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

chestnut mane. "I hate to think I've got to grow up, and be Miss March, and
wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China Aster! It's bad enough to be a
girl, anyway, when I like boy's games and work and manners! I can't get
over my disappointment in not being a boy. And it's worse than ever now,
for I'm dying to go and fight with Papa. And I can only stay home and knit,
like a poky old woman!"

And Jo shook the blue army sock till the needles rattled like
castanets, and her ball bounded across the room.

"Poor Jo! It's too bad, but it can't be helped. So you must try to be
contented with making your name boyish, and playing brother to us girls,"
said Beth, stroking the rough head with a hand that all the dish washing
and dusting in the world could not make ungentle in its touch.

"As for you, Amy," continued Meg, "you are altogether to particular
and prim. Your airs are funny now, but you'll grow up an affected little
goose, if you don't take care. I I like your nice manners and refined ways
of speaking, when you don't try to be elegant. But your absurd words are as
bad as Jo's slang."

"If Jo is a tomboy and Amy a goose, what am I, please?" asked Beth,
ready to share the lecture.

"You're a dear, and nothing else," answered Meg warmly, and no one
contradicted her, for the `Mouse' was the pet of the family.

As young readers like to know `how people look', we will take this
moment to give them a little sketch of the four sisters, who sat knitting
away in the twilight, while the December snow fell quietly without, and the
fire crackled cheerfully within. It was a comfortable room,though the
carpet was faded and the furniture very plain, for a good picture or two
hung on the walls, books filled the recesses, chrysanthemums and Christmas
roses bloomed in the windows, and a pleasant atmosphere of home peace
pervaded it.

Margaret, the eldest of the four, was sixteen, and very pretty, being
plump and fair, with large eyes, plenty of soft brown hair, a sweet mouth,
and white hands, of which she was rather vain. Fifteen-year-old Jo was very
tall, thin, and brown, and reminded one of a colt, for she never seemed to
know what to do with her long limbs, which were very much in her way. She
had a decided mouth, a comical nose, and sharp, gray eyes, which appeared
to see everything, and were by turns fierce, funny, or thoughtful. Her
long, thick hair was her one beauty, but it was usually bundled into a net,
to be out of her way. Round shoulders had Jo, big hands and feet, a
fly-away look to her clothes, and the uncomfortable appearance of a girl
who was rapidly shooting up into a woman and didn't like it. Elizabeth, or
Beth, as everyone called her, was a rosy, smooth-haired, bright-eyed girl
of thirteen, with a shy manner, a timid voice, and a peaceful expression
which was seldom disturbed. Her father called her `Little Miss