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THE LOUISA ALCOTT READER
Copyright © 2008 KM Matton
Published by Freehold2 Editions
Text by Louisa May Alcott, first published in 1885
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Original illustrations by Frank T. Merrill
Photos by Margaret R. Osborne
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Book layout and cover design by KM Matton
© 2008 All rights reserved.
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Prepared using public domain versions of the original text
Permission is granted for one family, study group or classroom to print the
contents of the reader for educational purposes only. Purchase of this text does
not entitle reproduction of any part of this book for an entire school, district, or
system.
Commercial use and distribution in any form, print or electronic, are prohibited.
Freehold2 Editions
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
www.canhomeschool.com
I scrambled up to childhood, fell with a crash into girlhood, and
continued falling over fences, up hill and down stairs, tumbling from
one year to another till, strengthened by such violent exercise, the
topsy-turvy girl shot up into a topsy-turvy woman."
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~ Louisa May Alcott
THE LOUISA ALCOTT READER
A Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of School
BY LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
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ILLUSTRATIONS BY FRANK T. MERRILL
FREEHOLD2 EDITIONS
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA
This printable version of The Louisa Alcott Reader is brought to you
by Freehold2 Editions.
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Freehold is a term from Scottish property law. Its origins lie in Feudal
times when the Lord of the Manor answered only to the King, and the
common folk had neither land nor rights accorded under the law. In
these times life was insecure. But a freeholder knew at least that the
land he lived on was his as long as he was alive, and he even had a vote
on the local council. A freeholder had autonomy that many others did
not.
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Today's freeholders are parents who recognize that the primary
responsibility for their children's education rests with them. Whether
we choose to give a share of that responsibility to a public or private
school, or whether we avail ourselves of the right to educate our
children at home, we are the first teachers our children will know. We
are the keepers of a legacy that is passed to them a little at a time,
over years and decades, indeed over the course of our lifetime
together.
When our babies begin to toddle around, stumbling between Mama
and the chair or from the blanket on the floor to Daddy's waiting
arms, we realize that however tightly we want to hold our children
we must leave them space to explore. We must accept that
sometimes they will fall, sometimes they will come home crying with
a scrape on the knee. We hold them close to our hearts, but with a
grasp that never hinders or chokes.
The way we teach our children could be said to be a freehold too. We
hold our children close to us when we feel they are vulnerable and the
way is not safe for them to go alone, and we choose carefully what we
feel is best suited to their needs. The values we teach and the methods
we use to help them explore the world are designed to help them
become strong young men and women, well prepared to meet the
challenges of life. A parent's grasp is firm but we give freely to our
children whatever we have to share, and we sense when it is time to
loosen the grasp, to allow our little ones to take tentative steps towards
their eventual independence.
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Freehold2 Editions are dedicated to the parent who desires the very best
education for his children. Among them you will find original study
guides and activity packets, as well as classic treasures reformatted for
screen reading or printing. The focus is on good quality, high interest
literature that will spark a child's attention and hold it while he is
shown a new way of looking at the world. We aim to give children the
gift of a solid academic background, and a strong mind capable of
thinking critically and independently.
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There is an interesting expression that plays with the several means of
liber/libris/libero in Latin. It is the motto of St John's College:
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Facio liberos ex liberis libris libraque,
"I make free people out of children with books and balance."
We believe that all parents who play an active role in their children's
education can say this of themselves. We know you will provide the
balance, both in the sense of giving your children practical experience
(the balance as a symbol of laboratory work) and also by choosing the
individual elements best suited to your child, and balancing one with
another. We hope you will come to Freehold2 Editions when you need
the books.
Thank you for choosing us!
Freehold2 Editions
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
www.canhomeschool.com
29 November 1832 - 6 March 1888
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Louisa May Alcott was born on 29 November, 1832 in Germantown,
Pennsylvania to Amos Bronson Alcott and Abigail May. She had three
sisters: Anna, Elizabeth and May. Mother Abigail was a woman of
some means, but also a suffragette and abolitionist, an activist on
behalf of the poor and the temperance movement. She was also one of
the first paid social workers in Massachusetts. Louisa would say of her
mother that she sacrificed both pride and personal comfort to do what
she considered to be her duty to humanity.
