CHAPTER SEVEN
AMY'S VALLEY OF HUMILIATION
"That boy is a really perfect cyclops, isn't always he?" said Amy at some point, as Laurie clattered by using on horseback, with a flourish of his whip as he passed.
"How dare you assert so, whilst he is got each his eyes? And very handsome ones they are, too," cried Jo, who resented any slighting feedback about her pal.
"I did not say something approximately his eyes, and I do not see why you want hearth up when I appreciate his using."
"Oh, my goodness! That little goose method a centaur, and she known as him a Cyclops," exclaimed Jo, with a burst of laughter.
"You needn't be so impolite, it is handiest a 'lapse of lingy', as Mr. Davis says," retorted Amy, completing Jo with her Latin. "I simply desire I had a touch of the cash Laurie spends on that horse," she introduced, as though to herself, but hoping her sisters could hear.
"Why?" requested Meg kindly, for Jo had long past off in every other snigger at Amy's 2nd blunder.
"I want it so much. I'm dreadfully in debt, and it might not be my turn to have the rag money for a month."
"In debt, Amy? What do you suggest?" And Meg looked sober.
"Why, I owe as a minimum a dozen pickled limes, and I cannot pay them, you recognize, till I actually have money, for Marmee forbade my having something charged at the shop."
"Tell me all about it. Are limes the fashion now? It used to be pricking bits of rubber to make balls." And Meg tried to hold her countenance, Amy seemed so grave and important.
"Why, you notice, the girls are continually buying them, and until you need to be idea mean, you should do it too. It's nothing however limes now, for all people is sucking them of their desks in schooltime, and trading them off for pencils, bead jewelry, paper dolls, or something else, at recess. If one female likes another, she gives her a lime. If she's mad together with her, she eats one earlier than her face, and does not provide even a suck. They deal with with the aid of turns, and I've had ever so many however haven't returned them, and I ought for they're debts of honor, you know."
"How a good deal can pay them off and repair your credit score?" requested Meg, casting off her purse.
"A region would extra than do it, and go away some cents over for a treat for you. Don't you like limes?"
"Not a good deal. You might also have my percentage. Here's the money. Make it last as long as you may, for it isn't very lots, you realize."
"Oh, thank you! It should be so first-rate to have pocket cash! I'll have a grand feast, for I have not tasted a lime this week. I felt delicate about taking any, as I could not return them, and I'm virtually struggling for one."
Next day Amy became alternatively past due at college, but could not withstand the temptation of showing, with pardonable pride, a moist brown-paper parcel, before she consigned it to the inmost recesses of her desk. During the following couple of minutes the rumor that Amy March had were given twenty-4 scrumptious limes (she ate one at the way) and become going to deal with circulated thru her 'set', and the attentions of her pals have become pretty overwhelming. Katy Brown invited her to her subsequent birthday party immediate. Mary Kingsley insisted on lending her her watch till recess, and Jenny Snow, a satirical young female, who had basely twitted Amy upon her limeless country, directly buried the hatchet and supplied to provide solutions to positive appalling sums. But Amy had now not forgotten Miss Snow's slicing remarks approximately 'some folks whose noses were no longer too flat to scent different people's limes, and stuck-up people who had been not too proud to ask for them', and she instantly beaten 'that Snow lady's' hopes by using the withering telegram, "You needn't be so well mannered all of a sudden, for you might not get any."
A distinguished personage happened to go to the college that morning, and Amy's superbly drawn maps acquired reward, which honor to her foe rankled within the soul of Miss Snow, and triggered Miss March to expect the airs of a studious young peacock. But, sadly, alas! Pride goes earlier than a fall, and the revengeful Snow turned the tables with disastrous achievement. No faster had the guest paid the same old stale compliments and bowed himself out, than Jenny, beneath pretense of asking an essential query, knowledgeable Mr. Davis, the instructor, that Amy March had pickled limes in her desk.
Now Mr. Davis had declared limes a contraband article, and solemnly vowed to publicly ferrule the first character who became located breaking the law. This a great deal-enduring guy had succeeded in banishing chewing gum after a protracted and stormy war, had made a bonfire of the confiscated novels and newspapers, had suppressed a non-public submit workplace, had forbidden distortions of the face, nicknames, and caricatures, and completed all that one man ought to do to hold half a hundred rebellious girls so as. Boys try enough to human patience, goodness is aware of, but women are infinitely greater so, mainly to apprehensive gentlemen with tyrannical tempers and no greater expertise for teaching than Dr. Blimber. Mr. Davis knew any quantity of Greek, Latin, algebra, and ologies of every type so he was known as a excellent instructor, and manners, morals, emotions, and examples have been not taken into consideration of any specific importance. It changed into a maximum unfortunate moment for denouncing Amy, and Jenny knew it. Mr. Davis had evidently taken his espresso too sturdy that morning, there was an east wind, which always affected his neuralgia, and his scholars had not achieved him the credit score which he felt he deserved. Therefore, to use the expressive, if now not elegant, language of a schoolgirl, "He became as fearful as a witch and as move as a undergo". The phrase 'limes' changed into like fireplace to powder, his yellow face flushed, and he rapped on his desk with an strength which made Jenny bypass to her seat with unusual rapidity.
