`` Could you spare me some of your cake ? I really need some , I have so much company , and I ca n't make such delicious stuff as yours , '' asked Meg soberly . `` Take it all . I 'm the only one here who likes sweet things , and it will mold before I can dispose of it , '' answered Amy , thinking with a sigh of the generous store she had laid in for such an end as this . `` It 's a pity Laurie is n't here to help us , '' began Jo , as they sat down to ice cream and salad for the second time in two days . A warning look from her mother checked any further remarks , and the whole family ate in heroic silence , till Mr. March mildly observed , `` salad was one of the favorite dishes of the ancients , and Evelyn ... '' Here a general explosion of laughter cut short the ` history of salads ' , to the great surprise of the learned gentleman . `` Bundle everything into a basket and send it to the Hummels . Germans like messes . I 'm sick of the sight of this , and there 's no reason you should all die of a surfeit because I 've been a fool , '' cried Amy , wiping her eyes . `` I thought I should have died when I saw you two girls rattling about in the what-you-call-it , like two little kernels in a very big nutshell , and Mother waiting in state to receive the throng , '' sighed Jo , quite spent with laughter . `` I 'm very sorry you were disappointed , dear , but we all did our best to satisfy you , '' said Mrs. March , in a tone full of motherly regret . `` I am satisfied . I 've done what I undertook , and it 's not my fault that it failed . I comfort myself with that , '' said Amy with a little quiver in her voice . `` I thank you all very much for helping me , and I 'll thank you still more if you wo n't allude to it for a month , at least . '' No one did for several months , but the word ` fete ' always produced a general smile , and Laurie 's birthday gift to Amy was a tiny coral lobster in the shape of a charm for her watch guard . CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN LITERARY LESSONS Fortune suddenly smiled upon Jo , and dropped a good luck penny in her path . Not a golden penny , exactly , but I doubt if half a million would have given more real happiness then did the little sum that came to her in this wise . Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room , put on her scribbling suit , and ` fall into a vortex ' , as she expressed it , writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul , for till that was finished she could find no peace . Her ` scribbling suit ' consisted of a black woolen pinafore on which she could wipe her pen at will , and a cap of the same material , adorned with a cheerful red bow , into which she bundled her hair when the decks were cleared for action .
This cap was a beacon to the inquiring eyes of her family , who during these periods kept their distance , merely popping in their heads semi-occasionally to ask , with interest , `` Does genius burn , XXXXX ? ''
Evelyn Hummels Jo Laurie Meg days explosion month months pinafore