It was in this way Louisa acquired that stock of information
about young people and their affairs which she made such good use of
afterwards. Human nature to the poet and novelist is like a Calumet and
Hecla mine which never becomes exhausted.
Louisa Alcott resembled her mother in figure, features and color, and in
her ardent and impulsive temperament. In the greater number of families
the eldest child resembles the father; the second and third are more
like their mother, and the fifth (if there be so many) is often like the
grandparents. In the Alcott family however it was just the reverse of
this, for May the youngest daughter was the only one like her father,
inheriting the artistic side of his nature, instead of the
philosophical. Neither did Louisa resemble her grandmother's family, the
Sewalls. She was emphatically a May, and the best of all the Mays,
though there have been many of them who were excellent. I think she was
indebted to her father for her enterprising spirit and keen sense of
character. Mr. Alcott knew the people of Concord much better than they
understood him, and was always most interesting when he talked of the
distinguished people with whom he had been acquainted. May was fond of
society, and a walk to and from the school dances cold winter nights;
and then ready next morning for a skating party on Walden pond; but she
said her sisters had little entertainment in their youth, dressing
always in the plainest manner and practising a stoical self-denial.
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