THOUGH very happy in the social atmosphere about her, and very busy with the daily work that earned her bread, and made it sweeter for the effort, Jo still found time for literary labors. The purpose which now took possession of her was a natural one to a poor and ambitious girl; but the means she took to gain her end were not the best. She saw that money conferred power; money and power, therefore, she resolved to have; not to be used for herself alone, but for those whom she loved more than self. The dream of filling home with comforts, giving Beth everything she wanted, from strawberries in winter to an organ in her bedroom; going abroad herself, and always having more than enough, so that she might indulge in the luxury of charity, had been for years Jo’s most cherished castle in the air.
The prize-story experience had seemed to open a way which might, after long travelling, and much up-hill work, lead to this delightful chateau en Espagne.1 But the novel disaster quenched her courage for a time, for public opinion is a giant which has frightened stouter-hearted Jacks on bigger beanstalks than hers. Like that immortal hero, she reposed a while after the first attempt, which resulted in a tumble, and the least lovely of the giant’s treasures, if I remember rightly. But the “up again and take another” spirit was as strong in Jo as in Jack; so she scrambled up on the shady side, this time, and got more booty, but nearly left behind her what was far more precious than the moneybags.
She took to writing sensation stories—for in those dark ages, even all-perfect America read rubbish. She told no one, but concocted a “thrilling tale,” and boldly carried it herself to Mr. Dashwood, editor of the “Weekly Volcano.”2 She had never read Sartor Resartus,3 but she had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners. So she dressed herself in her best, and, trying to persuade herself that she was neither excited nor nervous, bravely climbed two pairs of dark and dirty stairs to find herself in a disorderly room, a cloud of cigar smoke, and the presence of three gentlemen sitting with their heels rather higher than their hats, which articles of dress none of them took the trouble to remove on her appearance. Somewhat daunted by this reception, Jo hesitated on the threshold, murmuring in much embarrassment,—
In this 1938 Norman Rockwell illustration, Jo awaits the verdict of the editor of the “Weekly Volcano.” (Norman Rockwell [1894–1978], “Jo concocted a thrilling tale, dressed herself in her best and boldly carried it to the editor of the Weekly Volcano.” 1938. Story illustration for Woman’s Home Companion, February 1938, p. 11. Article, “The Most Beloved American Writer,” by Katherine Anthony. Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collections. Printed by permission of the Norman Rockwell Family Agency. Copyright © 2015 the Norman Rockwell Family Entities.)
“Excuse me; I was looking for the ‘Weekly Volcano’ office; I wished to see Mr. Dashwood.” 4
Down went the highest pair of heels, up rose the smokiest gentleman, and, carefully cherishing his cigar between his fingers, he advanced with a nod, and a countenance expressive of nothing but sleep. Feeling that she must get through with the matter somehow, Jo produced her manuscript, and, blushing redder and redder with each sentence, blundered out fragments of the little speech carefully prepared for the occasion.
“A friend of mine desired me to offer—a story—just as an experiment—would like your opinion—be glad to write more if this suits.”
While she blushed and blundered, Mr. Dashwood had taken the manuscript, and was turning over the leaves with a pair of rather dirty fingers, and casting critical glances up and down the neat pages.
“Not a first attempt, I take it?” observing that the pages were numbered, covered only on one side, and not tied up with a ribbon—sure sign of a novice.
“No sir; she has had some experience, and got a prize for a tale in the ‘Blarneystone Banner.’ ”
“Oh, did she?” and Mr. Dashwood gave Jo a quick look, which seemed to take note of everything she had on, from the bow in her bonnet to the buttons on her boots. “Well, you can leave it, if you like; we’ve more of this sort of thing on hand than we know what to do with, at present; but I’ll run my eye over it, and give you an answer next week.”
Now Jo did not like to leave it, for Mr. Dashwood didn’t suit her at all; but, under the circumstances, there was nothing for her to do but bow and walk away, looking particularly tall and dignified, as she was apt to do, when nettled or abashed. Just then she was both; for it was perfectly evident from the knowing glances exchanged among the gentlemen, that her little fiction of “my friend” was considered a good joke; and a laugh produced by some inaudible remark of the editor, as he closed the door, completed her discomfiture. Half resolving never to return, she went home, and worked off her irritation by stitching pinafores vigorously; and in an hour or two was cool enough to laugh over the scene, and long for next week.
