“So I did! Well, I am happy, and I won’t fret; but it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants, doesn’t it? There, now, the trays are ready, and everything in but my ball-dress, which I shall leave for mother to pack,” said Meg, cheering up, as she glanced from the half-filled trunk to the many-times pressed and mended white tarlatan, which she called her “ball-dress,” with an important air.

The next day was fine, and Meg departed, in style, for a fortnight of novelty and pleasure. Mrs. March had consented to the visit rather reluctantly, fearing that Margaret would come back more discontented than she went. But she had begged so hard, and Sallie had promised to take good care of her, and a little pleasure seemed so delightful after a winter of irksome work, that the mother yielded, and the daughter went to take her first taste of fashionable life.