Little Women: Dark Days

Beth had caught scarlet fever from the sick baby she had been nursing, and she was much sicker than anyone but Hannah, the cook, and the doctor guessed.Their mother was far away in Washington nursing their father, and Hannah insisted that she must not be worried about a trifle, so Meg, feeling guilty, wrote cheerful letters that said nothing of Beth.Soon Beth began to talk in a hoarse, broken voice, to play on the blanket as if it were her little piano, and to call for her mother, and Jo grew frightened.

The house felt sad and lonely, and Meg, crying quietly over her sewing, saw how rich they had always been in love, health and peace, things that no money could buy.Jo, who never left the sickroom, saw how sweet and unselfish Beth really was, and when the milkman, the baker and the grocer all came to ask about her, the family was surprised at how many friends shy little Beth had made.Even in her fever Beth did not forget her old doll Joanna, who lay beside her, and she longed for her cats but would not let them come near, for fear they might get sick.

On the first of December, a bitter, snowy day, the doctor held Beth’s hot hand for a long minute and told Hannah in a low voice that if Mrs. March could leave her husband, she had better be sent for.Meg sank into a chair, and Jo, pale as paper, snatched up the telegram they had kept ready and ran out into the storm to send it.When she came back, she told Laurie in tears that Beth no longer knew them, that both parents were far away, and that God seemed so distant that she could not find Him.

Laurie took her hand and said, “I’m here. Hold on to me, Jo, dear,” and then said nothing more, only stroking her bowed head as her mother used to do, which comforted her better than any words.Then he ran upstairs and came back with a glass of wine to strengthen her, and told her with a shy, shining face that he had secretly telegraphed her mother the day before, and that Mr. Brooke had answered that she would arrive that night.Jo threw her arms around his neck in a rush of joy, and soon the whole house seemed to breathe again: Beth’s bird began to chirp, and the sisters whispered to each other, “Mother’s coming!”

All that day Beth lay in a heavy sleep with parched lips, and the doctor said that some change, for better or worse, would probably come around midnight.The sisters sat on either side of her bed all night, and Meg whispered that if God spared Beth she would never complain again, while Jo promised to love and serve Him all her life.Toward morning Jo saw a great change come over Beth’s face, and, thinking with terror that she was dying, she kissed her and whispered, “Good-bye, my Beth!”

But Hannah woke, felt Beth’s hands, and cried, “The fever’s turned; she’s sleeping naturally!” and when the doctor came, he smiled and told the girls that their little Beth would pull through.As the sun rose on the snowy world, Meg put a half-opened rose that had bloomed in the night beside Beth’s bed, and then Jo heard sleigh bells at the door and Laurie’s joyful whisper: “Girls, she’s come! She’s come!”