When she went again, Mr. Dashwood was alone, whereat she rejoiced. Mr. Dashwood was much wider awake than before,—which was agreeable,—and Mr. Dashwood was not too deeply absorbed in a cigar to remember his manners,—so the second interview was much more comfortable than the first.
“We’ll take this” (editors never say “I”), “if you don’t object to a few alterations. It’s too long,—but omitting the passages I’ve marked will make it just the right length,” he said, in a business-like tone.
Jo hardly knew her own MS. again, so crumpled and underscored were its pages and paragraphs; but, feeling as a tender parent might on being asked to cut off her baby’s legs in order that it might fit into a new cradle, she looked at the marked passages, and was surprised to find that all the moral reflections,—which she had carefully put in as ballast for much romance,—had all been stricken out.
“But, sir, I thought every story should have some sort of a moral, so I took care to have a few of my sinners repent.”
Mr. Dashwood’s editorial gravity relaxed into a smile, for Jo had forgotten her “friend,” and spoken as only an author could.
“People want to be amused, not preached at, you know. Morals don’t sell nowadays;” which was not quite a correct statement, by the way.
“You think it would do with these alterations, then?”
“Yes; it’s a new plot, and pretty well worked up—language good, and so on,” was Mr. Dashwood’s affable reply.
“What do you—that is, what compensation—” began Jo, not exactly knowing how to express herself.
“Oh, yes,—well, we give from twenty-five to thirty for things of this sort. Pay when it comes out,” returned Mr. Dashwood, as if that point had escaped him; such trifles often do escape the editorial mind, it is said.
“Very well; you can have it,” said Jo, handing back the story, with a satisfied air; for, after the dollar-a-column work, even twenty-five seemed good pay.
“Shall I tell my friend you will take another if she has one better than this?” asked Jo, unconscious of her little slip of the tongue, and emboldened by her success.
“Well, we’ll look at it; can’t promise to take it; tell her to make it short and spicy, and never mind the moral. What name would your friend like to put to it?” in a careless tone.
“None at all, if you please; she doesn’t wish her name to appear, and has no nom de plume,”5 said Jo, blushing in spite of herself.
“Just as she likes, of course. The tale will be out next week; will you call for the money, or shall I send it?” asked Mr. Dashwood, who felt a natural desire to know who his new contributor might be.
“I’ll call; good morning, sir.”
As she departed, Mr. Dashwood put up his feet, with the graceful remark, “Poor and proud, as usual, but she’ll do.”
Following Mr. Dashwood’s directions, and making Mrs. Northbury her model, Jo rashly took a plunge into the frothy sea of sensational literature; but, thanks to the life-preserver thrown her by a friend, she came up again, not much the worse for her ducking.
Like most young scribblers, she went abroad for her characters and scenery, and banditti, counts, gypsies, nuns, and duchesses appeared upon her stage, and played their parts with as much accuracy and spirit as could be expected. Her readers were not particular about such trifles as grammar, punctuation, and probability, and Mr. Dashwood graciously permitted her to fill his columns at the lowest prices, not thinking it necessary to tell her that the real cause of his hospitality was the fact that one of his hacks, on being offered higher wages, had basely left him in the lurch.
She soon became interested in her work,—for her emaciated purse grew stout, and the little hoard she was making to take Beth to the mountains next summer, grew slowly but surely, as the weeks passed. One thing disturbed her satisfaction, and that was that she did not tell them at home. She had a feeling that father and mother would not approve,—and preferred to have her own way first, and beg pardon afterward. It was easy to keep her secret, for no name appeared with her stories; Mr. Dashwood had, of course, found it out very soon, but promised to be dumb; and, for a wonder, kept his word.
She thought it would do her no harm, for she sincerely meant to write nothing of which she should be ashamed, and quieted all pricks of conscience by anticipations of the happy minute when she should show her earnings and laugh over her well-kept secret.
