CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A TELEGRAM

"November is the most disagreeable month in the whole year," said Margaret, standing at the window one dull afternoon, looking out at the frostbitten garden.

"That's the reason I was born in it," observed Jo pensively, quite unconscious of the blot on her nose.

"If something very pleasant should happen now, we should think it a delightful month," said Beth, who took a hopeful view of everything, even November.

"I dare say, but nothing pleasant ever does happen in this family," said Meg, who was out of sorts. "We go grubbing along day after day, without a bit of change, and very little fun. We might as well be in a treadmill."

"My patience, how blue we are!" cried Jo. "I don't much wonder, poor dear, for you see other girls having splendid times, while you grind, grind, year in and year out. Oh, don't I wish I could manage things for you as I do for my heroines! You're pretty enough and good enough already, so I'd have some rich relation leave you a fortune unexpectedly. Then you'd dash out as an heiress, scorn everyone who has slighted you, go abroad, and come home my Lady Something in a blaze of splendor and elegance."

"People don't have fortunes left them in that style nowadays, men have to work and women marry for money. It's a dreadfully unjust world," said Meg bitterly.

"Jo and I are going to make fortunes for you all. Just wait ten years, and see if we don't," said Amy, who sat in a corner making mud pies, as Hannah called her little clay models of birds, fruit, and faces.

1. who hat a blot on her nose?
2. what month is it?
3. who was born in that month?
4. who was making pies?
5. what did she say she was going to make?
6. with who?
7. who had a hopeful view of everything?
8. did Meg think that pleasant things always happen to the family?
9. what did she say they might as well be in?
10. who did she think has to work?
11. what did she think women should do?
12. do people have fortunes left to them anymore?
13. who wanted a fortune left to her friends?
14. where was Margaret standing?
15. what was she looking at?

Provide a numbered list of answers.
1. Jo
2. November
3. Jo
4. Amy
5. fortunes
6. Jo
7. Beth
8. no
9. a treadmill
10. men
11. marry for money
12. No
13. unknown
14. at the window
15. the frostbitten garden