"Alcott, Louisa May - Little Women - March Family 01 - Little Women" - читать интересную книгу автора (Alcott Louisa May)

you trotting, is never satisfied, and worries you till you you're ready to
fly out the window or cry?"

"It's naughty to fret, but I do think washing dishes and keeping
things tidy is the worst work in the world. It makes me cross, and my hands
get so stiff, I can't practice well at all." And Beth looked at her rough
hands with a sigh that any one could hear that time.

"I don't believe any of you suffer as I do," cried Amy, "for you don't
have to go to school with impertinent girls, who plague you if you don't
know your lessons, and laugh at your dresses, and label your father if he
isn't rich, and insult you when your nose isn't nice."

"If you mean libel, I'd say so, and not talk about labels, as if Papa
was a pickle bottle," advised Jo, laughing.

"I know what I mean, and you needn't be statirical about it. It's
proper to use good words, and improve your vocabilary," returned Amy, with
dignity.

"Don't peck at one another, children. Don't you wish we had the money
Papa lost when we were little, Jo? Dear me! How happy and good we'd be, if
we had no worries!" said Meg, who could remember better times.

"You said the other day you thought we were a deal happier than the
King children, for they were fighting and fretting all the time, in spite
of their money."

"So I did, Beth. Well, I think we are. For though we do have to work,
we make fun of ourselves, and are a pretty jolly set, as Jo would say."

"Jo does use such slang words!" observed Amy, with a reproving look at
the long figure stretched on the rug.

Jo immediately sat up, put her hands in her pockets, and began to
whistle.

"Don't, Jo. It's so boyish!"

"That's why I do it."

"I detest rude, unladylike girls!"

"I hate affected, niminy-piminy chits!"

"Birds in their little nests agree," sang Beth, the peacemaker, with
such a funny face that both sharp voices softened to a laugh, and the
"pecking" ended for that time.

"Really, girls, you are both to be blamed," said Meg, beginning to