she had hidden in her desk but finally she told her mother about them,
and when Mrs. Alcott had read them, she advised her to keep on writing.
Louisa did so and became one of the best American story-tellers. She
wrote a number of books, and if you begin with _Lulu's Library_, you
will want to read _Little Men_ and _Little Women_ and all the books that
dear Louisa Alcott ever wrote.
At first Louisa was paid but small sums for her writings, and as the
Alcott family were poor, she taught school, did sewing, took care of
children, or worked at anything, always with a merry smile, so long as
it provided comforts for those she loved.
When the Civil War broke out, she was anxious to do something to help,
so she went into one of the Union hospitals as a nurse. She worked so
hard that she grew very ill, and her father had to go after her and
bring her home. One of her books tells about her life in the hospital.
It was soon after her return home that her books began to sell so well
that she found herself, for the first time in her life, with a great
deal of money. There was enough to buy luxuries for the Alcott
family--there was enough for her to travel. No doubt she got more
happiness in traveling than some people, for she found boys and girls in
England, France, and Germany reading the very books she herself, Louisa
May Alcott, had written. Then, too, at the age of fifty, she enjoyed
venturing into new places just as well as she did the morning she
sallied forth to Boston Common in her new green shoes!
SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE
Some of these days when you are learning about countries, mountains, and
rivers, you may like to know that a minister by the name of Morse was
called the Father of American Geography. He wrote all the first
geographies used. Some were hard, others much easier. But whatever he
wrote, he had to have the house very quiet. Between the sermons he had
to get ready for Sundays and the books he had to make for schools, he
was nearly always writing in his study, so his little boy "Sammy" had
been taught to tiptoe through the rooms and to be quiet with his toys.
He could not remember the time when his mother was not whispering, with
a warning finger held up, "Sh--Sh--Papa's writing!"
Sammy liked to draw, especially faces! One day an old school-teacher had
come to see his father about a geography. This man had a large,
queer-shaped nose. Sammy wondered if he could draw a picture of it. He
did
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