"Boys! Nan! Come here please!" Mrs. Jo called from the front porch a week later. "Your new classmate is here!"As the children came down, a small buggy carrying an old man and a young girl drove up to the school. Dressed in an old yellow dress, the brown haired, light eyed girl stepped down from the buggy herself, ignoring the efforts of the old man trying to help her down. She then proceeded to take her bags, and walked boldly up to Jo.

"Hi, Mrs. Bhaer," Hazel said, smiling. "I'm Hazel Moore. I hope you don't mind me bein' here, on such short notice and all that."

"Oh Hazel, its lovely to have you," Jo said warmly. "And please, call me Mrs. Jo. I suppose you want to be introduced to your new friends. Our only girl here is Nan. The boys, in order, are Dan, Nat, Emil, Tommy and Rob, my son. My sister Meg and her twins Demi and Daisy, our cook Asia, your teacher Franz, and our handyman Nick."

"Hi, everybody," Hazel replied cheerfully to the 'how do you do's' and 'hellos'. "I'm really glad to be here."
"Hazel, you'll be sharing a room with Nan," Asia said, smiling at the sweet girl. "Here, we'll help you unpack and get settled in before we have dinner." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~