But Mr. Dashwood rejected any but thrilling tales; and, as thrills could not be produced except by harrowing up the souls of the readers, history and romance, land and sea, science and art, police records and lunatic asylums, had to be ransacked for the purpose. Jo soon found that her innocent experience had given her but few glimpses of the tragic world which underlies society; so, regarding it in a business light, she set about supplying her deficiencies with characteristic energy. Eager to find material for stories, and bent on making them original in plot, if not masterly in execution, she searched newspapers for accidents, incidents, and crimes; she excited the suspicions of public librarians by asking for works on poisons; she studied faces in the street,—and characters good, bad, and indifferent, all about her; she delved in the dust of ancient times, for facts or fictions so old that they were as good as new, and introduced herself to folly, sin, and misery, as well as her limited opportunities allowed. She thought she was prospering finely; but, unconsciously, she was beginning to desecrate some of the womanliest attributes of a woman’s character. She was living in bad society; and, imaginary though it was, its influence affected her, for she was feeding heart and fancy on dangerous and unsubstantial food, and was fast brushing the innocent bloom from her nature by a premature acquaintance with the darker side of life, which comes soon enough to all of us.
She was beginning to feel rather than see this, for much describing of other people’s passions and feelings set her to studying and speculating about her own,—a morbid amusement, in which healthy young minds do not voluntarily indulge. Wrong-doing always brings its own punishment; and, when Jo most needed hers, she got it.
I don’t know whether the study of Shakespeare helped her to read character, or the natural instinct of a woman for what was honest, brave and strong; but while endowing her imaginary heroes with every perfection under the sun, Jo was discovering a live hero, who interested her in spite of many human imperfections. Mr. Bhaer, in one of their conversations, had advised her to study simple, true, and lovely characters, wherever she found them, as good training for a writer; Jo took him at his word,—for she coolly turned round and studied him,—a proceeding which would have much surprised him, had he known it,—for the worthy Professor was very humble in his own conceit.
Why everybody liked him was what puzzled Jo, at first. He was neither rich nor great, young nor handsome,—in no respect what is called fascinating, imposing, or brilliant; and yet he was as attractive as a genial fire, and people seemed to gather about him as naturally as about a warm hearth. He was poor, yet always appeared to be giving something away,—a stranger, yet every one was his friend; no longer young,—but as happy-hearted as a boy; plain and odd,—yet his face looked beautiful to many, and his oddities were freely forgiven for his sake. Jo often watched him, trying to discover the charm, and, at last, decided that it was benevolence which worked the miracle. If he had any sorrow “it sat with its head under its wing,”6 and he turned only his sunny side to the world. There were lines upon his forehead, but Time seemed to have touched him gently, remembering how kind he was to others. The pleasant curves about his mouth were the memorials of many friendly words and cheery laughs; his eyes were never cold or hard, and his big hand had a warm, strong grasp that was more expressive than words.
His very clothes seemed to partake of the hospitable nature of the wearer. They looked as if they were at ease, and liked to make him comfortable; his capacious waistcoat was suggestive of a large heart underneath; his rusty coat had a social air, and the baggy pockets plainly proved that little hands often went in empty and came out full; his very boots were benevolent, and his collars never stiff and raspy like other people’s.
“That’s it!” said Jo to herself, when she at length discovered that genuine good-will toward one’s fellow-men could beautify and dignify even a stout German teacher, who shovelled in his dinner, darned his own socks, and was burdened with the name of Bhaer.
Jo valued goodness highly, but she also possessed a most feminine respect for intellect, and a little discovery which she made about the Professor added much to her regard for him. He never spoke of himself, and no one ever knew that in his native city he had been a man much honored and esteemed for learning and integrity, till a countryman came to see him, and, in a conversation with Miss Norton, divulged the pleasing fact. From her Jo learned it,—and liked it all the better because Mr. Bhaer had never told it. She felt proud to know that he was an honored Professor in Berlin, though only a poor language-master in America, and his homely, hard-working life, was much beautified by the spice of romance which this discovery gave it.
Another and a better gift than intellect was shown her in a most unexpected manner. Miss Norton had the entrée into literary society, which Jo would have had no chance of seeing but for her. The solitary woman felt an interest in the ambitious girl, and kindly conferred many favors of this sort both on Jo and the Professor. She took them with her, one night, to a select symposium, held in honor of several celebrities.
