You are like a chestnut burr , prickly outside , but silky-soft within , and a sweet kernal , if one can only get at it . Love will make you show your heart one day , and then the rough burr will fall off . '' `` Frost opens chestnut burrs , ma'am , and it takes a good shake to bring them down . Boys go nutting , and I do n't care to be bagged by them , '' returned Jo , pasting away at the kite which no wind that blows would ever carry up , for Daisy had tied herself on as a bob . Meg laughed , for she was glad to see a glimmer of Jo 's old spirit , but she felt it her duty to enforce her opinion by every argument in her power , and the sisterly chats were not wasted , especially as two of Meg 's most effective arguments were the babies , whom Jo loved tenderly . Grief is the best opener of some hearts , and Jo 's was nearly ready for the bag . A little more sunshine to ripen the nut , then , not a boy 's impatient shake , but a man 's hand reached up to pick it gently from the burr , and find the kernal sound and sweet . If she suspected this , she would have shut up tight , and been more prickly than ever , fortunately she was n't thinking about herself , so when the time came , down she dropped . Now , if she had been the heroine of a moral storybook , she ought at this period of her life to have become quite saintly , renounced the world , and gone about doing good in a mortified bonnet , with tracts in her pocket . But , you see , Jo was n't a heroine , she was only a struggling human girl like hundreds of others , and she just acted out her nature , being sad , cross , listless , or energetic , as the mood suggested . It 's highly virtuous to say we 'll be good , but we ca n't do it all at once , and it takes a long pull , a strong pull , and a pull all together before some of us even get our feet set in the right way . Jo had got so far , she was learning to do her duty , and to feel unhappy if she did not , but to do it cheerfully , ah , that was another thing ! She had often said she wanted to do something splendid , no matter how hard , and now she had her wish , for what could be more beautiful than to devote her life to Father and Mother , trying to make home as happy to them as they had to her ? And if difficulties were necessary to increase the splendor of the effort , what could be harder for a restless , ambitious girl than to give up her own hopes , plans , and desires , and cheerfully live for others ? Providence had taken her at her word . Here was the task , not what she had expected , but better because self had no part in it . Now , could she do it ? She decided that she would try , and in her first attempt she found the helps I have suggested . Still another was given her , and she took it , not as a reward , but as a comfort , as Christian took the refreshment afforded by the little arbor where he rested , as he climbed the hill called Difficulty . `` Why do n't you write ?
That always used to make you happy , '' said her mother once , when the desponding fit over-shadowed XXXXX .
Daisy Father Jo Mother chats first kernal nutting right storybook