Lou-i-sa Al-cott was a wild little girl. When she was very little, she
would run away from home. She liked to play with beggar children.
One day she wandered so far away from her home, she could not find the
way back again. It was growing dark. The little girl’s feet were tired.
She sat down on a door-step. A big dog was lying on the step. He wagged
his tail. That was his way of saying, “I am glad to see you.”
Little Lou-i-sa grew sleepy. She laid her head on the curly head of the
big dog. Then she fell asleep.
Lou-i-sa’s father and mother could not find her. They sent out the town
crier to look for her.
The town crier went along the street. As he went, he rang his bell.
Every now and then he would tell that a little girl was lost. At last
the man with the bell came to the place where Louisa was asleep. He
rang his bell. That waked her up. She heard him call out in a loud
voice,—
“Lost, lost! a little girl six years old. She wore a pink frock, a
white hat, and new green shoes.”
When the crier had said that, he heard a small voice coming out of the
darkness. It said, “Why, dat’s me.” The crier went to the voice, and
found Louisa sitting by the big dog on the door-step. The next day she
was tied to the sofa to punish her for running away.
She and her sisters learned to sew well. Louisa set up as a doll’s
dress-maker. She was then twelve years old. She hung out a little sign.
She put some pretty dresses in the window to show how well she could
do.
Other girls liked the little dresses that she made. They came to her to
get dresses made for their dolls. They liked the little doll’s hats she
made better than all. Louisa chased the chickens to get soft feathers
for these hats.
She turned the old fairy tales into little plays. The children played
these plays in the barn.
One of these plays was Jack and the Bean-stalk. A squash vine was put
up in the barn. This was the bean-stalk. When it was cut down, the boy
who played giant would come tumbling out of the hay-loft.
Louisa found it hard to be good and o-be-di-ent. She wrote some verses
about being good. She was fourteen years old when she wrote them. Here
they are:—