Jo went prepared to bow down and adore the mighty ones whom she had worshipped with youthful enthusiasm afar off. But her reverence for genius received a severe shock that night, and it took her some time to recover from the discovery that the great creatures were only men and women, after all.7 Imagine her dismay, on stealing a glance of timid admiration at the poet whose lines suggested an ethereal being fed on “spirit, fire, and dew,”8 to behold him devouring his supper with an ardor which flushed his intellectual countenance. Turning as from a fallen idol, she made other discoveries which rapidly dispelled her romantic illusions. The great novelist vibrated between two decanters9 with the regularity of a pendulum; the famous divine flirted openly with one of the Madame de Staëls of the age, who looked daggers at another Corinne,10 who was amiably satirizing her, after out-manœuvring her in efforts to absorb the profound philosopher, who imbibed tea Johnsonianly11 and appeared to slumber,—the loquacity of the lady rendering speech impossible. The scientific celebrities, forgetting their mollusks and Glacial Periods,12 gossiped about art, while devoting themselves to oysters and ices with characteristic energy; the young musician, who was charming the city like a second Orpheus,13 talked horses; and the specimen of the British nobility present happened to be the most ordinary man of the party.
Madame de Staël, cultural patroness par excellence, was painted in the character of Corinne by Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun in 1808. (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland / Bridgeman Images)
Before the evening was half over, Jo felt so completely désillusionnée, that she sat down in a corner, to recover herself. Mr. Bhaer soon joined her, looking rather out of his element, and presently several of the philosophers, each mounted on his hobby,14 came ambling up to hold an intellectual tournament in the recess. The conversation was miles beyond Jo’s comprehension, but she enjoyed it, though Kant and Hegel15 were unknown gods, the Subjective and Objective unintelligible terms; and the only thing “evolved from her inner consciousness,” was a bad headache after it was all over. It dawned upon her gradually, that the world was being picked to pieces, and put together on new, and, according to the talkers, on infinitely better principles than before; that religion was in a fair way to be reasoned into nothingness and intellect was to be the only God. Jo knew nothing about philosophy or metaphysics of any sort, but a curious excitement, half pleasurable, half painful, came over her, as she listened with a sense of being turned adrift into time and space, like a young balloon out on a holiday.
She looked round to see how the Professor liked it and found him looking at her with the grimmest expression she had ever seen him wear. He shook his head, and beckoned her to come away, but she was fascinated, just then, by the freedom of Speculative Philosophy, and kept her seat, trying to find out what the wise gentlemen intended to rely upon after they annihilated all the old beliefs.
Now Mr. Bhaer was a diffident man, and slow to offer his own opinions, not because they were unsettled, but too sincere and earnest to be lightly spoken. As he glanced from Jo to several other young people attracted by the brilliancy of the philosophic pyrotechnics, he knit his brows, and longed to speak, fearing that some inflammable young soul would be led astray by the rockets, to find, when the display was over, that they had only an empty stick, or a scorched hand.
He bore it as long as he could; but when he was appealed to for an opinion, he blazed up with honest indignation, and defended religion with all the eloquence of truth—an eloquence which made his broken English musical, and his plain face beautiful. He had a hard fight, for the wise men argued well; but he didn’t know when he was beaten, and stood to his colors like a man. Somehow, as he talked, the world got right again to Jo; the old beliefs that had lasted so long, seemed better than the new. God was not a blind force, and immortality was not a pretty fable, but a blessed fact. She felt as if she had solid ground under her feet again; and when Mr. Bhaer paused, out-talked, but not one whit convinced, Jo wanted to clap her hands and thank him.16
She did neither; but she remembered this scene, and gave the Professor her heartiest respect, for she knew it cost him an effort to speak out then and there, because his conscience would not let him be silent. She began to see that character is a better possession than money, rank, intellect, or beauty; and to feel that if greatness is what a wise man has defined it to be,—“truth, reverence, and good-will,”—then her friend Friedrich Bhaer was not only good, but great.17
This belief strengthened daily. She valued his esteem, she coveted his respect, she wanted to be worthy of his friendship; and, just when the wish was sincerest, she came near losing everything. It all grew out of a cocked-hat; for one evening the Professor came in to give Jo her lesson, with a paper soldier-cap on his head, which Tina had put there, and he had forgotten to take off.
“It’s evident he doesn’t prink at his glass before coming down,” thought Jo, with a smile, as he said “Goot efening,” and sat soberly down, quite unconscious of the ludicrous contrast between his subject and his head-gear, for he was going to read her the “Death of Wallenstein.”18
She said nothing at first, for she liked to hear him laugh out his big, hearty laugh, when anything funny happened, so she left him to discover it for himself, and presently forgot all about it; for to hear a German read Schiller is rather an absorbing occupation. After the reading came the lesson, which was a lively one, for Jo was in a gay mood that night, and the cocked-hat kept her eyes dancing with merriment. The Professor didn’t know what to make of her, and stopped, at last, to ask with an air of mild surprise that was irresistible,—
“Mees Marsch, for what do you laugh in your master’s face? Haf you no respect for me, that you go on so bad?”