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Father Bronson was self-educated farmer's son, noted philosopher, and
prominent Transcendentalist. An educational reformer, Bronson used
an approach that was based on conversation and questioning; they also
included object teaching and having students learn to write from their
own experience or perspective, rather than through rote
memorization, drills, and copying out adult texts.
Ideals always came before financial concerns for Bronson, and he was
always ready to try new things. There were many times during
daughter Louisa's childhood when the family would live in poverty as
a result of his lack of conventionality. When he admitted a black
student to his Temple School enrolment declined, and he was forced
to close. Soon afterward he and two associated founded the Utopian
Fruitlands, an experimental communal farm where the family lived a
rather stark life until the community collapsed. The family lived in
over thirty homes, apartments and communities during Louisa's
lifetime.
Despite financial poverty Louisa lived a rich intellectual life, enjoying
the company of family friends like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret
Fuller and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her early education included lessons
from both her father and naturalist Henry David Thoreau. From a
young age she shared her parents' belief in abolition, and also identified
with feminism and would later campaign door to door for the
suffragette movement. At the age of seven young Louisa discovered a
runaway slave her parents were hiding in their home and she taught
him to write. ("The Life of Louisa May Alcott") She would later hold
literacy classes with her mother and sister, for the Irish and black
women who frequented her mother's unemployment agency looking for
jobs. (ibid)
A life of sacrifice made Louisa determined that she would gain not only
fame, but fortune. She began to work at a young age; although writing
and acting were her true calling, she would earn her living by working
as a teacher, governess, seamstress and domestic.
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Her first novel, The Inheritance (1849,
pub. 1997) went unpublished for over a
century. Her first published work,
written for Ellen Emerson, was Flower
Fables (1854.) Louisa was, however,
unable to support herself on her
royalties; she was obliged to ply her
needle for some years afterwards.
During the Civil War Louisa found she
was happy to employ her needle to sew
uniforms and bandages for the cause.
Although unmarried and therefore
technically ineligible for such service,
she managed to enlist as an army nurse.
This chapter of her life exposed her to
some of the darkest aspects of war and also affected her own health,
ultimately causing her death due to long-term complications of the
calomel treatment given for typhoid. It gave her much to write about
too: her second published work, Hospital Sketches (1863,) was adapted
from the letters she wrote home during the war.
After the war Louisa spent some time in Europe as the travelling
companion of an invalid friend. In Switzerland she met a young Polish
freedom fighter. After this man – her "Laddie" – she modelled the
character of "Laurie," who would appear in Little Women (1868.)
When she returned home she began to take on the role of providing for
her family members, as she had finally reached the point at which her
writing was truly profitable.
Although she preferred to write more sensational stories, Alcott learned
to methodically write stories of a more sentimental nature as was
expected of a female author in her time. She referred to her books as
"moral pap" for the young, but the writing allowed her to support her
mother and father until their deaths, and to help her sisters when they
were in need. She cared for sister May's daughter after the former
passed away, and assigned the royalties of Little Men (1871) to Anna's
sons to ensure their financial security after their father died.
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Louisa May Alcott never married, for she knew that marriage and
motherhood would not allow her the freedom to pursue her craft. She
died in her sleep at the age of 55, two days after her father passed on.
Her needle and pen both saw her into death: on the night table were
her pen and a story she was writing, and a threaded needle and the dress
she was making for a needy family. ("The Life of Louisa May Alcott")
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
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If you liked Little Women, this is the reader for you! Designated a
"Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of School," the Louisa
Alcott Reader is a collection of cautionary tales for the young person.
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This text was lovingly restored for use in our own home, and now
Freehold2 Editions offers it to other homeschoolers in the hope you
will treasure it as much as we do.
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The text is slightly enlarged, to help students with reading or
attention difficulties who struggle to read standard print. Pages are
also formatted to allow for your choice of single- or double-sided
printing. The e-book can also be read on-screen, for a more
economical and environmentally friendly option to printing.
