r
dramatic performances. "There," says Louisa, "we dramatized the fairy
tales in great style," Jack the Giant-killer and Cinderella being
favorites, the passion for the stage which came near making Louisa an
actress, as also her sister Anna, getting early development.

The fun and frolic of these days were the more enjoyed because they
alternated with regular duties, with lessons in housework with the
mother and language lessons with the father, for which he now had
abundant leisure. As he had no other pupils, he could try all his
educational experiments in his own family. Among other exercises, the
children were required to keep a journal, to write in it regularly,
and to submit it to the examination and criticism of the parents.
Facility in writing thus became an early acquisition. It was furthered
by a pretty habit which Mrs. Alcott had of keeping up a little
correspondence with her children, writing little notes to them when
she had anything to say in the way of reproof, correction, or
instruction, receiving their confessions, repentance, and good
resolutions by the next mail.

Some of these maternal letters are very tender and beautiful. One to
Louisa at the age of eleven, enclosed a picture of a frail mother
cared for by a faithful daughter, and says, "I have always liked it
very much, for I imagined that you might be just such an industrious
daughter and I such a feeble and loving mother, looking to your labor
for my daily bread." There was prophecy in this and there was more
prophecy in the lines with which Louisa replied:

"I hope that soon, dear mother,
You and I may be
In the quiet room my fancy
Has so often made for thee,--

The pleasant, sunny chamber,
The cushioned easy-chair,
The book laid for your reading,
The vase of flowers fair;

The desk beside the window
When the sun shines warm and bright,
And there in ease and quiet,
The promised book you write.

While I sit close beside you,
Content at last to see
That you can rest, dear mother,
And I can cherish thee."

The versification is still juvenile, but there is no fault in the
sentiment, and Miss Alcott, in a later note, says, "The dream came
true, and for the last ten years of her life, Marmee sat in peace with
every wish granted."

Evidently Louisa had begun to feel the pinch of the family
circumstances. The income was of the slenderest. Sometimes Mr. Alcot