“How can I be respectful, sir, when you forget to take your hat off ?” said Jo.
Lifting his hand to his head, the absent-minded Professor gravely felt and removed the little cocked-hat, looked at it a minute, and then threw back his head, and laughed like a merry bass-viol.
“Ah! I see him now; it is that imp Tina who makes me a fool with my cap. Well, it is nothing; but see you, if this lesson goes not well, you too shall wear him.”
But the lesson did not go at all, for a few minutes, because Mr. Bhaer caught sight of a picture on the hat; and, unfolding it, said with an air of great disgust,—
“I wish these papers did not come in the house; they are not for children to see, nor young people to read. It is not well; and I haf no patience with those who make this harm.”
Jo glanced at the sheet, and saw a pleasing illustration composed of a lunatic, a corpse, a villain, and a viper. She did not like it; but the impulse that made her turn it over was not one of displeasure, but fear, because, for a minute, she fancied the paper was the “Volcano.” It was not, however, and her panic subsided as she remembered that, even if it had been, and one of her own tales in it, there would have been no name to betray her. She had betrayed herself, however, by a look and a blush; for, though an absent man, the Professor saw a good deal more than people fancied. He knew that Jo wrote, and had met her down among the newspaper offices more than once; but as she never spoke of it, he asked no questions, in spite of a strong desire to see her work. Now it occurred to him that she was doing what she was ashamed to own, and it troubled him. He did not say to himself, “It is none of my business; I’ve no right to say anything,” as many people would have done; he only remembered that she was young and poor, a girl far away from mother’s love and father’s care; and he was moved to help her with an impulse as quick and natural as that which would prompt him to put out his hand to save a baby from a puddle. All this flashed through his mind in a minute, but not a trace of it appeared in his face; and by the time the paper was turned, and Jo’s needle threaded, he was ready to say quite naturally, but very gravely,—
In the 2005 musical, Jo (Sutton Foster) brings to life one of her blood-and-thunder tales—to the consternation of Professor Bhaer (John Hickok). (© Paul Kolnik)
“Yes, you are right to put it from you. I do not like to think that good young girls should see such things. They are made pleasant to some, but I would more rather give my boys gunpowder to play with than this bad trash.”
“All may not be bad—only silly, you know; and if there is a demand for it, I don’t see any harm in supplying it. Many very respectable people make an honest living out of what are called sensation stories,” said Jo, scratching gathers so energetically that a row of little slits followed her pin.
Professor Bhaer (Paul Lukas) berates Jo (Katharine Hepburn) for debasing her talent in the 1933 film. (Photofest)
“There is a demand for whiskey, but I think you and I do not care to sell it. If the respectable people knew what harm they did, they would not feel that the living was honest. They haf no right to put poison in the sugar-plum, and let the small ones eat it. No; they should think a little, and sweep mud in the street before they do this thing!”
Mr. Bhaer spoke warmly, and walked to the fire, crumpling the paper in his hands. Jo sat still, looking as if the fire had come to her; for her cheeks burned long after the cocked-hat had turned to smoke, and gone harmlessly up the chimney.
“I should like much to send all the rest after him,” muttered the Professor, coming back with a relieved air.
Jo thought what a blaze her pile of papers, upstairs, would make, and her hard-earned money lay rather heavily on her conscience at that minute. Then she thought consolingly to herself, “Mine are not like that; they are only silly, never bad; so I won’t be worried;” and, taking up her book, she said, with a studious face,—
“Shall we go on, sir? I’ll be very good and proper now.”
“I shall hope so,” was all he said, but he meant more than she imagined; and the grave, kind look he gave her, made her feel as if the words “Weekly Volcano” were printed in large type, on her forehead.
As soon as she went to her room, she got out her papers, and carefully re-read every one of her stories. Being a little short-sighted, Mr. Bhaer sometimes used eye-glasses, and Jo had tried them once, smiling to see how they magnified the fine print of her book; now she seemed to have got on the Professor’s mental or moral spectacles also, for the faults of these poor stories glared at her dreadfully, and filled her with dismay.
