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where Meg sat on a sofa and held her foot.
    “I’ve twisted my ankle. That stupid high heel turnedand gave my foot a sad wrench,” she said, glancing down at the unfortunate appendage, which now pointed inward at a most severe angle. “It doesn’t ache and I can stand fine but the cracking sound the bones make every time I step is disturbing the other dancers. I think we should leave.”
    “I knew you’d hurt your feet with those silly shoes. I’m sorry. But I don’t see what you can do, except get a carriage, or stay here all night,” answered Jo, tugging on the bent limb, which would not straighten despite her considerable efforts. The vampire ability to regenerate would heal the appendage soon, but not so quickly that Meg could rejoin the dancing.
    “Can I help you?” said a friendly voice. And there was Laurie, with a full cup in one hand and a plate of ice in the other.
    “It’s nothing,” Meg assured. “I turned my foot a little, that’s all.”
    But Laurie could see for himself that she’d turned her foot a lot and immediately offered to take her home in his grandfather’s carriage.
    “It’s so early! You can’t mean to go yet?” began Jo, looking relieved but hesitating to accept the offer.
    “I always go early, I do, truly! Please let me take you home. It’s all on my way, you know, and it rains, they say.”
    That settled it. Jo gratefully accepted and they rolled away in the luxurious closed carriage, feeling very festive and elegant.
    “I had a capital time. Did you?” asked Jo, rumpling up her hair, and making herself comfortable.
    Meg agreed that she did up until the moment she twisted her ankle and had to leave. Laurie went on the box so Meg could keep her foot up, and the girls talked over their party in freedom.
    “Sallie’s friend, Annie Moffat, took a fancy to me, and asked me to come and spend a week with her when Sallie does. She is going in the spring when the opera comes, and it will be perfectly splendid, if Mother only lets me go,” Meg said, cheering up at the thought.
    Jo told her adventures, and by the time she had finished they were at home. With many thanks, they said good night and entered the house. The instant the door creaked, two little heads bobbed up and eager voices cried out…
    “Tell about the party! Tell about the party!”
    “I declare, it really seems like being a fine young lady, to come home from the party in a carriage and sit in my dressing gown with a maid to wait on me,” said Meg.
    “I don’t believe fine young ladies enjoy themselves a bit more than we do, in spite of our burned gowns, one glove apiece, and tight slippers that sprain our ankles when we are silly enough to wear them.” And I think Jo was quite right.

Chapter Four
BURDENS
    W ith the holidays over, the girls had to take up their packs, which, after the week of merrymaking, seemed heavier than ever. Beth lay on the sofa, trying to comfort herself with a cat and three juicy kittens she’d found hiding in the basement. Amy was fretting because her lessons were not learned and she couldn’t find her rubbers. Meg, whose burden consisted of four spoiled vampire children, had not heart enough even to make herself pretty as usual by putting on a blue neck ribbon and dressing her hair in the most becoming way.
    “Where’s the use of looking nice, when no one sees me but those cross midgets, and no one cares whether I’m pretty or not?” she muttered, shutting her drawer with a jerk as she thought of Mrs. King and her family. “I shall have to toil and moil all my days, with only littlebits of fun now and then because I’m poor and can’t enjoy my life as other girls do. It’s a shame!”
    “Well, that’s just the way it is, so don’t let us grumble but shoulder our bundles and trudge along as cheerfully as Marmee does. I’m sure Aunt March is a regular Old Man of the Sea 10 to me, but I suppose when I’ve learned to carry her without complaining, she will tumble off, or