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.On August 21, Louisa sent a nurse to Europe to bringLulu back.As she prepared a cozy nursery with a whitecrib, she thought anxiously of the wide and terrible oceanbetween her and her treasure. On the day of her arrivalin September, she waited eagerly on the wharf watchingpassengers disembark and wondering which of several CH.WT.LMA.C09.q.Final 4/30/09 2:38 PM Page 101FOSTER MOTHER 101Louisa (Lulu) Nieriker, daughter of Louisa s sister May.She cameto live with Louisa after May died.babies might be hers.At last the captain appeared with alittle yellow-haired, blue-eyed thing wrapped in white, andLouisa knew it was Lulu.Sophie Nieriker, the baby sFrench aunt, and the nurse were with the baby, but Luluwent immediately to Louisa and nestled against her.Louisa s heart was filled with pride and joy and love.Thelively, happy baby soothed her grief as well as that of herGrandfather Bronson and Aunt Anna. We all find lifeeasier to like now the Baby has come, Louisa wrote. CH.WT.LMA.C09.q.Final 4/30/09 2:38 PM Page 102102 LOUISA MAY ALCOTTShe became so absorbed in the baby for several years thatshe found little time for anything else not even for writingin her journal.She showered Lulu with kisses, hugs, toys andclothes, playing with her and telling her stories of lambs,piggies, and kittens by the dozens.It soon became clear thather niece had a personality much like Louisa s own, and heraunt reported that her child had a strong will and quicktemper, but very tender, generous and noble instincts. On April 27, 1882, Ralph Waldo Emerson died, and Louisasaid Our best and greatest American gone. She had neverforgotten her hero worship of him and the kindly way he hadhelped the family in their days of dire poverty by puttingmoney on a table under a book or behind a candlestick. Hewas doubly dear to her as her father s best and most support-ive friend and as the man who helped her most by his life,his books, his society. Doorways in Concord were draped inblack and the flags flew at half-mast.For his funeral, Louisamade a harp of yellow jonquils and helped decorate thechurch with pine branches and flowers.That night she stayedup until midnight writing an article on Emerson for theYouth s Companion so children would know what a great manhe was. A labor of love, she called it.When the Concord School of Philosophy opened for itssummer session, Louisa and Anna again assumed theirroles as hostesses, cleaning women, decorators, cooks, andso on.One day Bronson asked them why they weren tattending the sessions, and Anna showed him a list with thenames of 400 callers.Louisa reported, He said no more. The Hotel Bellevue had been converted into apartments, andLouisa went there in October to work on a book her publisherand fans had been begging her to finish.Jo s Boys was to be thesequel to Little Men and the final story about the March fam-ily.She had barely gotten started when a telegram arrived say-ing her father had had a paralytic stroke.She went home at once CH.WT.LMA.C09.q.Final 4/30/09 2:38 PM Page 103FOSTER MOTHER 103and found Bronson affected both physically and mentally. It isso pathetic to see my handsome, hale, active old father changedat one fell blow into this helpless wreck, she wrote to a friend.He had written forty sonnets during the last winter, served asDean of the School of Philosophy, and given fifty lectures.Enough, she said, to break down any man of eighty-three years.Out of her own experience she had frequently warned himagainst overwork and taxation of the brain, but, like hisdaughter, he wouldn t listen to reason when he was possessedby an idea.During the first anxious days of his illness, Luluwas her greatest comfort.She felt she could bear anything with this little sunbeam to light up her world.Bronson slowly improved, but he would never again be ableto write and would always require nursing care.Louisa hiredand fired a succession of unsatisfactory nurses, and she andAnna took turns taking care of their father.Just as Louisa hadbeen pleased to be able to make her mother s last years com-fortable, now she took pleasure in making her father s lifeas easy and pleasant as possible.Orchard House was sold,and Anna s house became the family home in Concord.Bronson s library was handsomely furnished, his booksbound, and every comfort the sisters could think of provided.He was able to play checkers and read a little and enjoyeddrives in the carriage Louisa provided.On his eighty-sixthbirthday in 1885, Louisa wrote a long poem called ToMy Father in which she traced his life as a parallel to thejourney that Christian made in The Pilgrim s Progress.Ever since the publication of Little Women, Louisa hadreceived a constant stream of letters from budding writers,fans, and teachers asking about her writing habits.Sheanswered in her usual frank way, telling them she wrotequickly without polishing her work and needed only a pen andpaper to do it.But, she added, each person must find his ownmethod.She advised young people to mind their grammar, CH.WT.LMA.C09.q.Final 4/30/09 2:38 PM Page 104104 LOUISA MAY ALCOTTspelling and punctuation and to use short, strong, simplewords.She told them to read the best books, see and hear goodspeakers, and talk with wise people to learn from them.Shediscouraged the letter-writers from pursuing authors as if theywere idols, and told one teacher, If you can teach your fivehundred pupils to love books but to let authors rest in peace,you will give them a useful lesson and earn the gratitude of thelong suffering craft, whose lives are made a burden to them bythe modern lion hunter and autograph fiend. In June of 1884, Louisa bought a cottage on BuzzardsBay in southern Massachusetts where she and Anna couldtake turns spending their vacations, and provide a place forthe boys and Lulu to run free [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]