Chapter Sixty One

The holidays are over and we are back to a normal routine.  Carol and Martha came and stayed a whole week!  That was quite a treat since they usually only get to stay a few days.  Everyone had a good time even though Russell was not up to par with a bad cold.  We Hittys are fortunate we do not catch cold.

After everyone left and all the decorations were put away for another year, we did our laundry.  I did my best to get everything sorted and a few loads finished before I asked the others to help.  Tasha watched every piece being put into the washing machine!

When all items were washed HittyBelle started to iron.  We told her we would take turns and she agreed.  Hitty Beth sat in the corner and told us about the book she had just started to read titled  "Little Women."      She is always reading and this time the book really did sound interesting. 

We told Esther that we were interested in the book.  She explained that it was about four sisters and their mother at the time of the Civil War.  Their father was away in the war and they all missed him terribly. We were so pleased and surprised when she got us dresses just like the girls in the book wore and we could play lets pretend.    

We didn't have a dress for the mother so we asked Hitty Marie to read the story aloud for us.   Right away, Hitty Beth wanted to be Beth in the story.   Hitty Carol said she was Amy and HittyBelle wanted the role of Meg.  There was no doubt as to the role I would play since in the story Jo is the writer and so am I.  One of the dresses even had different fabric at the cuffs to protect the sleeves.  Ink getting on clothing must have been a problem back in those days. .  Tasha wanted to play ball but we just ignored her and sent her to the other room.   We were more interested in hearing about the little women in the book.

Hitty Pat was rather restless and didn't seem too interested in the story.  Hitty Beth and I tried to keep her quiet so we could hear.  We found ourselves trying to compare our lives to the lives of the girls in the book.  There really wasn't much similarity except we are also a household of girls.

HittyBelle and Hitty Carol listened intently and got very interested in the fact there was a  boy next door in the story.  They insisted Hitty Marie read some of those passages over and over again.  They also were teasing me that I was acting like Jo in the book and not really interested in that boy.  Esther told us we were far too young to be interested in boys so not to get any ideas!

We spent the whole day pretending we were the little women in the book until Hitty Marie got tired of reading!  The dresses are made a flannel fabric so we decided to stay dressed in them even when the story was finished.  They are a so warm and cozy.

Even though winter has set in and the holidays are over we have some activities for which to look forward.  Hitty Emily is planning a visit to California and spends all her time trying to decide which dress to wear, next week is the time we celebrate the original Hitty's birthday at the Hitty Club meeting and I think I heard mention that we may have a visitor from New York.