"Young women, attention, in case you please!"
At the strict order the excitement ceased, and fifty pairs of blue, black, grey, and brown eyes had been obediently constant upon his awful countenance.
"Miss March, come to the desk."
Amy rose to conform with outward composure, however a mystery worry oppressed her, for the limes weighed upon her moral sense.
"Bring with you the limes you have on your desk," became the surprising command which arrested her before she got out of her seat.
"Don't take all." whispered her neighbor, a younger woman of extremely good presence of thoughts.
Amy rapidly shook out 1/2 a dozen and laid the rest down before Mr. Davis, feeling that any guy possessing a human heart would relent while that delicious perfume met his nostril. Unfortunately, Mr. Davis mainly detested the scent of the trendy pickle, and disgust introduced to his wrath.
"Is that each one?"
"Not pretty," stammered Amy.
"Bring the rest right away."
With a despairing look at her set, she obeyed.
"You are sure there are no extra?"
"I by no means lie, sir."
"So I see. Now take these disgusting things two by using two, and throw them out of the window."
There became a simultaneous sigh, which created pretty a touch gust, as the remaining wish fled, and the deal with was ravished from their longing lips. Scarlet with disgrace and anger, Amy went from side to side six dreadful instances, and as every doomed couple, looking oh, so plump and juicy, fell from her reluctant palms, a shout from the road completed the pain of the ladies, for it informed them that their dinner party turned into being exulted over by the little Irish youngsters, who were their sworn foes. This—this was too much. All flashed angry or appealing glances at the inexorable Davis, and one passionate lime lover burst into tears.
As Amy returned from her closing journey, Mr. Davis gave a portentous "Hem!" and said, in his most staggering way...
"Young ladies, you don't forget what I said to you a week ago. I am sorry this has came about, but I by no means permit my policies to be infringed, and I by no means ruin my phrase. Miss March, maintain out your hand."
Amy started, and put both fingers at the back of her, turning on him an imploring look which p
leaded for her better than the words she could not utter. She become as a substitute a favourite with 'vintage Davis', as, of direction, he become called, and it is my private notion that he might have damaged his word if the indignation of 1 irrepressible younger woman had not discovered vent in a hiss. That hiss, faint because it became, indignant the irascible gentleman, and sealed the offender's destiny.
"Your hand, Miss March!" was the simplest answer her mute attraction acquired, and too proud to cry or beseech, Amy set her teeth, threw lower back her head defiantly, and bore with out flinching numerous tingling blows on her little palm. They were neither many nor heavy, but that made no difference to her. For the primary time in her existence she were struck, and the shame, in her eyes, was as deep as though he had knocked her down.
"You will now stand on the platform till recess," said Mr. Davis, resolved to do the factor thoroughly, in view that he had began.
That become dreadful. It would were bad enough to go to her seat, and spot the pitying faces of her friends, or the glad ones of her few enemies, but to face the complete school, with that shame fresh upon her, appeared not possible, and for a 2d she felt as though she may want to simplest drop down where she stood, and break her coronary heart with crying. A bitter feel of wrong and the idea of Jenny Snow helped her to undergo it, and, taking the ignominious area, she constant her eyes at the range funnel above what now regarded a sea of faces, and stood there, so immobile and white that the ladies discovered it difficult to look at with that pathetic figure earlier than them.
During the fifteen mins that accompanied, the proud and touchy little woman suffered a shame and ache which she never forgot. To others it might appear a ridiculous or trivial affair, however to her it became a hard enjoy, for during the twelve years of her life she have been governed by means of love alone, and a blow of that kind had in no way touched her before. The smart of her hand and the ache of her coronary heart had been forgotten within the sting of the thought, "I shall have to tell at home, and they may be so disappointed in me!"
The fifteen minutes seemed an hour, however they got here to an end at ultimate, and the phrase 'Recess!' had by no means seemed so welcome to her earlier than.
"You can move, Miss March," said Mr. Davis, looking, as he felt, uncomfortable.
He did no longer soon forget about the reproachful glance Amy gave him, as she went, without a phrase to everyone, immediately into the anteroom, snatched her matters, and left the place "all the time," as she passionately declared to herself. She was in a unhappy kingdom while she were given domestic, and when the older ladies arrived, some time later, an indignation assembly was held right now. Mrs. March did not say a good deal but looked disturbed, and comforted her afflicted little daughter in her tenderest way. Meg bathed the insulted hand with glycerine and tears, Beth felt that even her beloved kittens could fail as a balm for griefs like this, Jo wrathfully proposed that Mr. Davis be arrested at once, and Hannah shook her fist at the 'villain' and pounded potatoes for dinner as though she had him beneath her pestle.
