Part 18 (1/2)
Again, a tramp asked Mr Alcott to lend him five dollars As he had only a ten-dollar bill, the dear ht back as soon as possible Despite the disbelief of his fa the five-dollar bill soon with profuse thanks, and the gentle philosopher's faith in human nature was not crushed
Still another experienerosity proved a harder one in its results to the Alcotts, when Mrs Alcott allowed soarden while she treated theenerous benefactor, in return they gave sht cases, Mr and Mrs Alcott were very sick and, as Miss Alcott records later: ”We had a curious tier and trouble” She adds: ”No doctors and all got well”
When Louisa Alcott was almost ten years old, and Anna twelve, Mr
Alcott took a trip to England, hoping to interest the people there in his new theories of education and of living So enthusiastically and beautifully did he present his theories that he won many converts, and one of them, a Mr Lane, returned to America with him to help him found a colony on the new ideas, which were more ideal than practical, and so disapproved of by Mr Alcott's friends, who thought him foolish to waste ti, Mr Alcott, Mr Lane and other enthusiasts decided to buy an estate of one hundred acres near Harvard Village, Mass, and establish the colony The place was named ”Fruitlands,” in anticipation of future crops, and the men ere to start the community were full of hope and enthusiasm, in which Mrs
Alcott did not share, as she knew her husband's visionary nature too well not to fear the result of such an experi the plan as practical as she could, and drew such a rosy picture of their new home to the children that they expected life at Fruitlands to be a perpetual picnic
Alas for visions and for hopes! Although life at Fruitlands had its moments of sunshi+ne and happiness, yet they were far overbalanced by hard work, s worry over le to ed to face the fact that the experiment had been an utter failure, that he had exhausted his resources of entle dreamer, and for a while it seemed as if despair would overwhelm him But with his brave wife to help him and the children's welfare to think of, he shook off his despondency bravely, and decided to make a fresh start So Mrs Alcott wrote to her brother in Boston for help, sold all the furniture they could spare, and went to Still River, the nearest village to Fruitlands, and engaged four rooed from the sobnk in which Fruitlands, now re-christened _Apple Stuoods were piled on an ox-sled, the four girls on the top, while father and oods, but richer in love and faith and patience, and alas, experience”
After a winter in Still River they went back to Concord, where they occupied a few rooms in the house of a sympathetic friend--not all their friends were sympathetic, by anyto his experiment But all were kindly as they saw the faain, with even fewer necessities and comforts than before Both Mr and Mrs Alcott did whatever work they could find to do, thinking nothing toofor their family
Naturally the education of the children was rather fragmentary and insufficient, but it developed their oers of thinking Through the pages of their diaries in which they wrote regularly, and which were open to their hts clearly on all subjects Also they were encouraged to read freely, while only the best books ithin their reach Louisa's poetic and dramatic efforts were not ridiculed, but criticized as carefully as if they had beenher deepest thoughts, but acted out her own nature freely and fearlessly
In fact the four daughters were happy, wholesoirls, whose frolics and pastimes took such unique forms that people wondered whether they were the result of Mr Alcott's theories, and Miss Alcott tells of one afternoon when Mr E her mother and the conversation drifted to the subject of education Turning to Mr Alcott, Miss Fuller said:
”Well, Mr Alcott, you have been able to carry out your methods in your own family; I should like to see your uests stood on the door-step, ready to leave, there was a wild uproar heard in the near distance and round the corner of the house ca baby May, dressed as a queen; Miss Alcott says: ”I was the horse, bitted and bridled, and driven byand barked as loud as her gentle voice per and ith fun, which, however, came to a sudden end, forheap, whilewith a dramatic wave of the hand:
”'Here are the model children, Miss Fuller!'”
