Louisa May Alcott: 16 Novels in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Луиза Мэй Олкотт

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      "Thank you; I will. Could I ask what's the matter? You don't look exactly easy in your mind."

      "I've been shaken, and I won't bear it!" growled Laurie indignantly.

      "Who did it?" demanded Jo.

      "Grandfather; if it had been any one else I'd have—" and the injured youth finished his sentence by an energetic gesture of the right arm.

      "That's nothing; I often shake you, and you don't mind," said Jo soothingly.

      "Pooh! you're a girl, and it's fun; but I'll allow no man to shakeme."

      "I don't think any one would care to try it, if you looked as much like a thunder-cloud as you do now. Why were you treated so?"

      "Just because I wouldn't say what your mother wanted me for. I'd promised not to tell, and of course I wasn't going to break my word."

      "Couldn't you satisfy your grandpa in any other way?"

      "No; he would have the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I'd have told my part of the scrape, if I could without bringing Meg in. As I couldn't, I held my tongue, and bore the scolding till the old gentleman collared me. Then I got angry, and bolted, for fear I should forget myself."

      "It wasn't nice, but he's sorry, I know; so go down and make up. I'll help you."

      "Hanged if I do! I'm not going to be lectured and pummelled by every one, just for a bit of a frolic. I was sorry about Meg, and begged pardon like a man; but I won't do it again, when I wasn't in the wrong."

      "He didn't know that."

      "He ought to trust me, and not act as if I was a baby. It's no use, Jo; he's got to learn that I'm able to take care of myself, and don't need any one's apron-string to hold on by."

      "What pepper-pots you are!" sighed Jo. "How do you mean to settle this affair?"

      "Well, he ought to beg pardon, and believe me when I say I can't tell him what the fuss's about."

      "Bless you! he won't do that."

      "I won't go down till he does."

      "Now, Teddy, be sensible; let it pass, and I'll explain what I can. You can't stay here, so what's the use of being melodramatic?"

      "I don't intend to stay here long, any way. I'll slip off and take a journey somewhere, and when grandpa misses me he'll come round fast enough."

      "I dare say; but you ought not to go and worry him."

      "Don't preach. I'll go to Washington and see Brooke; it's gay there, and I'll enjoy myself after the troubles."

      "What fun you'd have! I wish I could run off too," said Jo, forgetting her part of Mentor in lively visions of martial life at the capital.

      "Come on, then! Why not? You go and surprise your father, and I'll stir up old Brooke. It would be a glorious joke; let's do it, Jo. We'll leave a letter saying we are all right, and trot off at once. I've got money enough; it will do you good, and be no harm, as you go to your father."

      For a moment Jo looked as if she would agree; for, wild as the plan was, it just suited her. She was tired of care and confinement, longed for change, and thoughts of her father blended temptingly with the novel charms of camps and hospitals, liberty and fun. Her eyes kindled as they turned wistfully toward the window, but they fell on the old house opposite, and she shook her head with sorrowful decision.

      "If I was a boy, we'd run away together, and have a capital time; but as I'm a miserable girl, I must be proper, and stop at home. Don't tempt me, Teddy, it's a crazy plan."

      "That's the fun of it," began Laurie, who had got a wilful fit on him, and was possessed to break out of bounds in some way.

      "Hold your tongue!" cried Jo, covering her ears. "'Prunes and prisms' are my doom, and I may as well make up my mind to it. I came here to moralize, not to hear about things that make me skip to think of."