Louisa liked to look at other people dancing, and generally it made her
happy to see the young folks enjoy themselves. This shows the true woman
in her. The portrait she has given of herself as Jo in "Little Women" is
not to be taken too literally. Like Thackeray in "Pendennis" she has
purposely left out the noble side of her nature,--for indeed that was
only disclosed at rare intervals and for those who had eyes to see. She
had the strongest features of the family, and a quick decisive manner
which was sometimes mistaken for arrogance.
[Illustration: LOUISA ALCOTT. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1858.]
Louisa and her sister Annie (now Mrs. Pratt) were excellent actresses,
and were always in demand when private theatricals were on foot. To see
them perform in the "Two Buzzards" with her sister and F. B. Sanborn was
a treat of the first order. I can hear Louisa now saying, "Brother
Benjamin, brother Benjamin!" in a scene of which all the rest is gone
from my memory. Another favorite _role_ of hers was Dickens'
character of Sarah Gamp in the nocturnal interview with her friend Betsy
Prig. As Mrs. Jarley exhibiting her wax tableaux she was inimitable. She
did it with a snap. Once she was called upon to assist at an
entertainment given at the house of the village blacksmith: she invented
a charade which was both novel and appropriate. She arranged her father
to look like the Boston statue of Franklin--and the resemblance was a
very striking one--and then came in with another gentleman in a
travelling dress, and surveyed and criticized him.
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