Invincible Lousia
INVINCIBLE LOUSIA CORNELLIA MEIGS WINNER OF THE NEWBERY MEDAL CHAPTER ONE Damask Roses THE HIGHROAD WHICH STRETCHES FROM within the State of Pennsylvania down to the Delaware River becomes, as it nears Philadelphia, the main street of Germantown It was a well-traveled road long before the Revolution. But even as late as the year 1832, it was still unimproved and often so deep in mud, that, so the residents of Germantown said, it was necessary to saddle a horse to get from one side of it to the other. Not all of its roughness and its wet, however, could interfere with the joyful stride of a triumphant young father who tramped the difficult mile, on a cold November day, from his house to the big dwelling at Wyck, home of his dearest friends. Nothing could stay Bronson Alcott as he hurried breathless, to the Haines house, as he burst in at the door to tell the great news. He had a new daughter, a lusty, lively, altogether remarkable daughter, and he had come to take all the Haines children over to see the new baby. Back they all went with him, trooping along the highway, buzzing with talk and questions, all seven of the small Haineses. They stood, presently, in an awed, respectful circle around the small, red, but extremely sound and vigorous baby, who, so it was settled even then, was to be called Louisa May Alcott. It was, therefore, not upon New England, but upon the snow-wrapped Pennsylvania countryside, that Louisa looked out at her first vision of the world Low, rounded hills, groups of white- powdered pine trees winding valleys where a black line showed how the water tan, and where smooth, glittering slopes stretched up to patches of woodland -- all these were before her eyes and her brisk, young mother's, as they sat at the tall window and looked abroad upon the white- ness of Louisa's first winter.
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