1 Next morning, Meg did not appear till ten o'clock.
2 Beth is as regular about her tasks as a clock, and never forgets what you told her.
3 I didn't forget to cover the holders, and I wind the clock and air the rooms every day.
4 "I know he is a good one," added Mrs. March, with decided approval, as she wound up the clock.
5 The clock struck six and, having swept up the hearth, Beth put a pair of slippers down to warm.
6 It was a moonlight night, and about one o'clock Flo and I were waked by the most delicious music under our windows.
7 At four o'clock a lull took place, and baskets remained empty, while the apple pickers rested and compared rents and bruises.
8 Here the clock struck twelve, and both forgot themselves in watching Beth, for they fancied a change passed over her wan face.
9 At seven o'clock, the four members ascended to the clubroom, tied their badges round their heads, and took their seats with great solemnity.
10 As the clock struck nine and Jo proposed bed, Meg suddenly left her chair and, taking Beth's stool, leaned her elbows on her mother's knee, saying bravely.
11 All the little duties were faithfully done each day, and many of her sisters' also, for they were forgetful, and the house seemed like a clock whose pendulum was gone a-visiting.
12 Mrs. Kirke asked me if I wouldn't go down to the five o'clock dinner, and feeling a little bit homesick, I thought I would, just to see what sort of people are under the same roof with me.
13 But night came at last, and every time the clock struck, the sisters, still sitting on either side of the bed, looked at each other with brightening eyes, for each hour brought help nearer.
14 So Meg wrestled alone with the refractory sweetmeats all that hot summer day, and at five o'clock sat down in her topsy-turvey kitchen, wrung her bedaubed hands, lifted up her voice and wept.
15 He seemed to have thrown himself back in his chair, tired out, and sat there with his eyes shut till the clock struck two, when he jumped up, put his books in his pocket, as if ready for another lesson, and taking little Tina who had fallen asleep on the sofa in his arms, he carried her quietly away.
16 The clocks were striking midnight and the rooms were very still as a figure glided quietly from bed to bed, smoothing a coverlet here, settling a pillow there, and pausing to look long and tenderly at each unconscious face, to kiss each with lips that mutely blessed, and to pray the fervent prayers which only mothers utter.