Little Women: Jo and Amy

One winter afternoon, Jo and Meg were going to the theatre with their friend Laurie.Their youngest sister, Amy, wanted to come too, but Jo said sharply that she could not.Amy was hurt and angry. “You’ll be sorry for this, Jo!” she called.

While the others were out, Amy did a terrible thing.Jo had spent years writing a book of stories by hand, a manuscript she loved more than almost anything she owned.Amy took the book and burned every page in the fire.

When Jo came home and found the burnt pages, her manuscript — the work of years — was gone, and it could never be written again.She shook Amy hard and shouted that she would never forgive her.Amy was truly sorry, but being sorry could not bring the stories back.

That evening their mother told Jo, gently, not to let the sun go down on her anger.But Jo’s heart was still hard the next morning, when she went skating on the river with Laurie.Amy followed them, hoping to make peace.

Jo heard Laurie call out that the ice in the middle of the river was thin.She was still so angry that she did not pass the warning on to Amy.A moment later there was a crack and a cry: Amy had fallen through the ice.

Jo and Laurie pulled her out, cold and frightened but safe.That night, shaking, Jo told her mother that her temper had nearly killed her sister — and she promised to learn to control it.