Dear me, how delighted they all were, to be sure! how Meg wouldn’t believe it till she saw the words, “Miss Josephine March,” actually printed in the paper; how graciously Amy criticised the artistic parts of the story, and offered hints for a sequel, which unfortunately couldn’t be carried out, as the hero and heroine were dead; how Beth got excited, and skipped and sung with joy; how Hannah came in to exclaim “Sakes alive, well I never!” in great astonishment at “that Jo’s doin’s;” how proud Mrs. March was when she knew it; how Jo laughed, with tears in her eyes, as she declared she might as well be a peacock and done with it; and how the Spread Eagle might be said to flap his wings triumphantly over the House of March, as the paper passed from hand to hand.