“They are trash, and will soon be worse than trash if I go on; for each is more sensational than the last. I’ve gone blindly on, hurting myself and other people, for the sake of money;—I know it’s so—for I can’t read this stuff in sober earnest without being horribly ashamed of it; and what should I do if they were seen at home, or Mr. Bhaer got hold of them?”
Jo turned hot at the bare idea, and stuffed the whole bundle into her stove, nearly setting the chimney afire with the blaze.
“Yes, that’s the best place for such inflammable nonsense; I’d better burn the house down, I suppose, than let other people blow themselves up with my gunpowder,” she thought, as she watched the “Demon of the Jura”19 whisk away, a little black cinder with fiery eyes.
But when nothing remained of all her three months’ work, except a heap of ashes, and the money in her lap, Jo looked sober, as she sat on the floor, wondering what she ought to do about her wages.
“I think I haven’t done much harm yet, and may keep this to pay for my time,” she said, after a long meditation, adding, impatiently, “I almost wish I hadn’t any conscience, it’s so inconvenient. If I didn’t care about doing right, and didn’t feel uncomfortable when doing wrong, I should get on capitally. I can’t help wishing, sometimes, that father and mother hadn’t been so dreadfully particular about such things.”
Ah, Jo, instead of wishing that, thank God that “father and mother were particular,” and pity from your heart those who have no such guardians to hedge them round with principles which may seem like prison walls to impatient youth, but which will prove sure foundations to build character upon in womanhood.
Jo wrote no more sensational stories, deciding that the money did not pay for her share of the sensation; but, going to the other extreme, as is the way with people of her stamp, she took a course of Mrs. Sherwood, Miss Edgeworth, and Hannah More;20 and then produced a tale which might have been more properly called an essay or a sermon, so intensely moral was it. She had her doubts about it from the beginning; for her lively fancy and girlish romance felt as ill at ease in the new style as she would have done masquerading in the stiff and cumbrous costume of the last century. She sent this didactic gem to several markets, but it found no purchaser; and she was inclined to agree with Mr. Dashwood, that morals didn’t sell.
Then she tried a child’s story, which she could easily have disposed of if she had not been mercenary enough to demand filthy lucre for it. The only person who offered enough to make it worth her while to try juvenile literature, was a worthy gentleman who felt it his mission to convert all the world to his particular belief. But much as she liked to write for children, Jo could not consent to depict all her naughty boys as being eaten by bears, or tossed by mad bulls, because they did not go to a particular Sabbath-school, nor all the good infants who did go, of course, as rewarded by every kind of bliss, from gilded gingerbread to escorts of angels, when they departed this life, with psalms or sermons on their lisping tongues. So nothing came of these trials; and Jo corked up her inkstand, and said, in a fit of very wholesome humility,—
“I don’t know anything; I’ll wait till I do before I try again, and, meantime, ‘sweep mud in the street,’ if I can’t do better—that’s honest, any way;” which decision proved that her second tumble down the bean-stalk had done her some good.
While these internal revolutions were going on, her external life had been as busy and uneventful as usual; and if she sometimes looked serious, or a little sad, no one observed it but Professor Bhaer. He did it so quietly, that Jo never knew he was watching to see if she would accept and profit by his reproof; but she stood the test, and he was satisfied; for, though no words passed between them, he knew that she had given up writing. Not only did he guess it by the fact that the second finger of her right hand was no longer inky, but she spent her evenings down stairs, now, was met no more among newspaper offices, and studied with a dogged patience, which assured him that she was bent on occupying her mind with something useful, if not pleasant.
He helped her in many ways, proving himself a true friend, and Jo was happy; for while her pen lay idle, she was learning other lessons beside German, and laying a foundation for the sensation story of her own life.
It was a pleasant winter and a long one, for she did not leave Mrs. Kirke till June. Every one seemed sorry when the time came; the children were inconsolable, and Mr. Bhaer’s hair stuck straight up all over his head—for he always rumpled it wildly when disturbed in mind.
“Going home! Ah, you are happy that you haf a home to go in,” he said, when she told him, and sat silently pulling his beard, in the corner, while she held a little levee on that last evening.
She was going early, so she bade them all good-by over night; and when his turn came, she said, warmly,—
“Now, sir, you won’t forget to come and see us, if you ever travel our way, will you? I’ll never forgive you, if you do, for I want them all to know my friend.”
“Do you? Shall I come?” he asked, looking down at her with an eager expression, which she did not see.