No word turned into taken of Amy's flight, except by way of her pals, however the sharp-eyed demoiselles observed that Mr. Davis became quite benignant in the afternoon, also unusually nervous. Just earlier than school closed, Jo appeared, sporting a grim expression as she stalked up to the desk, and delivered a letter from her mother, then amassed Amy's assets, and departed, cautiously scraping the dust from her boots on the door mat, as if she shook the dust of the region off her toes.
"Yes, you can have a vacation from school, but I need you to look at a bit every day with Beth," stated Mrs. March that evening. "I do not approve of corporal punishment, particularly for women. I dislike Mr. Davis's manner of teaching and don't assume the girls you accomplice with are doing you any excellent, so I shall ask your father's recommendation earlier than I send you everywhere else."
"That's true! I wish all the women would depart, and smash his old college. It's perfectly maddening to suppose of those cute limes," sighed Amy, with the air of a martyr.
"I am now not sorry you misplaced them, for you broke the guidelines, and deserved a few punishment for disobedience," turned into the intense respond, which rather dissatisfied the young female, who expected nothing however sympathy.
"Do you mean you're satisfied I changed into disgraced before the complete faculty?" cried Amy.
"I must now not have chosen that manner of mending a fault," replied her mother, "however I'm now not certain that it may not do you extra precise than a bolder technique. You are getting to be alternatively conceited, my expensive, and it's far quite time you place approximately correcting it. You have a great many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the greatest genius. There is not tons hazard that real talent or goodness can be left out lengthy, even though it is, the awareness of possessing and the use of it well should satisfy one, and the exceptional charm of all electricity is modesty."
"So it's miles!" cried Laurie, who changed into playing chess in a nook with Jo. "I knew a female once, who had a absolutely tremendous skills for track, and she or he did not know it, never guessed what candy little matters she composed while she become by myself, and wouldn't have believed it if all people had instructed her."
"I want I'd acknowledged that satisfactory woman. Maybe she might have helped me, I'm so stupid," said Beth, who stood beside him, listening eagerly.
"You do understand her, and she facilitates you better than all of us else may want to," answered Laurie, searching at her with such mischievous which means in his merry black eyes that Beth all of sudden grew to become very pink, and hid her face within the sofa cushion, quite conquer by means of such an sudden discovery.
Jo allow Laurie win the sport to pay for that reward of her Beth, who could not be prevailed upon to play for them after her compliment. So Laurie did his great, and sang delightfully, being in a mainly lively humor, for to the Marches he seldom confirmed the moody facet of his individual. When he become gone, Amy, who have been pensive all evening, stated abruptly, as if busy over a few new concept, "Is Laurie an completed boy?"
"Yes, he has had an exquisite education, and has an awful lot talent. He will make a excellent guy, if not spoiled by using petting," spoke back her mother.
"And he is not immodest, is he?" asked Amy.
"Not in the least. That is why he is so fascinating and all of us like him a lot."
"I see. It's quality to have accomplishments and be stylish, but not to show off or get perked up," said Amy thoughtfully.
"These things are continually seen and felt in a person's way and conversations, if modestly used, but it isn't vital to display them," said Mrs. March.
"Any extra than it's right to wear all your bonnets and gowns and ribbons right now, that oldsters might also realize you have them," added Jo, and the lecture led to fun.
CHAPTER EIGHT
JO MEETS APOLLYON
"Girls, wherein are you going?" requested Amy, entering their room one Saturday afternoon, and finding them on the brink of exit with an aura which excited her interest.
"Never thoughts. Little women shouldn't ask questions," returned Jo sharply.
Now if there may be whatever mortifying to our emotions whilst we are young, it's far to be told that, and to be bidden to "run away, pricey" remains extra trying to us. Amy bridled up at this insult, and decided to find out the name of the game, if she teased for an hour. Turning to Meg, who by no means refused her something very long, she stated coaxingly, "Do inform me! I should suppose you may let me move, too, for Beth is fussing over her piano, and I have not were given whatever to do, and am so lonely."
"I can't, pricey, due to the fact you are not invited," began Meg, but Jo broke in impatiently, "Now, Meg, be quiet or you will damage all of it. You cannot cross, Amy, so don't be a infant and whine approximately it."
"You are going someplace with Laurie, I realize you're. You were whispering and laughing together on the
couch last night, and also you stopped once I got here in. Aren't you going with him?"
"Yes, we're. Now do be nevertheless, and stop bothering."
Amy held her tongue, however used her eyes, and saw Meg slip a fan into her pocket.
"I understand! I recognize! You're going to the theater to look the Seven Castles!" she cried, adding resolutely, "and I shall move, for Mother said I would possibly see it, and I've were given my rag cash, and it was imply now not to inform me in time."
"Just listen to me a minute, and be an awesome child," stated Meg soothingly. "Mother doesn't desire you to head this week, due to the fact your eyes are not well sufficient yet to undergo the mild of this fairy piece. Next week you can go along with Beth and Hannah, and have a pleasing time."
"I don't like that 1/2 in addition to going with you and Laurie. Please let me. I've been ill with this cold so long, and close up, I'm death for a few a laugh. Do, Meg! I'll be ever so accurate," pleaded Amy, looking as pathetic as she should.
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