Meg gave all her quarterly salary toward the rent , and I only got some clothes with mine , so I felt wicked , and was bound to have some money , if I sold the nose off my face to get it . '' `` You need n't feel wicked , my child ! You had no winter things and got the simplest with your own hard earnings , '' said Mrs. March with a look that warmed Jo 's heart . `` I had n't the least idea of selling my hair at first , but as I went along I kept thinking what I could do , and feeling as if I 'd like to dive into some of the rich stores and help myself . In a barber 's window I saw tails of hair with the prices marked , and one black tail , not so thick as mine , was forty dollars . It came to me all of a sudden that I had one thing to make money out of , and without stopping to think , I walked in , asked if they bought hair , and what they would give for mine . '' `` I do n't see how you dared to do it , '' said Beth in a tone of awe . `` Oh , he was a little man who looked as if he merely lived to oil his hair . He rather stared at first , as if he was n't used to having girls bounce into his shop and ask him to buy their hair . He said he did n't care about mine , it was n't the fashionable color , and he never paid much for it in the first place . The work put into it made it dear , and so on . It was getting late , and I was afraid if it was n't done right away that I should n't have it done at all , and you know when I start to do a thing , I hate to give it up . So I begged him to take it , and told him why I was in such a hurry . It was silly , I dare say , but it changed his mind , for I got rather excited , and told the story in my topsy-turvy way , and his wife heard , and said so kindly , ` Take it , Thomas , and oblige the young lady . I 'd do as much for our Jimmy any day if I had a spire of hair worth selling . '' `` Who was Jimmy ? '' asked Amy , who liked to have things explained as they went along . `` Her son , she said , who was in the army . How friendly such things make strangers feel , do n't they ? She talked away all the time the man clipped , and diverted my mind nicely . ''
`` Did n't you feel dreadfully when the XXXXX cut came ? ''
Beth Jimmy Jo Meg Thomas day dollars first quarterly right