“Yes, come next month; Laurie graduates then, and you’d enjoy Commencement as something new.”
“That is your best friend, of whom you speak?” he said, in an altered tone.
“Yes, my boy Teddy; I’m very proud of him, and should like you to see him.”
Jo looked up, then, quite unconscious of anything but her own pleasure, in the prospect of showing them to one another. Something in Mr. Bhaer’s face suddenly recalled the fact that she might find Laurie more than a best friend, and simply because she particularly wished not to look as if anything was the matter, she involuntarily began to blush; and the more she tried not to, the redder she grew. If it had not been for Tina on her knee, she didn’t know what would have become of her. Fortunately, the child was moved to hug her; so she managed to hide her face an instant, hoping the Professor did not see it. But he did, and his own changed again from that momentary anxiety to its usual expression, as he said, cordially,—
“I fear I shall not make the time for that, but I wish the friend much success, and you all happiness; Gott bless you!” and with that, he shook hands warmly, shouldered Tina, and went away.
But after the boys were abed, he sat long before his fire, with the tired look on his face, and the “heimweh,” or homesickness lying heavy at his heart. Once when he remembered Jo, as she sat with the little child in her lap, and that new softness in her face, he leaned his head on his hands a minute, and then roamed about the room, as if in search of something that he could not find.
“It is not for me; I must not hope it now,” he said to himself, with a sigh that was almost a groan; then, as if reproaching himself for the longing that he could not repress, he went and kissed the two towzled heads upon the pillow, took down his seldom-used meerschaum, and opened his Plato.
He did his best, and did it manfully; but I don’t think he found that a pair of rampant boys, a pipe, or even the divine Plato, were very satisfactory substitutes for wife and child, and home.
Early as it was, he was at the station, next morning, to see Jo off; and, thanks to him, she began her solitary journey with the pleasant memory of a familiar face smiling its farewell, a bunch of violets to keep her company, and, best of all, the happy thought,—
“Well, the winter’s gone, and I’ve written no books—earned no fortune; but I’ve made a friend worth having, and I’ll try to keep him all my life.”
1. chateau en Espagne. Literally “castle in Spain,” the phrase means a pipe dream.
2. “Weekly Volcano.” The “Weekly Volcano,” like the “Blarneystone Banner” later in the chapter, is an invention of Alcott’s.
3. Sartor Resartus. The novel Sartor Resartus (1836) by Scottish essayist, satirist, and biographer Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) is a work not easily classified. Purporting to be a commentary on the life and opinions of a fictitious German philosopher, Diogenes Teufelsdröckh, the book explores the existential problems of modern living. At once deeply philosophical and bitingly satirical, the book was greatly respected both by Emerson, who oversaw its publication in America, and Herman Melville (1819–91), for whom it served as an inspiration for Moby-Dick (1851).
4. “Mr. Dashwood.” Mr. Dashwood is likely a parodical composite of various penny-press editors, including Frank Leslie (1821–80), the English-born publisher of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, and other periodicals. Alcott published a number of stories in Leslie’s newspaper, including “Pauline’s Passion and Punishment,” “A Whisper in the Dark,” and “The Fate of the Forrests.”
5. “no nom de plume.” Alcott, by contrast, made frequent use of noms de plume, most notably A. M. Barnard. She also wrote as Flora Fairfield and Flora Fairchild and may have used other pen names as well.
6. “under its wing.” Though a similar line appears in Joseph Mather’s 1862 song “Bang Beggar,” no source for Alcott’s exact quotation has been found.
7. only men and women, after all. Alcott’s own early experience with literary glowworms was not much more inspiring. In January 1862, at which time she was living in the Boston home of publisher James T. Fields, she wrote, “Saw many great people, and found them no bigger than the rest of the world,—often not half so good as some humble soul who made no noise. I learned a great deal in my ways and am not half so much impressed by society as before I got a peep at it. Having known Emerson, [Thomas] Parker, [Wendell] Phillips, and that set of really great and good men and women . . . the mere show people seem rather small and silly, though they shine well, and feel that they are stars” (Louisa May Alcott, Journals, p. 108).
8. “spirit, fire, and dew.” The 1855 poem “Evelyn Hope” by Robert Browning contains the lines, “Is it too late then, Evelyn Hope? / What, your soul was pure and true, / The good stars met in your horoscope, / Made you of spirit, fire and dew.”