This e-book contains the full text by American author Louisa May
Alcott, and the original illustrations. There are additional notes and
references, and a brief biography outlining the details of this
inspirational woman's life.
If you are pressed for time, but want to make lessons of character a
priority, The Louisa Alcott Reader allows you to use a well loved
classic text to perform the 21st century trick of multi-tasking. Use
this book to teach reading skills and vocabulary through literature
written by one of the most celebrated of children's authors.
Character education, too, will be covered by reading the tales.
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These are longer stories, so we suggest you break them up for reading
over several days. Allow for reading periods of 15-20 minutes each day,
with some form of follow-up activity afterwards. This may include
narration, looking up vocabulary, writing a response to the text, or
copying out a small section of the text. In this way, many aspects of the
Language Arts curriculum can be accomplished in a period of perhaps
40 minutes.
A NOTE ON SPELLING
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Current American spelling conventions were developed over a
period of time, in large part due to the reforms of Noah Webster
(1758-1843.) It was Webster who dropped one consonant in a medial
pair, transforming words like "traveller" into "traveler" and "waggon"
into "wagon." Webster also dropped the "u" in "-our" so that "colour"
became "color" and "neighbour" became "neighbor."
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In this text you will notice that some of the modern spelling
conventions have been observed. You will meet "neighbors" and
"wagons"; you will also meet "travellers," however. Other words may
seem unusual, though familiar enough to be easily read: "cooky"
rather than "cookie"; "cosey" instead of "cosy"; and the hyphenated
"dining-room" or "to-night" or "in-doors."
This is as the text was printed by Little, Brown, and Company at the
turn of the 20th century. Although there appears to be a mix of
British and American spelling conventions the words are recognizable
to readers from both sides of the pond – including Canadians and our
"cousins" in Australia, New Zealand and other Commonwealth
countries who have been taught to spell using a system of British
origin.
Original spellings and grammar have therefore been preserved, out of
respect for the flavour (flavor, for my American friends) of Ms
Alcott's writing. This includes some expressions that have generally
fallen out of use, as well as some words that are given non-standard
spelling because of the dialect of the speaker (e.g . "coocumber,"
"picters," "barkin'.") I did correct the spelling of "Shakspeare." That's
probably just a personal quirk, though. Apparently, the Bard himself
was known to have used that particular spelling so it can't be all that
wrong!(D'Isreali)
The young reader may require some help from an adult when it comes
to deciphering some of these. A brief list of challenging words is also
provided below.
As for the rest, keeping a good dictionary close to hand while reading is
an important habit to establish in the primary years. This should help
with most other words the student finds difficult to spell or to define.
In addition to your preferred print dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary is
available free online, and has been valuable to me in verifying both the
British and the American spellings of words in this reader. You can
consult it at http://www.askoxford.com/ (I toggle to "UK" view, as it
shows American spellings in parenthesis on the definition page.)
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
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CHALLENGING WORDS
saleratus (28): a leavening agent made from potassium or sodium
bicarbonate; "baking soda"
grig (30): a lively, jolly person, usually either small or young
bogie (40): a hobgoblin or mischievous household spirit
prog (78): food, victuals
ownty-donty
(102): an idiom used as an exaggerated way of
saying "own," as in "you can pick up your ownty-donty mess"
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THE LOUISA ALCOTT READER
A Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of School
BY LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
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ILLUSTRATIONS BY FRANK T. MERRILL
CONTENTS
iv
vi
ix
xi
I.
A CHRISTMAS DREAM
1
II.
THE CANDY COUNTRY
18
III.
NAUGHTY JOCKO
34
IV.
THE SKIPPING SHOES
V.
COCKYLOO
VI.
ROSY'S JOURNEY
VII.
HOW THEY RAN AWAY
73
VIII.
THE FAIRY BOX
90
IX.
A HOLE IN THE WALL
100
X.
THE PIGGY GIRL
127
APPENDIX
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Freehold2 Editions
About Louisa May Alcott
How to Use This Book
A Note on Spelling
43
53
61
131
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A CHRISTMAS DREAM,
AND HOW
IT CAME TRUE
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"I'm so tired of Christmas I wish there never would be another one!"
exclaimed a discontented-looking little girl, as she sat idly watching
her mother arrange a pile of gifts two days before they were to be
given.
