Goodbye

Oh, I am so relieved. Jo knows; she knows that I am growing weaker every day and that my life might end very soon. I am glad that I do not have to tell anyone, for Mother and Father recognized the change for the worse in my appearance when Jo and I arrived home from our visit to the seashore. One day while we were at the beach, I realized that Jo knew how sick I was. She thought I was asleep. I felt her holding me tighter and I looked up to see eyes filled with tears. That's when I noticed that Jo knew I was dying and I wouldn't recover. When she asked why I didn't tell her about it, I answered that I thought I was mistaken. Since nobody approached the subject of my illness, I wasn't sure. I did not want to be selfish by worrying Marmee and Father if nothing was wrong.
Still, I must say, I am not sorry to go. Death will be a calm ending to all of my sufferings. I shall miss my loving family, but I will see them soon enough. I can only hope my family will accept my death, and that it will not hurt them too much. This shall be my last entry as I am so weak that I can barely lift my hand. Goodbye to all.

Meg

Meg is married and has children!
It was a splendid wedding with all the family and many friends. She is now Margaret Brooke. How funny that sounds! Mr. John and Magaret Brooke. I suppose it does have a nice ring to it.
Oh, the children! She gave birth to a set of twins. They are extremely adorable. One is a girl named after Meg; we call her Daisy. The other is a boy named after John; Laurie had the idea to call him Demijohn and Demi for short. They are lovely babies. I wish I could describe all the love and happiness that surrounds them, but things of such intensity cannot be put into mere words.
Meg seems happy with her family and her nice little home we call the Dovecote. John appears to treat her and the children with kindness and patience. I imagine true lovers look at one another as Meg and John do to each other, and they both look at their children with all the love in the world. It shines in their eyes like the sun in the sky and makes me so grateful for the wonderful family I am a part of.
We are all very happy for Meg, and miss her terribly. Jo seems to miss her most, but we don't talk about it. Amy goes on with her long list of things to do. Mother and Father continue with their daily life.
I wish Meg, John, Daisy, and Demi all the happiness in the world. They have it already, I imagine, but one can never be too sure!

CHRISTMAS!!!

Oh, what a lovely Christmas it was too! You will never believe what happened! First, Marmee gave me a lovely crimson merino wrapper. Then Jo and Laurie (The Unquenchables) gave me something just as beautiful. Standing out on the garden was a perfect snow maiden with a delicate crown of holly. She held a basket of fruit and flowers in one hand and a roll of music in the other. Draping her shoulders was an elegant afghan while from her lips on a pink paper streamer was a Christmas carol called "The Jungfrau" addressed to me from the two of them. If father were only there it would have been the most perfect few moments I ever had! Before I get to the most exciting part, I must tell of the others' gifts as well: Jo received a book called Undine and Sintram (something she's wanted for a long while), Amy got the painting called Madonna and Child with an ornate frame, Meg was given her first silk dress from the kind Mr. Laurence, and Marmee recieved a broach from us all.
The most exciting part:
Laurie came in and gave us all the most wonderful Chrstmas present ever! The others got to him first, but I soon followed. Standing before me as I stood at the threshold of the study was Father! I ran straight to him, realizing that this was the best Christmas present I could, and would, ever have. Father told us how he had wanted to surprise us and had gained permission from the doctor as soon as the weather was fine. I am more thankful for this day than any I have ever had! This has been the finest Christmas, and the finest day, ever had by anyone.

Jo usually shares all of her important events in her life, including her secrets, with me. But today I found she has kept something, which I know is very important to her, from me: she has given one of her manuscripts to the editor of the "Spread Eagle" (the local newspaper). Nobody in the family knew about this, except for Laurie, until today, two weeks after she met with the editor.
Jo has been writing plays, stories, and poetry for quite a while now, and she has become very skilled. Two weeks ago, according to Jo, she packed her stories and met with the editor to show him two of her pieces, which she wanted to have come out. The editor told her that she must wait a week, so she did, although her story did not come out until after two weeks. During those weeks, Meg, Amy, and I were quite bewildered for Jo was behaving very queerly. She would be rude to Mr. Brooke and rushed to the door when the postman rang. The afternoon of the second Saturday of Jo acting in such a manner, I observed Laurie chasing Jo all over the garden, capturing her in Amy's bower. Exhausted, Jo bounced in with a newspaper, and laid herself on the sofa. Meg asked her to pick a story from the paper and read it aloud to us. Jo chose one with the name of The Rival Painters. We all enjoyed the tale and, once Jo was done, I asked her "Who wrote it?", for Jo was acting quite peculiar, hiding her bright-red face behind the newspaper, and I got a bit suspicious. Jo put the paper aside, revealing her flushed countenance and announced "Your sister."
I am so proud of my Jo since her advanced writing belongs in the paper, although I feel a little hurt at her for having secrets with anyone but me.

Mr. Laurence

Our dear neighbor has proved himself an angel over the last couple of weeks. Jo wanted me to meet him, and we made an expedition to the "Palace Beautiful". However, I was at first rather frightened of Mr. Laurence and his lion-like manner. I even told Marmee that I would never go there again despite his wonderful piano I was itching to play. Soon, though, dear Mr. Laurence came by and spoke with such rapture about music and asked so kindly if one of us would like to come play on his piano that I could not resist speaking up. And so, I spread the glorious news to my dolls and ventured to the big house the next day. Oh, what a piano! I have never seen nor heard such a sound! I stayed all day and have been back for many more. To thank our kind neighbor, I made a pair of slippers for him and received, not just a gracious and elegant letter of gratitude back, but a whole beautiful piano! I could not believe it. I still can not believe and run my hands along the keys often simply to check that it is real. The note said that I reminded Mr. Laurence of his own granddaughter he lost years ago and so thought it appropriate that I should now own her old piano. In our elation, we have dubbed Mr. Laurence's home "Mansion of Bliss" and have surely found a new friend in our neighbor.

Christmas

Yesterday was Christmas. It started off in the morning with a present from Marmee: a small dove-colored book to guide me through my days to become a better person. All of my sisters received one as well. We began reading them that morning. When Marmee got home she told us of a poor family living not too far away with six children, a newborn baby, and nothing to eat. She asked us if we would mind giving them our breakfast. I was very hungry but of course I helped to carry the food over to the house. The joy on their poor little faces made up for it all!

When we got back we all gave our gifts to Marmee. My gift was a new handkerchief I embroidered myself with the word "Mother". That evening we all put on a play that was a huge success, though we did have a few difficulties. When we came downstairs afterwards there was a huge surprise waiting for us. Marmee told us that Mr. Laurence, who lives next-door to us, heard about our sacrifice this morning and wanted to show how pleased he was, so he sent us an entire table filled with foods of all kinds. There were even two dishes of ice cream! But all this festivity could not take away the fact that Father was not here to share it with us. I do hope he comes home soon.