Little Women - 912 Freedom Library

Little WomeneBook brought to you byCreate, view, and edit PDF. Download the free trial version.Poor Jo, these were dark days to her, for something likedespair came over her when she thought of spending allher life in that quiet house, devoted to humdrum cares, afew small pleasures, and the duty that never seemed togrow any easier. ‘I can’t do it. I wasn’t meant for a life likethis, and I know I shall break away and do somethingdesperate if somebody doesn’t come and help me,’ she saidto herself, when her first efforts failed and she fell into themoody, miserable state of mind which often comes whenstrong wills have to yield to the inevitable.But someone did come and help her, though Jo did notrecognize her good angels at once because they worefamiliar shapes and used the simple spells best fitted topoor humanity. Often she started up at night, thinkingBeth called her, and when the sight of the little empty bedmade her cry with the bitter cry of unsubmissive sorrow,‘Oh, Beth, come back! Come back!’ she did not stretchout her yearning arms in vain. For, as quick to hear hersobbing as she had been to hear her sister’s faintestwhisper, her mother came to comfort her, not with wordsonly, but the patient tenderness that soothes by a touch,tears that were mute reminders of a greater grief than Jo’s,and broken whispers, more eloquent than prayers, becausehopeful resignation went hand-in-hand with natural759 of 861