Spinning-Wheel Stories

AUTHOR OF LITTLE WOMEN, AN OLD-FASHIONED GIRL, LITTLE MEN, EIGHT COUSINS, ROSE IN BLOOM, UNDER THE LILACS, JACK AND JILL, HOSPITAL SKETCHES, WORK, A STORY OF EXPERIENCE, MOODS, A NOVEL, PROVERB STORIES, SILVER PITCHERS, AUNT JO'S SCRAP-BAG. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, 1902.
Copyright, 1884 , By Louisa M. Alcott. University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.

It is too bad to have our jolly vacation spoiled by this provoking storm. Didn't mind it yesterday, because we could eat all the time; but here we are cooped up for a week, perhaps, and I'd like to know what we are to do, growled Geoff, as he stood at the window looking gloomily at the bleak scene without. It certainly was discouraging; for the north wind howled, the air was dark with falling snow, and drifts were rising over fences, roads, and fields, as if to barricade the Christmas party in the great country house.
We can bear it pleasantly, since it can't be helped, said gentle sister Mary, with a kind hand on his shoulder, and a face full of sympathy for his disappointment. I'm sorry for the coasting, skating, and sleighing frolics we have lost; but if we must be shut up, I'm sure we couldn't have a pleasanter prison or a kinder jailer. Don't let grandma hear us complain, for she has made great exertions to have our visit a merry one, and it will trouble her if we are not gay and contented.
That's easy for a parcel of girls, who only want to mull over the fire, and chatter, and drink tea; but it's rough on us fellows, who come for the outside fun. House is well enough; but when you've seen it once, there's an end. Eating is jolly, but you can't stuff forever. We might dig, or snowball, if it didn't blow a gale. Never saw such a beast of a storm! —and Geoff flattened his nose against the window-pane and scowled at the elements.
A laugh made him turn around, and forget his woes to stare at the quaint little figure that stood curtseying in the door-way of the keeping-room, where a dozen young people were penned while the maids cleared up the remains of yesterday's feast in the kitchen, the mothers were busy with the babies upstairs, and the fathers read papers in the best parlor; for this was a family gathering under the roof of the old homestead.