-ties, and two dozen handkerchiefs, at
which I had to work all one night to get them done, ... I got only
$4.00." The brave, young fortune-seeker adds sensibly, "Sewing won't
make my fortune, but I can plan my stories while I work."

In May she had a welcome visit from Anna on her way home from
Syracuse, as the work there was too hard for her, and the sisters
spent some happy days together in Boston. Then they were obliged to go
home, as dear little Beth was very sick with scarlet-fever which she
caught from some poor children Mrs. Alcott had been nursing. Both Beth
and May had the dangerous disease, and Beth never recovered from the
effects of it, although she lived for two years, a serene, patient
invalid, who shed a benediction on the sorrowing household. That
summer was an anxious time for the family. In her usual way Louisa
plunged headlong into housework and nursing, and when night came she
would scribble one of the stories which the papers were now glad to
accept whenever she could send them. So with varying degrees of
apprehension and rejoicing, the weary months passed, and as Beth was
slowly improving and she was not needed at home, Louisa decided to
spend another winter in the city. Her diary says:

"There I can support myself and help the family. C. offers $10 a month
and perhaps more.... Others have plenty of sewing; the play may come
out, and Mrs. R. will give me a sky-parlor for $3 a week, with fire
and board. I sew for her also." With practical forethought, she adds,
"If I can get A. L. to governess I shall be all right."

Then in a burst of the real spirit which had animated her ever since
she first began to write and sew and teach and act, and make over old
clothes given her by rich friends that she need not spend any money on
herself, she declares in her diary:

"I was born with a boy's spirit under my bib and tucker. I _can't
wait_ when I _can work_; so I took my little talent in my hand and
forced the world again, braver than before, and wiser for my
failures."

That the decision was no light one, and that the winter in Boston was
not merely an adventure, is shown by her declaration:

"I don't often pray in words; but when I set out that day with all my
worldly goods in the little old trunk, my own earnings ($25) in my
pocket, and much hope and resolution in my soul, my heart was very
full, and I said to the Lord, 'Help us all, and keep us for one
another,' as I never said it before, while I l