`It has seemed shorter than usual, but so uncomfortable,' said Meg.

`Not a bit like home,' added Amy.

`It can't seem so without Marmee and little Pip,' sighed Beth, glancing with full eyes at the empty cage above her head.

`Here's Mother, dear; and you shall have another bird tomorrow, if you want it.'

As she spoke, Mrs. March came and took her place among them, looking as if her holiday had not been much pleasanter than theirs.

`Are you satisfied with your experiment, girls, or do you want another week of it?' she asked, as Beth nestled up to her, and the rest turned towards her with brightening faces, as flowers turn towards the sun.

`I don't,' cried Jo, decidedly.

`Nor I,' echoed the others.

`You think, then, that it is better to have a few duties, and live a little for others, do you?'

`Longing and larking doesn't pay,' observed Jo, shaking her head. `I'm tired of it, and mean to go to work at something right off.'

`Suppose you learn plain cooking; that's a useful accomplishment which no woman should be without,' said Mrs. March, laughing inaudibly at the recollection of Jo's dinner-party; for she had met Miss Crocker, and heard her account of it.

`Mother, did you go away and let everything be, just to see how we'd get on?' cried Meg, who had had suspicions all day.

`Yes; I wanted you to see how the comfort of all depends on each doing her share faithfully. While Hannah and I did your work you got on pretty well, though I don't think you were very happy or amiable; so I thought, as a little lesson, I would show you what happens when everyone thinks only of herself. Don't you feel that it is pleasanter to help one another, to have dally duties which make leisure sweet when it comes, and to bear and forbear, that home may be comfortable and lovely to us all?'

`We do, Mother, we do!' cried the girls.

`Then let me advise you to take up your little burdens again; for though they seem heavy sometimes, they are good for us, and lighten as we learn to carry them. Work is wholesome, and there is plenty for everyone; it keeps us from ennui an mischief, is good for health and spirits, and gives us a sense of power and independence better than money or fashion.'

`We'll work like bees, and love it too; see if we don't!' said Jo. `I'll learn plain cooking for my holiday task; and the next dinner-party I have shall be a success.'

`I'll make the set of shirts for Father, instead of letting you do it, Marmee. I can and I will, though I'm not fond of sewing; that will be better than fussing over my own things, which are plenty nice enough as they are,' said Meg.

`I'll do my lessons every day, and not spend so much time with my music and dolls. I am a stupid thing, and ought to be studying, not playing,' was Beth's resolution; while Amy followed their example by heroically declaring, `I shall learn to make buttonholes, and attend to my parts of speech.'