9. two decanters. The figure of the great novelist may have been inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64), author of The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851). Hawthorne, who both worked and socialized with James T. Fields, had something of a weakness for alcohol.
10. famous divine . . . another Corinne. The divine may be based on the famous minister Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87), who was a family friend of James T. Fields and whose career was later besmirched by allegations of adultery with a friend’s wife, Elizabeth Tilton. Anne Louise Germaine Necker, Madame de Staël-Holstein (1766–1817), best remembered as the author of the novel Corinne, exerted strong influence on the Romantic literary movements in Europe and the United States. The eponymous heroine of Corinne is a woman of great independence and genius who became a model of female erudition and forthrightness among Alcott’s parents’ generation. The “Madame de Staël of the age” to whom Alcott refers may have been based on poet Celia Thaxter, whose home supplied a lively salon for such luminaries as Hawthorne, James T. Fields, and John Knowles Paine. Alcott had lunch with Thaxter on November 16, 1868, while in the midst of writing Little Women, Part Second.
11. Johnsonianly. English author and lexicographer Samuel Johnson (see Part First, Chapter xxi, Note 9) was known as a prodigious consumer of tea. No model for Alcott’s “profound philosopher” has been identified.
12. Glacial Periods. Alcott’s reference here is almost certainly to the much-revered Swiss-born geologist and anthropologist Louis Agassiz (1807–73), who began a celebrated professorial tenure at Harvard in 1848.
13. young musician . . . second Orpheus, The musician is possibly based on John Knowles Paine (1839–1906). Paine was the first American composer to win respect as a composer of large-scale concert music. His organ recitals, beginning in 1861, captivated the listening public in Boston and paved the way for an appointment to the Harvard faculty. Orpheus, taught to play the lyre by the god Apollo, is the preeminent human musician of Greek mythology.
The first famous American composer of symphonic works, John Knowles Paine (1839–1906) is now known chiefly to a relative handful of classical music enthusiasts. (Chronicle / Alamy)
14. hobby. Here, short for “hobbyhorse,” meaning a subject to which one repeatedly and somewhat tediously returns.
15. Kant and Hegel. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) were highly distinguished German idealist philosophers, much read by the New England Transcendentalists. Their work, which remains central to philosophical study, is notoriously difficult to understand.
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), who cast new light on the relation between reason and experience, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), who influenced almost every corner of nineteenth-century philosophy. (Left: bpk, Berlin / Schiller-Nationalmuseum und Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach am Neckar, Germany / Lutz Braun / Art Resource, NY; Right: bpk, Berlin / Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany / Klaus Goeken / Art Resource, NY)
16. thank him. Professor Bhaer never more closely resembles Alcott’s father than in this passage. Like Bhaer, Bronson Alcott rejected the idea that religion and philosophy must diverge. In Tablets, he wrote, “Our instincts, faithfully drawn out and cherished by purity of life, lead to Theism as their flower and fruit” (A. Bronson Alcott, Tablets, p. 143). In 1873, he wrote in “Philosophemes,” “Faith suffices where knowledge is wanting. . . . Man is not a terrestrial plant but a celestial, blossoming in time, to ripen its fruit in eternity” (A. Bronson Alcott, “Philosophemes,” Journal of Speculative Philosophy 7, no. 1, p. 48).
17. but great. Bhaer’s position also resembles that of Emerson, who, at the time of Little Women, was lecturing across New England on “Greatness.” In that lecture, Emerson averred, “Men are ennobled by morals and by intellect: but these two elements know each other and always beckon to each other, until at last they meet in the man, if he is to be truly great.” In the same lecture, Emerson offered the prediction that Alcott quotes here, foretelling “a day when the air of the world shall be purified by nobler society, when the measure of greatness shall be usefulness in the highest sense, greatness consisting in truth, reverence and good will” (Emerson, Letters and Social Aims, pp. 300, 301).
18. “Death of Wallenstein.” The Death of Wallenstein (1799) is the concluding play in Schiller’s dramatic trilogy inspired by the Bohemian General Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583–1634). The three plays depict the general’s tragic decline, culminating in his assassination.
19. “Demon of the Jura.” Another invented title.
20. Mrs. Sherwood . . . Hannah More. Both evangelical Christians, the English authors Mary Martha Sherwood (1775–1851) and Hannah More (1745–1833) wrote pious, morally instructive books for children. For Miss Edgeworth, see Part First, Chapter VIII, Note 2.