Lulu's Library, Volume III

Louisa May Alcott

• Publisher: Read & Co. Children's
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781528714129
• eBook ISBN: 9781528788434

First published in 1889, this book contains volume III of "Lulu's Library", a collection of over thirty fantastic stories for children written by Louisa May Alcott's. This wonderful collection is perfect for children and would make for ideal bedtime reading material. Contents include: "Recollections Of My Childhood", "A Christmas Turkey, And How It Came", "The Silver Party", "The Blind Lark", "Music And Macaroni", "The Little Red Purse", "Sophie's Secret", "Dolly's Bedstead", "Trudel's Siege", "Boston", and "Roberts Brothers". 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. Other notable works by this author include: "An Old-Fashioned Girl" (1886), "Eight Cousins" (1869), and "A Long Fatal Love Chase" (1875). 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.

LULU'S LIBRARY

VOLUME III

By

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

First published in 1889

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

RECOLLECTIONS OF MY CHILDHOOD.

A CHRISTMAS TURKEY, AND HOW IT CAME.

THE SILVER PARTY.

THE BLIND LARK.

MUSIC AND MACARONI.

THE LITTLE RED PURSE.

SOPHIE'S SECRET.

DOLLY'S BEDSTEAD.

TRUDEL'S SIEGE.

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.

Louisa May Alcott

CHAPTER I.

RECOLLECTIONS OF MY CHILDHOOD.

One of my earliest memories is of playing with books in my father's study,--building towers and bridges of the big dictionaries, looking at pictures, pretending to read, and scribbling on blank pages whenever pen or pencil could be found. Many of these first attempts at authorship still exist; and I often wonder if these childish plays did not influence my after-life, since books have been my greatest comfort, castle-building a never-failing delight, and scribbling a very profitable amusement.

Another very vivid recollection is of the day when running after my hoop I fell into the Frog Pond and was rescued by a black boy, becoming a friend to the colored race then and there, though my mother always declared that I was an abolitionist at the age of three.

During the Garrison riot in Boston the portrait of George Thompson was hidden under a bed in our house for safekeeping; and I am told that I used to go and comfort "the good man who helped poor slaves" in his captivity. However that may be, the conversion was genuine; and my greatest pride is in the fact that I have lived to know the brave men and women who did so much for the cause, and that I had a very small share in the war which put an end to a great wrong.

Being born on the birthday of Columbus, I seem to have something of my patron saint's spirit of adventure, and running away was one of the delights of my childhood. Many a social lunch have I shared with hospitable Irish beggar children, as we ate our crusts, cold potatoes, and salt fish on voyages of discovery among the ash heaps of the waste land that then lay where the Albany station now stands.

Many an impromptu picnic have I had on the dear old Common, with strange boys, pretty babies, and friendly dogs, who always seemed to feel that this reckless young person needed looking after.

On one occasion the town-crier found me fast asleep at nine o'clock at night, on a doorstep in Bedford Street, with my head pillowed on the curly breast of a big Newfoundland, who was with difficulty persuaded to release the weary little wanderer who had sobbed herself to sleep there.

I often smile as I pass that door, and never forget to give a grateful pat to every big dog I meet, for never have I slept more soundly than on that dusty step, nor found a better friend than the noble animal who watched over the lost baby so faithfully.

My father's school was the only one I ever went to; and when this was broken up because he introduced methods now all the fashion, our lessons went on at home, for he was always sure of four little pupils who firmly believed in their teacher, though they have not done him all the credit he deserved.

I never liked arithmetic or grammar, and dodged these branches on all occasions; but reading, composition, history, and geography I enjoyed, as well as the stories read to us with a skill which made the dullest charming and useful.

"Pilgrim's Progress," Krummacher's "Parables," Miss Edgeworth, and the best of the dear old fairy tales made that hour the pleasantest of our day. On Sundays we had a simple service of Bible stories, hymns, and conversation about the state of our little consciences and the conduct of our childish lives which never will be forgotten.

Walks each morning round the Common while in the city, and long tramps over hill and dale when our home was in the country, were a part of our education, as well as every sort of housework, for which I have always been very grateful, since such knowledge makes one independent in these days of domestic tribulation with the help who are too ofte...

Table of contents

• Louisa May Alcott
• RECOLLECTIONS OF MY CHILDHOOD.
• A CHRISTMAS TURKEY, AND HOW IT CAME.
• THE SILVER PARTY.
• THE BLIND LARK.
• MUSIC AND MACARONI.
• THE LITTLE RED PURSE.
• SOPHIE'S SECRET.
• DOLLY'S BEDSTEAD.
• TRUDEL'S SIEGE.