"The Laurence Boy" - Page 27

She liked the “Laurence boy” better than ever, and took several good looks at him, so that she might describe him to the girls; for they had no brothers, very few male cousins, and boys were almost unknown creatures to them. 

Curly black hair, brown skin, big black eyes, long nose, nice teeth, little hands and feet, tall as I am;¹ very polite for a boy, and altogether jolly. Wonder how old he is? 

It was on the tip of Jo’s tongue to ask; but she checked herself in time, and, with unusual tact, tried to find out in a roundabout way. 

“I suppose you are going to college soon? I see you pegging away at your books - no, I mean studying hard;” and Jo blushed at the dreadful “pegging” which had escaped her. ²

Laurie smiled, but didn’t seem shocked, and answered, with a shrug: 

“Not for two or three years yet; I won’t go before seventeen any-way.”

“Aren’t you but fifteen?” asked Jo, looking at the tall lad, whom she had imagined seventeen already. 

“Sixteen, next month.”

“How I wish I was going to college; you don’t look as if you liked it.”

“I hate it! Nothing but grinding³ or sky-larking⁴ ; and I don’t like the way fellows do either, in this country.”

“What do you like?”

“To live in Italy, and to enjoy myself in my own way.” ⁵

Jo wanted very much to ask what his own way was; but his black brows looked rather threatening as he knit them, so she changed the subject by saying, as her foot kept time, “That’s a splendid polka; why don’t you go and try it?”

“If you will come too,” he answered, with a queer little French bow.

¹

² _{In Disney’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ there is a word used that is now widely understood to be a slur. Understandable, language changes! But when you watch the movie again, you realize it is used SO MUCH that even if the word WEREN’T bad back then it feels like someone did this on purpose - like, how can they be saying this so. many. times. All this to say if I didn’t know it was impossible, I would assume Louisa was baiting me. A PEGGING ESCAPED FROM JOSEPHINE????? COME NOW}

³ _{I’m gonna throw a fit}

⁴ _{Engaging in horseplay, which, alongside the grinding, is all very heterosexual.}

⁵