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.