"Why, Effie, what a dreadful thing to say! You are as bad as old
Scrooge; and I'm afraid something will happen to you, as it did to him,
if you don't care for dear Christmas," answered mamma, almost
dropping the silver horn she was filling with delicious candies.
"Who was Scrooge? What happened to him?" asked Effie, with a
glimmer of interest in her listless face, as she picked out the sourest
lemon-drop she could find; for nothing sweet suited her just then.
"He was one of Dickens's best people, and you can read the charming
story some day. He hated Christmas until a strange dream showed him
how dear and beautiful it was, and made a better man of him."
"I shall read it; for I like dreams, and have a great many curious ones
myself. But they don't keep me from being tired of Christmas," said
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Effie, poking discontentedly among the sweeties for something worth
eating.
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"Why are you tired of what should be the happiest time of all the
year?" asked mamma, anxiously. "Perhaps I shouldn't be if I had
something new. But it is always the same, and there isn't any more
surprise about it. I always find heaps of goodies in my stocking. Don't
like some of them, and soon get tired of those I do like. We always have
a great dinner, and I eat too much, and feel ill next day. Then there is a
Christmas tree somewhere, with a doll on top, or a stupid old Santa
Claus, and children dancing and screaming over bonbons and toys that
break, and shiny things that are of no use. Really, mamma, I've had so
many Christmases all alike that I don't think I can bear another one."
And Effie laid herself flat on the sofa, as if the mere idea was too much
for her.
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Her mother laughed at her despair, but was sorry to see her little girl so
discontented, when she had everything to make her happy, and had
known but ten Christmas days.
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"Suppose we don't give you any presents at all, − how would that suit
you?" asked mamma, anxious to please her spoiled child.
"I should like one large and splendid one, and one dear little one, to
remember some very nice person by," said Effie, who was a fanciful
little body, full of odd whims and notions, which her friends loved to
gratify, regardless of time, trouble, or money; for she was the last of
three little girls, and very dear to all the family.
"Well, my darling, I will see what I can do to please you, and not say a
word until all is ready. If I could only get a new idea to start with!" And
mamma went on tying up her pretty bundles with a thoughtful face,
while Effie strolled to the window to watch the rain that kept her
in-doors and made her dismal.
"Seems to me poor children have better times than rich ones. I can't go
out, and there is a girl about my age splashing along, without any maid
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to fuss about rubbers and cloaks and umbrellas and colds. I wish I was a
beggar-girl."
"Would you like to be hungry, cold, and ragged, to beg all day, and sleep
on an ash-heap at night?" asked mamma, wondering what would come
next.
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"Cinderella did, and had a nice time in the end. This girl out here has a
basket of scraps on her arm, and a big old shawl all round her, and
doesn't seem to care a bit, though the water runs out of the toes of her
boots. She goes paddling along, laughing at the rain, and eating a cold
potato as if it tasted nicer than the chicken and ice-cream I had for
dinner. Yes, I do think poor children are happier than rich ones."
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"So do I, sometimes. At the Orphan Asylum today I saw two dozen
merry little souls who have no parents, no home, and no hope of
Christmas beyond a stick of candy or a cake. I wish you had been there
to see how happy they were, playing with the old toys some richer
children had sent them."
"You may give them all mine; I'm so tired of them I never want to see
them again," said Effie, turning from the window to the pretty
baby-house full of everything a child's heart could desire.
"I will, and let you begin again with something you will not tire of, if I
can only find it." And mamma knit her brows trying to discover some
grand surprise for this child who didn't care for Christmas.
Nothing more was said then; and wandering off to the library, Effie
found "A Christmas Carol," and curling herself up in the sofa corner,
read it all before tea. Some of it she did not understand; but she laughed
and cried over many parts of the charming story, and felt better without
knowing why.
All the evening she thought of poor Tiny Tim, Mrs. Cratchit with the
pudding, and the stout old gentleman who danced so gayly that "his legs
twinkled in the air." Presently bedtime arrived.
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