Little Women - 912 Freedom Library

Little Womenthe jingling old instrument, that it did seem as if someone(not to hint Aunt March) ought to help her. Nobody did,however, and nobody saw Beth wipe the tears off theyellow keys, that wouldn’t keep in tune, when she was allalone. She sang like a little lark about her work, never wastoo tired for Marmee and the girls, and day after day saidhopefully to herself,’ I know I’ll get my music some time,if I’m good.’There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet,sitting in corners till needed, and living for others socheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the littlecricket on the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet,sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadowbehind.If anybody had asked Amy what the greatest trial of herlife was, she would have answered at once, ‘My nose.’When she was a baby, Jo had accidently dropped her intothe coal hod, and Amy insisted that the fall had ruined hernose forever. It was not big nor red, like poor ‘Petrea’s’, itwas only rather flat, and all the pinching in the worldcould not give it an aristocratic point. No one minded itbut herself, and it was doing its best to grow, but Amy feltdeeply the want of a Grecian nose, and drew whole sheetsof handsome ones to console herself.68 of 861