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Little Men - ebook
Little Men - ebook
Now married, the warm-hearted and fiesty Jo Bhaer (nee March) couldn’t be happier. Jo, along with her husband Professor Friedrich Bhaer, operates the Plumfield Estate School, an unconventional school based on individuality and diversity. Plumfield is a haven for poor orphans which is attended by 12 adopted boy and Jo’s own two sons. Although Plumfield is a place of trust and warmth, the boys occasionally struggle to maintain good manners. Personal relationships are key to the school, as well as to the novel, and the lovable characters get up to plenty of scrapes and adventures, but in the end, even the troublesome among them find redemption in the love and support of the extended March family. „Little Men, or Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys” is the delightful unofficial sequel to Louisa May Alcott’s „Little Women”, which is completed with Alcott’s 1886 novel „Jo’s Boys, and How They Turned Out”: A Sequel to „Little Men”.
Kategoria: | Classic Literature |
Język: | Angielski |
Zabezpieczenie: |
Watermark
|
ISBN: | 978-83-8200-071-9 |
Rozmiar pliku: | 3,1 MB |
FRAGMENT KSIĄŻKI
CHAPTER I. NAT
CHAPTER II. THE BOYS
CHAPTER III. SUNDAY
CHAPTER IV. STEPPING-STONES
CHAPTER V. PATTYPANS
CHAPTER VI. A FIRE BRAND
CHAPTER VII. NAUGHTY NAN
CHAPTER VIII. PRANKS AND PLAYS
CHAPTER IX. DAISY'S BALL
CHAPTER X. HOME AGAIN
CHAPTER XI. UNCLE TEDDY
CHAPTER XII. HUCKLEBERRIES
CHAPTER XIII. GOLDILOCKS
CHAPTER XIV. DAMON AND PYTHIAS
CHAPTER XV. IN THE WILLOW
CHAPTER XVI. TAMING THE COLT
CHAPTER XVII. COMPOSITION DAY
CHAPTER XVIII. CROPS
CHAPTER XIX. JOHN BROOKE
CHAPTER XX. ROUND THE FIRE
CHAPTER XXI. THANKSGIVINGCHAPTER I. NAT
“Please, sir, is this Plumfield?” asked a ragged boy of the man who opened the great gate at which the omnibus left him.
“Yes. Who sent you?”
“Mr. Laurence. I have got a letter for the lady.”
“All right; go up to the house, and give it to her; she’ll see to you, little chap.”
The man spoke pleasantly, and the boy went on, feeling much cheered by the words. Through the soft spring rain that fell on sprouting grass and budding trees, Nat saw a large square house before him, a hospitable-looking house, with an old-fashioned porch, wide steps, and lights shining in many windows. Neither curtains nor shutters hid the cheerful glimmer; and, pausing a moment before he rang, Nat saw many little shadows dancing on the walls, heard the pleasant hum of young voices, and felt that it was hardly possible that the light and warmth and comfort within could be for a homeless “little chap” like him.
“I hope the lady will see to me,” he thought, and gave a timid rap with the great bronze knocker, which was a jovial griffin’s head.
A rosy-faced servant-maid opened the door, and smiled as she took the letter which he silently offered. She seemed used to receiving strange boys, for she pointed to a seat in the hall, and said, with a nod:
“Sit there and drip on the mat a bit, while I take this in to missis.”
Nat found plenty to amuse him while he waited, and stared about him curiously, enjoying the view, yet glad to do so unobserved in the dusky recess by the door.
The house seemed swarming with boys, who were beguiling the rainy twilight with all sorts of amusements. There were boys everywhere, “up-stairs and down-stairs and in the lady’s chamber,” apparently, for various open doors showed pleasant groups of big boys, little boys, and middle-sized boys in all stages of evening relaxation, not to say effervescence. Two large rooms on the right were evidently schoolrooms, for desks, maps, blackboards, and books were scattered about. An open fire burned on the hearth, and several indolent lads lay on their backs before it, discussing a new cricket-ground, with such animation that their boots waved in the air. A tall youth was practising on the flute in one corner, quite undisturbed by the racket all about him. Two or three others were jumping over the desks, pausing, now and then, to get their breath and laugh at the droll sketches of a little wag who was caricaturing the whole household on a blackboard.
In the room on the left a long supper-table was seen, set forth with great pitchers of new milk, piles of brown and white bread, and perfect stacks of the shiny gingerbread so dear to boyish souls. A flavor of toast was in the air, also suggestions of baked apples, very tantalizing to one hungry little nose and stomach.
The hall, however, presented the most inviting prospect of all, for a brisk game of tag was going on in the upper entry. One landing was devoted to marbles, the other to checkers, while the stairs were occupied by a boy reading, a girl singing a lullaby to her doll, two puppies, a kitten, and a constant succession of small boys sliding down the banisters, to the great detriment of their clothes and danger to their limbs.
So absorbed did Nat become in this exciting race, that he ventured farther and farther out of his corner; and when one very lively boy came down so swiftly that he could not stop himself, but fell off the banisters, with a crash that would have broken any head but one rendered nearly as hard as a cannon-ball by eleven years of constant bumping, Nat forgot himself, and ran up to the fallen rider, expecting to find him half-dead. The boy, however, only winked rapidly for a second, then lay calmly looking up at the new face with a surprised, “Hullo!”
“Hullo!” returned Nat, not knowing what else to say, and thinking that form of reply both brief and easy.
“Are you a new boy?” asked the recumbent youth, without stirring.
“Don’t know yet.”
“What’s your name?”
“Nat Blake.”
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