Chapter 47

Little Women

Trailblazers · 4th–6th

Copywork

“Not half so good as yours, mother. Here it is, and we never can thank you enough for the patient sowing and reaping you have done,” cried Jo, with the loving impetuosity which she never could outgrow. “I hope there will be more wheat and fewer tares every year,” said Amy softly. “A large sheaf, but I know there’s room in your heart for it, Marmee dear,” added Meg’s tender voice.

Read your copy aloud. Find what Jo hands to her mother and what she thanks her for, and then the two words each sister adds to the picture, wheat and tares, a sheaf and a heart. Then say what Amy's hope admits about the harvest that Jo's thanks does not.

Discussion

Narration Tell back how Jo gets Plumfield, what she plans to do with it, what the place becomes, and what happens at the October apple-picking.

1. Jo tells Laurie her crop is “Boys.” Why might she want that more than an ordinary life at Plumfield?Character

2. The narrator says “the sly old gentleman got round proud Jo.” What do you make of Mr. Laurence's way of giving?Moral reasoning

3. Jo says, “The life I wanted then seems selfish, lonely, and cold to me now,” yet “I haven’t given up the hope that I may write a good book yet.” How do those two fit?Theme

4. Amy says “my castle is very different from what I planned, but I would not alter it.” A moment later a tear falls on her daughter's hair. How do you hold those two together?Inference

5. Jo says, “Here it is, and we never can thank you enough for the patient sowing and reaping.” How well does the harvest image fit this chapter?Author's choice

Make a Connection Tell about a time you thanked someone for something they had done for you for a long time.

Vocabulary

Crossword

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Across

Across 1. Rushing eagerness that acts before thinking.
Across 6. A collection of animals.
Across 8. Very long and full.
Across 9. The grounds enclosed around a place.

Down

Down 1. Not able to be corrected or reformed.
Down 2. Like paradise.
Down 3. Weeds that grow among wheat.
Down 4. A bundle of cut grain stalks.
Down 5. To give up; to let go of.
Down 7. An awkward youth between boy and man.

The words in the chapter

impetuosity with the loving impetuosity which she never could outgrow.
tares “I hope there will be more wheat and fewer tares every year,” said Amy softly.
sheaf “A large sheaf, but I know there’s room in your heart for it, Marmee dear,” added Meg’s tender voice.
voluminous hoped and loved, met occasionally, and wrote such voluminous letters that the rise in the price of paper was accounted for, Laurie said.
paradisiacal Well, that sounds paradisiacal, but you’ll find it desperate hard work.”

hobbledehoy Besides, the best have to get through the hobbledehoy age, and that’s the very time they need most patience and kindness.
precincts How Jo did enjoy her “wilderness of boys,” and how poor, dear Aunt March would have lamented had she been there to see the sacred precincts of prim,
menagerie Every room in the big house was soon full; every little plot in the garden soon had its owner; a regular menagerie appeared in barn and shed,
incorrigible we never shall be rich, and Plumfield may burn up any night, for that incorrigible Tommy Bangs will smoke sweet-fern cigars under the bedclothes,
relinquish “My castle is very different from what I planned, but I would not alter it, though, like Jo, I don’t relinquish all my artistic hopes,

Critical thinking

1. Jo describes Plumfield as “a happy, homelike place for boys.” Using two pieces of evidence, explain what the school is like.

2. The grandchildren's gifts to Mrs. March are funny and flawed. Using two pieces of evidence, explain why she prizes them.

3. Meg, Jo and Amy each say what has become of their castles in the air. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how they compare.