Louisa Alcott was a little girl in Boston more than a hundred years ago. It was a time when town criers and lamplighters were familiar figures on the streets, and most schoolmasters taught with a stick in one hand. Her father was a famous schoolmaster who had a different idea and whose kinder ways were loved by his pupils. He made every lesson a thrilling adventure, even the learning of A B C's.

Louisa was well-known, too, in her immediate neighborhood. She was always up to something, always in trouble. She teased her baby sister, had fights with her older sister, until her mother decided something would have to be done about it. And so when Louisa was only three years old, her father took her to school with him to keep her out of mischief.

Times became hard, and the Alcotts grew poorer and poorer. They moved repeatedly, each time to a smaller house, a shabbier neighborhood. But no matter how poor they were they never turned a hungry beggar away. And wherever they went, Louisa had a wonderful time.

She made friends with all sorts of people. She was a real tomboy. She got into scrapes because she romped with the boys in their roughest games. They soon learned that she could never resist a dare–and they dared her to do dangerous things. She did not know the meaning of fear. And did she have a temper!

In Boston, in Providence, in Concord and at Fruitlands, we follow the story of a most whimsical and delightful little girl, with wise and wonderful parents who had great and wonderful friends. Greatest of these was Ralph Waldo Emerson, who joined her father in encouraging her to write stories. Aren't we glad they did?

From the dust jacket