When Mrs Alcott's father, Colonel May, died, he left his daughter a small property, and she now determined to buy a house in Concord with it, so that whatever the varying fortunes of the faht be in future they would at least have a roof over their heads An additional amount of five hundred dollars was added by Mr Eel of the faht, where life and work began in earnest for Louisa and her sisters, for only too clearly they saw the heavy weight that was being laid on theirin body and spirit in those days, stretching up physically andthe sources of her finest inspiration was the gentle reformer, philosopher and writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, as ever her father's loyal friend and helper
Louisa's warreat-s, and after she had read Goethe's correspondence with Bettine, she, like Bettine, placed her idol on a pedestal and worshi+pped hione to her roo her devotion, but she never sent the letters--only told hiether over her girlish fancy Once, she confessed to having sat in a tall cherry-tree atto the non's song under hisin very bad German, and streild flowers over his door-step in the darkness This sounds very sentimental and silly, but Louisa was never that She had a deep, intense nature, which as yet had found no outlet or expression, and she could have had no safer hero to worshi+p than this gentle, serene, wise man whose friendshi+p for her family was so practical in its expression Also at that period, which Louisa herself in her diary calls the ”sentily influenced by the poet and naturalist, Thoreau Fro intienius, and more often than not he could be found in his hut in the woods, or on the river bank, where he learned to look for the bright-eyed ”Alcott girl,” ould swing along his side in twenty- new facts about flowers and trees and birds and insects froirl was Louisa, with two such friends and teachers as the great Emerson and Thoreau Hawthorne, too, fascinated her in his shy reserve, and the young girl in her teens with a tre worth while in life could have had no more valuable preface to her life as a writer than that of the happy growing days at Concord, with that group of remarkabletalent for writing, as she had only written a half-dozen pieces of verse, ado for the best in religion and in character, sweetly expressed, and so melodramas for the ”troupe” in the barn to act
These were overfloith villains and heroes, and were lurid enough to satisfy the most intense of her audience Later soedies”--but at best they only serve to sho full of ih the Alcotts had their own home in Concord now, it was yet almost impossible to make ends meet, and with the sturdy independence which proved to be one of her marked traits, Louisa determined to earn so to do, for there were few avenues of work open to girls in that day But she could teach, for it was quite a popular resource to open a small school in some barn, with a select set of pupils Louisa herself had been to one of these ”barn schools,” and now she opened one in Mr
E which the Alcotts atteed, that when one day a friend passing through Concord called on her, Mrs Alcott confessed the state of her financial affairs As a result of that confession, the fa the Hawthornes as occupants of ”Hillside” In the city Mrs
Alcott was given a position as visitor to the poor by a benevolent association, and she also kept an eency--a more respectable occupation than it was in later years Once more there was money in the treasury, and with their usual happy optimis, even under thecircuradually drew a circle of people around him to whom his theories of life were acceptable, and who paid a small price to attend the ”conversations” he held on subjects which interested hi appreciated, even by a sentle philosopher, whose ”Fruitlands” experiment had been such a bitter one, and noas as happy as though he were earning large aer sum paid by his disciples to hear him talk of his pet theories But he was contented, and his happiness was reflected by his adoring family Mrs
Alcott, too, was satisfied with the work she was doing, so for a time all ith the ”Pathetic Family” as Louisa had christened the many lessons as she traveled slowly up the road to woe and self-denial, linked with cheerfulness fro a wholesome comradeshi+p in the hohter, was much like her father She never worried about her soul or her shortcos as Louisa did; she accepted life as it came, without question, and was of a cal Louisa, who had asher tempestuous nature the hardest piece of work life offered her She confesses in her diary: ”My quick tongue is always getting me into trouble, and my moodiness makes it hard to be cheerful when I think how poor we are, howto do--I never can So every day is a battle, and I'm so tired I don't want to live, only it's cowardly to die till you have done soe of her journal, the restless nature gave up the desire to be a coward, and turned to achieving whatever workas before her in the co, of which she evidently was conscious, for she says in her diary:
”If I look inhair, ood points of which she speaks so frankly, she was tall and graceful, with a heavy lossy, chestnut-brown hair Her complexion was clear and full of color, and her dark-blue eyes were deep-set and very expressive
During those years in Boston, the Alcotts spent two summers in an uncle's roomy house, where they enjoyed such comforts as had not before fallen to their lot, and cal Beth, or Betty, as she was called, and artistic May, the youngest of the flock, revelled in having rooings May was a pretty, golden-haired, blue-eyed child with decided tastes, and an ability to get what she most wanted in life without much effort--an ability which poor Louisa entirely lacked, for her success always ca work
Louisa was now seventeen years old, and Anna nineteen At that tie, and after Anna had recovered partially she was obliged to take a rest, leaving her se There were twenty scholars, and it was a great responsibility for the girl of seventeen, but she took up the ith such enthusiased to captivate her pupils, whose attention she held by illustratingtheet When Anna ca that Louisa continued to help with the teaching, and it seeh little did she guess howavenues of experience were to widen before her wondering eyes before she was to settle down to her life-work
Meanwhile she kept on helping Anna with her school, and to liven up the daily routine of a rather dull existence she began to write thrilling plays, which she always read to Anna, who criticized and helped revise theroup of the girls' friends, with Anna and Louisa usually taking the principal parts Fro these wonderful melodramas, which alon loud applause from an enthusiastic audience, and because of her real ability to act, Louisa now decided that she would go on the real stage ”Anna wants to be an actress, and so do I,” she wrote in her diary ”We could ay life Mother says we are too young, and irls were obliged to accept her decree, and Louisa was so depressed by it that for a time she made every one miserable by her downcast mood Then, fortunately, an interested relative showed one of her plays to the er of the Boston Theater He read ”The Rival Prie it Here was good luck indeed! The entire Alcott fareat a jubilation when they heard the news as if they had fallen heir to a fortune, and Louisa at once forgot her ambition to act, in her aht
Unfortunately, there was soeer sent Louisa a free pass to the theater, which gave her a play-wright's pride whenever she used it, and her enjoyreat that she was able to bear the actual disappointed Although she always loved to act, and acted well, her own good sense had asserted itself, and she had set aside a dra that it included too many difficulties and hardshi+ps