Read Online An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott - Free Book Online

cried Tom, presently.
    “Done!” echoed Polly; and then they heard each other recite till both were perfect.
    “That’s pretty good fun,” said Tom, joyfully, tossing poor Harkness away, and feeling that the pleasant excitement of companionship
     could lend a charm even to Latin Grammar.
    “Now, ma’am, we’ll take a turn at algi
bb
era. I like that as much as I hate Latin.”
    Polly accepted the invitation, and soon owned that Tom could beat her here. This fact restored his equanimity; but he didn’t
     crow over her, far from it; for he helped her with a paternal patience that made her eyes twinkle with suppressed fun, as
     he soberly explained and illustrated, unconsciously imitating Dominie Deane, till Polly found it difficult to keep from laughing
     in his face.
    “You may have another go at it any time you like,” generously remarked Tom, as he shied the Algebra after the Latin Reader.
    “I’ll come every evening, then. I’d like to, for I haven’t studied a bit since I came. You shall try and make me like algebra,
     and I’ll try and make you like Latin; will you?”
    “Oh, I’d like it well enough, if there was anyone to explain it to me. Old Deane puts us through double-quick, and don’t give
     a fellow time to ask questions when we read.”
    “Ask your father; he knows.”
    “Don’t believe he does; shouldn’t dare to bother him, if he did.”
    “Why not?”
    “He’d pull my ears, and call me a ‘stupid,’ or tell me not to worry him.”
    “I don’t think he would. He’s very kind to me, and I ask lots of questions.”
    “He likes you better than he does me.”
    “Now, Tom! It’s wrong of you to say so. Of course he loves you ever so much more than he does me,” cried Polly, reprovingly.
    “Why don’t he show it, then?” muttered Tom, with a half-wistful, half-defiant glance toward the library door, which stood
     ajar.
    “You act so, how can he?” asked Polly, after a pause, in which she put Tom’s question to herself, and could find no better
     reply than the one she gave him.
    “Why don’t he give me my velocipede? He said, if I did well at school for a month, I should have it; and I’ve been pegging
     away like fury for most six weeks, and he don’t do a thing about it. The girls get their duds, because they tease. I won’t
     do that, anyway; but you don’t catch me studying myself to death, and no pay for it.”
    “It is too bad; but you ought to do it because it’s right, and never mind being paid,” began Polly, trying to be moral, but
     secretly sympathizing heartily with poor Tom.
    “Don’t you preach, Polly. If the governor took any notice of me, and cared how I got on, I wouldn’t mind the presents so much;
     but he don’t care a hang, and never even asked if I did well last declamation day, when I’d gone and learned ‘The Battle of
     Lake Regillus,’ because he said he liked it.”
    “Oh, Tom! Did you say that? It’s splendid! Jim and I used to say Horatius together, and it was
such
fun. Do speak your piece to me, I do so like ‘Macaulay’s Lays.’”
    “It’s dreadful long,” began Tom; but his face brightened, for Polly’s interest soothed his injured feelings, and he was glad
     to prove his elocutionary powers. He began without much spirit; but soon the martial ring of the lines fired him, and before
     he knew it, he was on his legs thundering away in grand style, while Polly listened with kindling face and absorbed attention.
     Tom did declaim well, for he quite forgot himself, and delivered the stirring ballad with an energy that made Polly flush
     and tingle with admiration and delight, and quite electrified a second listener, who had heard all that went on, and watched
     the little scene from behind his newspaper.
    As Tom paused, breathless, and Polly clapped her hands enthusiastically, the sound was loudly echoed from behind him. Both
     whirled round, and there was Mr. Shaw, standing in the doorway, applauding with all his