eing the invisible. While still a boy, he began casting off the garment of a conventional creed and to think for himself of God, t

man Alcott emerg

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urprising that in the first flush of young manhood he did not settle down to life on the farm. He longed for the g

raining of children. Unsuccessful in this, he decided to be a peddler, n

ty welcome, for the visit of the country peddler was eagerly awaited by the children. At times, when night came and he was far from the shelter of an inn, he had to beg a lodging from some planter. On one such occasion, as he entered the grounds, he saw a huge sign, "Beware the dog." A shout from the house also warned him, and he saw dashing toward him a savage-looking dog, powerful enough to have torn to

ne debauch of clothes satisfied him for life; after that his tastes were markedly simple. With him the "dandy period" was short-lived indeed. That he repented bitterly of this one excess of folly is shown in his journals, where he sets down minutely what to him was a mistake that amounted almost to a sin. As a rule, he was singularly free f

d highly successful, especially with the very young. He established a mental kindergarten, and the fame of his teaching spread abroad. Thr

work of the young teacher, Alcott, then twenty-eight years old, drove from the Wolcott home to Brooklyn, where he met Abigail Ma

r mother. Hitherto she had been a light-hearted girl, fond of dancing and of the material side of life. The young philosopher, with his dreams and his ideals, brought a new interest

natures and developed in both a sense of oneness, laying a firm foundation for the comradeship whic

something more than mere physical attraction in choosing his wife. A certain quaint circumspection characterized their love-making. Abigail May once wrote: "Mr. Alcott's views on education we

ed before the announcement of their betrothal, and it was nearly three years from the date of their first meeting before thei

stivity and none of the rush that usually precedes a

tter, asking a friend to ac

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's at 4 o'clock precisely on Sunday afternoon next, to

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day,

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ese they were rich indeed, and thus closed another chapter in the life of the gentle philoso