Author's Note:
This book is set after the second part Little Women,also known as Good Wives, however in this, I am forgetting that Beth died and that Meg, Amy, and Jo married.
- Pearls
Chapter 1: We got it!
Hey, just for kicks and giggles, I don't own Anne or the March sisters.
Meg, after going to receive the mail, ran over and exclaimed to the other three, "I have what you guys have been waiting for!"
"What is it? Let me see it!" Jo exclaimed,bursting with happiness. "Has the check for my new manuscript come?"
Meg shook her head to say no. "Is it another lesson for my Art correspondence course? Amy screamed, out of impatience. Again, Meg shook her head no.
"Then what is it? Why are you being so suspenseful?" Beth asked in a very angelic way.
"Probate is finally finished. We own the orphanage now. "
"We do?"
"Yes. Jo, you will teach the children, and the rest of us will help entertain them." Meg replied, very calmly.
One week later, the four Marches settled into their new residence. Their grandmother on their father's side was a Canadian who moved to the United States to teach shortly before her marriage. Because of this, the girls had Canadian citizenship and it was simply a matter of packing and moving, even though usually it requires an astonishing amount of work with customs.
Upon their arrival however, they learned that the orphanage was left in a horrible state. The building was overflowing with children and there were hardly any resources to feed and clothe them. However, the March sisters were very lucky because Aunt March, who left it to them, had also left them a lot of money, so they started to renovate it. They enlarged the facilities and started sewing quilts for the children. They hired some of the local seamstresses make new clothes for the children. However, they loved seeing the children and helping them receive a better life. The way they looked at them, when they did all the household chores, because Aunt March had hired a very mean woman named Cecilia Slate.
Miss Slate insisted that when the children weren't learning their lessons that they be doing household chores. She always gave the very hard ones to the youngest of the children, because she felt that they needed to be conditioned into the fact that things don't come easy in life. She had children 5 and under scrub the floors, children 10 and under sweep the floors, children 15 and under clean the windows, and then children over 15 dusted.
The March Sisters were slowly improving the Hopetown orphanage. All of the children loved them, and were very happy when they found them.
Sorry for the short chapter. I promise the next one will be longer!