asked Beth eagerly . `` I shall take the cream and the muffings , '' added Amy , heroically giving up the article she most liked . Meg was already covering the buckwheats , and piling the bread into one big plate . `` I thought you 'd do it , '' said Mrs. March , smiling as if satisfied . `` You shall all go and help me , and when we come back we will have bread and milk for breakfast , and make it up at dinnertime . '' They were soon ready , and the procession set out . Fortunately it was early , and they went through back streets , so few people saw them , and no one laughed at the queer party . A poor , bare , miserable room it was , with broken windows , no fire , ragged bedclothes , a sick mother , wailing baby , and a group of pale , hungry children cuddled under one old quilt , trying to keep warm . How the big eyes stared and the blue lips smiled as the girls went in . `` Ach , mein Gott ! It is good angels come to us ! '' said the poor woman , crying for joy . `` Funny angels in hoods and mittens , '' said Jo , and set them to laughing . In a few minutes it really did seem as if kind spirits had been at work there . Hannah , who had carried wood , made a fire , and stopped up the broken panes with old hats and her own cloak . Mrs. March gave the mother tea and gruel , and comforted her with promises of help , while she dressed the little baby as tenderly as if it had been her own . The girls meantime spread the table , set the children round the fire , and fed them like so many hungry birds , laughing , talking , and trying to understand the funny broken English . `` Das ist gut ! '' `` Die Engel-kinder ! '' cried the poor things as they ate and warmed their purple hands at the comfortable blaze .
The girls had never been called angel children before , and thought it very agreeable , especially XXXXX , who had been considered a ` Sancho ' ever since she was born .
Amy Beth Hannah Jo bedclothes buckwheats fire gruel minutes quilt