Louisa May Alcott's Short Stories

A Treasury

Louisa May Alcott

• Publisher: Read & Co. Classics
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781528714341
• eBook ISBN: 9781528788656
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

A wonderful treasury of Louisa May Alcott's short stories. It contains three of Alcott's original collections; "On Picket Duty, and Other Tales", "Proverb Stories" and, "Spinning-Wheel Stories". Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888) was an American short story writer, novelist, and poet most famous for writing the novel "Little Women", as well as its sequels "Little Men" and "Jo's Boys". She grew up in New England and became associated with numerous notable intellectuals of her time, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Henry David Thoreau. This charming collection of stories are not to be missed by fans of Alcott's work and would make for a worthy addition to any bookshelf. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork. List of Tales: On Picket Duty, The King of Clubs and the Queen of Hearts, The Cross on the Old Church Tower, The Death of John, Kitty's Class Day, Aunt Kipp, Psyche's Art, A Country Christmas, The Baron's Gloves, My Red Cap, What the Bells Saw and Said, Grandma's Story, Tabby's Table Cloth, Eli's Education, Onawandah, Little Things, The Banner of Beaumanior, Jerseys or the Girl's Ghost, The Little House In The Garden, Daisy's Jewel-Box, and How She Filled It, Corny's Catamount, The Cooking Class, The Hare and the Tortoise.

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT'S
SHORT STORIES

A TREASURY

First published between
1864 - 1884

This edition published by Read Books Ltd.
Copyright © 2019 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without

the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library

Contents

Louisa May Alcott

ON PICKET DUTY, AND OTHER TALES

THE KING OF CLUBS AND THE QUEEN OF HEARTS.

THE CROSS ON THE OLD CHURCH TOWER.

THE DEATH OF JOHN.

PROVERB STORIES

PREFACE

KITTY'S CLASS DAY

AUNT KIPP

PSYCHE'S ART

A COUNTRY CHRISTMAS

THE BARON'S GLOVES;

MY RED CAP

WHAT THE BELLS SAW AND SAID

Spinning-Wheel Stories

Grandma's Story

Tabby's Table Cloth

Eli's Education

Onawandah

Little Things

The Banner of Beaumanior

Jerseys or the Girl's Ghost

The Little House In The Garden

Daisy's Jewel-Box, and How She Filled It

Corny's Catamount

The Cooking Class

The Hare and the Tortoise

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was an American Novelist, best known for the classic Little Women (1868) and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys. Alcott was born on 29 November, 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, USA, and was raised by her transcendentalist parents. The family, despite their connections with the American intellectual elite, suffered severe financial hardship and Alcott frequently helped to support the household. In 1840, after several financial setbacks, most notably following the experimental school set up by Louisa May’s father, the family moved to a cottage along the Sudbury River in Massachusetts. In 1843, the family moved again to the Utopian Fruitlands Community, an agrarian commune, dedicated to natural living. They finally settled in a house they named Hillside in 1845. As a result of this peripatetic childhood, Alcott’s schooling was mainly received from her father, who was an incredibly strict disciplinarian, high thinker and advocate of plain living. This instilled a determination and strong work ethic in Alcott, who worked as a teacher, governess, seamstress and writer in her early years. As an adult, Alcott was a strong abolitionist and a feminist advocate, becoming the first woman to register to vote in Concord, in a school board election. During the civil war, Alcott worked as a nurse in the Union Hospital at Georgetown, D.C. She collected all her letters, often dryly humorous, in book entitled Hospital Sketches (1863); a work which brought Alcott critical acclaim. Following on from this success, Alcott wrote several novels under the pen name A. L. Barnard, most notably A Long Fatal Love Chase (1866) and A Modern Mephistopheles (1875). However, Little Women and its sequels were Alcott’s major successes; the first book dealt with the childhood of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy; characters strongly based on Alcott’s childhood accompanied by her own three sisters. The sequel, Good Wives (1869) dealt with their progression into adulthood, whilst Little Men (1871) detailed Jo’s life at the school she founded alongside her husband. Jo’s Boys (1886) completed the ‘Family Saga’. The Character Jo was loosely based on Alcott’s own life, however unlike the heroine, Alcott never married, commenting that ‘I am more than half-persuaded that I am a man's soul put by some freak of nature into a woman's body ... because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.’ Alcott was firmly part of the Gilded Age, along with authors such as Elizabeth Stoddard and Rebecca Harding Davis, she addressed women’s issues in a modern and candid manner. Alcott continued to write until her death on 6 March, 1888. The cause of death is uncertain; she suffered chronic health problems, including vertigo and typhoid, the latter of which was treated with mercury. However recent analysis of her illnesses has suggested an autoimmune disease such as Lupus. She is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts, on a hillside known as Author’s Ridge.

ON PICKET DUTY,
AND OTHER TALES

ON PICKET DUTY.

WHAT air you thinkin' of, Phil?

“My wife, Dick.”

“So was I! Aint it odd how fellers fall to thinkin' of thar little women, when they get a quiet spell like this?”

“Fortunate for us that we do get it, and have such gentle bosom guests to keep us brave and honest through the trials and temptations of a life like ours.”

October moonlight shone clearly on the solitary tree, draped with gray moss, scarred by lightning and warped by wind, looking like a venerable warrior, whose long campaign was nearly done; and underneath was posted the guard of four. Behind them twinkled many camp-fires on a distant plain, before them wound a road ploughed by the passage of an army, strewn with the relics of a rout. On the right, a sluggish river glided, like a serpent, stealthy, sinuous, and dark, into a seemingly impervious jungle; on the left, a Southern swamp filled the air with malarial damps, swarms of noisome life, and discordant sounds that robbed the hour of its repose. The men were friends as well as comrades, for though gathered from the four quarters of the Union, and dissimilar in education, character, and tastes, the same spirit animated all; the routine of camp life threw them much together, and mutual esteem soon grew into a bond of mutual good fellowship.

Thorn was a Massachusetts volunteer; a man who seemed too early old, too early embittered by some cross, for though grim of countenance, rough of speech, cold of manner, a keen observer would have soon discovered traces of a deeper, warmer nature hidden, behind the repellent front he turned upon the world. A true New Englander, thoughtful, acute, reticent, and opinionated; yet earnest withal, intensely patriotic, and often humorous, despite a touch of Puritan austerity.

Phil, the “romantic chap,” as he was called, looked his character to the life. Slender, swarthy, melancholy eyed, and darkly bearded; with feminine features, mellow voice and, alternately languid or vivacious manners. A child of the South in nature as in aspect, ardent, impressible, and proud; fitfully aspiring and despairing; without the native energy which moulds character and ennobles life. Months of discipline and devotion had done much for him, and some deep experience was fast ripening the youth into a man.

Flint, the long-limbed lumberman, from the wilds of Maine, was a conscript who, ...

Table of contents

• Louisa May Alcott
• ON PICKET DUTY, AND OTHER TALES
• PROVERB STORIES
• Spinning-Wheel Stories