Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott

evidently the pride of his life.

Rose saw at a glance that Dandy deserved his name more than

ever, and promptly quenched his vanities by answering, with a

provoking laugh, “Then the name of the flower of the family is

Cockscomb.?

“Ah, ha! who’s got it now?” jeered Will.

“Let us off easy, please,” whispered Geordie, mindful that their

turn came next.

“You blessed beanstalks! I’m proud of you only don’t grow quite

out of sight, or even be ashamed to look a woman in the face,”

answered Rose, with a gentle pat on the cheek of either bashful

young giant, for both were red as peonies, though their boyish eyes

were as clear and calm as summer lakes.

“Now me!” and Jamie assumed his manliest air, feeling that he did

not appear to advantage among his tall kinsmen. But he went to

the head of the class in everyone’s opinion when Rose put her arms

around him, saying, with a kiss, “You must be my boy now, for all

the others are too old, and I want a faithful little page to do my

errands for me.?

“I will, I will I’ll marry you too, if you’ll just hold on till I grow

up!” cried Jamie, rather losing his head at this sudden promotion.

“Bless the baby, what is he talking about?” laughed Rose, looking

down at her little knight as he clung about her with grateful ardor.

“Oh, I heard the aunts say that you’d better marry one of us, and

keep the property in the family, so I speak first, because you are

very fond of me, and I do love curls.?

Alas for Jamie! This awful speech had hardly left his innocent lips

when Will and Geordie swept him out of the room like a

whirlwind, and the howls of that hapless boy were heard from the

torture hall, where being shut into the skeleton case was one of the

mildest punishments inflicted upon him.

Dismay fell upon the unfortunates who remained, but their

confusion was soon ended, for Rose, with a look which they had

never seen upon her face before, dismissed them with the brief

command, “Break ranks the review is over,” and walked away to

Phebe.

“Confound that boy! You ought to shut him up or gag him!” fumed

Charlie irritably.

“He shall be attended to,” answered poor Archie, who was trying to

bring up the little marplot with the success of most parents and

guardians.

“The whole thing was deuced disagreeable,” growled Steve, who

felt that he had not distinguished himself in the late engagement.

“Truth generally is,” observed Mac dryly as he strolled away with

his odd smile.

As if he suspected discord somewhere, Dr. Alec proposed music at

this crisis, and the young people felt that it was a happy thought.

“I want you to hear both my birds, for they have improved

immensely, and I am very proud of them,” said the doctor, twirling

up the stool and pulling out the old music books.

“I had better come first, for after you have heard the nightingale

you won’t care for the canary,” added Rose, wishing to put Phebe

at her ease, for she sat among them looking like a picture, but

rather shy and silent, remembering the days when her place was in

the kitchen.

“I’ll give you some of the dear old songs you used to like so much.

This was a favorite, I think,” and sitting down she sang the first

familiar air that came, and sang it well in a pleasant, but by no

means finished, manner.

It chanced to be “The Birks of Aberfeldie,” and vividly recalled the

time when Mac was ill and she took care of him. The memory was

sweet to her, and involuntarily her eye wandered in search of him.

He was not far away, sitting just as he used to sit when she soothed

his most despondent moods astride of a chair with his head down

on his arms, as if the song suggested the attitude. Her heart quite

softened to him as she looked, and she decided to forgive him if no

one else, for she was sure that he had no mercenary plans about