t
gave a lecture or "conversation" and received a few dollars; sometimes
he did a day's farm work for a neighbor; now and then Mr. Emerson
called and clandestinely left a bank note, and many valuable packages
came out from relatives in Boston; but frugal housekeeping was the
chief asset of the family. Discouraging as the outlook was, some
bitter experience might have been escaped if the Alcotts had remained
in Concord, pursuing their unambitious career. It was, however, the
era of social experiments in New England. The famous Brook Farm
community was then in the third year of its existence, and it was
impossible that Mr. Alcott should not sympathize with this effort to
ease the burden of life, and wish to try his own experiment.
Therefore, in 1843, being joined by several English socialists, one of
whom financed the undertaking, Mr. Alcott started a small community on
a worn-out not to say abandoned farm, which was hopefully christened
"Fruitlands."

Visiting the community five or six weeks after its inception, Mr.
Emerson wrote: "The sun and the evening sky do not look calmer than
Alcott and his family at Fruitlands. They seem to have arrived at the
fact,--to have got rid of the show, and so to be serene. They look
well in July; we will see them in December." An inhospitable December
came upon the promising experiment, as it generally has upon all
similar enterprises. Under the title Transcendental Wild Oats, in
"Silver Pitchers," Miss Alcott gives a lively account of the varying
humors of this disastrous adventure.

Whatever disappointments and privations the enterprise had in store
for their parents, the situation, with its little daily bustle, its
limitless range of fields and woods, its flower hunting and berry
picking, was full of interest and charm for four healthy children all
under the age of twelve years. The fateful December, to which Mr.
Emerson postponed his judgment, had not come before the elders were
debating a dissolution of the community. "Father asked us if we saw
any reason for us to separate," writes Louisa in her journal. "Mother
wanted to, she is so tired. I like it." Of course she did; but "not
the school part," she adds, "nor Mr. L.", who was one of her teachers.
The inevitable lessons interfered with her proper business.

"Fruitlands" continued for three years with declining fortunes, its
lack of promise being perhaps a benefit to the family in saving for
other purposes a small legacy which