Little Women - 912 Freedom Library

Little Womenlet the small ones slip, but they tell best in the end, Ifancy.’Amy smiled and was mollified at once, saying with amaternal air, ‘Women should learn to be agreeable,particularly poor ones, for they have no other way ofrepaying the kindnesses they receive. If you’d rememberthat, and practice it, you’d be better liked than I am,because there is more of you.’‘I’m a crotchety old thing, and always shall be, but I’mwilling to own that you are right, only it’s easier for me torisk my life for a person than to be pleasant to him when Idon’t feel like it. It’s a great misfortune to have suchstrong likes and dislikes, isn’t it?’‘It’s a greater not to be able to hide them. I don’t mindsaying that I don’t approve of Tudor any more than youdo, but I’m not called upon to tell him so. Neither areyou, and there is no use in making yourself disagreeablebecause he is.’‘But I think girls ought to show when they disapproveof young men, and how can they do it except by theirmanners? Preaching does not do any good, as I know tomy sorrow, since I’ve had Teddie to manage. But thereare many little ways in which I can influence him withouta word, and I say we ought to do it to others if we can.’520 of 861