Chapter 24

Little Women

Trailblazers · 4th–6th

Copywork

People who hire all these things done for them never know what they lose; for the homeliest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them, and Meg found so many proofs of this, that everything in her small nest, from the kitchen roller to the silver vase on her parlor table, was eloquent of home love and tender forethought.

Read your copy aloud. What might people miss when they hire others to do every small job?

Discussion

Narration Retell the chapter in order: the three years that have passed, the Dovecote and who helped fill it, and Laurie's walk with Jo.

1. John turns down Mr. Laurence's more generous offers and takes a bookkeeper's place instead. What do you think he is guarding?Inference

2. Meg secretly wishes for Sallie's fine house and carriage, and then the wish fades. What brings her back to her own little home?Character

3. Aunt March said Meg would not have a cent, then has Mrs. Carrol send house and table linen as her own present. Has Aunt March kept her word?Moral reasoning

4. The narrator calls the Dovecote's fountain “a weather-beaten urn, very like a dilapidated slop-bowl.” How does she want us to feel about the little house?Tone

5. The narrator lists who put up which bracket, hung which curtains, and arranged which pots in the Dovecote. Why might she spend so much space on who did each small job?Author's choice

Make a Connection Tell about a time you helped someone get ready for something important.

Vocabulary

Crossword

1			2	3				4

5	6						7
					8	9


		10

Across

Across 1. Speaking powerfully, even without words.
Across 2. Restless unhappiness with what one has.
Across 5. Care taken in advance.
Across 7. A puzzling difficulty about what to do.
Across 10. Falling to pieces from neglect.

Down

Down 3. Unbending honesty.
Down 4. Calmly; without fuss.
Down 6. Calmly accepting what cannot be changed.
Down 8. Speaking at length.
Down 9. Cleverness at inventing.

The words in the chapter

eloquent was eloquent of home love and tender forethought.
forethought was eloquent of home love and tender forethought.
integrity in spite of poverty and the strict integrity which shut him out from the more worldly successes,
resigned Perfectly resigned to his discharge,
discontent But somehow envy and discontent soon vanished

dilapidated very like a dilapidated slop-bowl;
ingenuity a mania for patronizing Yankee ingenuity,
tranquilly answered Meg tranquilly.
quandary Aunt March was rather in a quandary,
expatiating an opportunity for expatiating on the advantages of a rough-and-ready costume,

Critical thinking

1. Amy says Meg ought to have a servant or two, and Marmee answers her. Using two pieces of evidence, explain Marmee's reasons for starting small.

2. Jo praises Laurie for helping Henshaw but objects to his seventeen waistcoats. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how Laurie answers her.

3. Meg takes her family's gifts and help gladly. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how she and the narrator speak about what others have given her little house.