Part 158

We used the version of the book from Little, Brown, and Company: copyright 1896, for this transcription. A scanned copy of this book is available through the internet archive, courtesy of the New York Public Library.

A copy of the first version of the novel, published in 1869, was consulted for emendations, the proper rendering of words hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing, and other issues in transcribing the novel. We are not trying to change this version of the novel back to the 1869 novel, but correct the errors that were made in re-transcribing and updating the text.

Passages in italics were indicated by underscores.

Passages in bold were indicated by =equal signs=.

Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS.

Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of the speakers. Those words were retained as-is.

Errors in punctuations and hyphenation were not corrected unless otherwise noted below.

A note about spacing of illustrations: If there are four lines above the illustration, then the illustration was at the top of a new chapter. If there are four lines below the illustration, then the illustration was at the end of a chapter. If there is two lines between a chapter heading and the illustration, then the illustration was an inline illustration (usually a drop-cap illustration).

On page vii, in the Table of Contents, change page 7 to 1 for the beginning of Chapter One.

In the List of Illustrations, for the illustration on page 147, "postmistress" was replaced with "post-mistress".

In the List of Illustrations, for the illustration on page 235, "tea-pot" was replaced with "teapot".

On page 30, the punctuation after 'stained they are' may be a colon, but on page 41 of the 1869 book, it is a semicolon. We used the semi-colon.

On page 34, transcribe red-headed with the hyphen. See page 44 of the 1869 novel.

On page 40, a period was added after "room where old Mr". See page 50 of the 1869 novel.

On page 41, the semicolon after "Laurie went on the box" was replaced with a comma. See page 52 of the 1869 novel.

On page 62, mantel-piece was transcribed with the hyphen. See Page 75 of the 1869 novel.

On page 63, checked the clause "and I've been trying to do it this ever so long." It is written the same way on page 77 of the 1869 book. No change was made.

On page 64, add period after "red and shining with merriment." See page 79 of the 1869 book.

On page 68, changed weet to sweet in 'the damp weet air.' See page 84 of the 1869 novel.

On page 79, add comma after I remain in the letter. See page 95 of the 1869 novel.

On page 84, ferrule was an adjustment from the 1869 book, which only used one r in spelling the word (see page 101). Webster's dictionary spells ferrule with two rs.

On page 109, a period was added after "and the old man quite dotes on them". See page 130 of the 1869 novel.

On page 109, a period was added after "asked another voice". See page 131 of the 1869 novel.

On page 112, change colon to semicolon after "if you don't;"--see page 134 of the 1869 novel.

On page 113, transcribe ear-rings with the hyphen. See page 135 of the 1869 novel.

On Page 123, "One thing remember, my girls:" is written as it appears in the 1896 novel. A comma instead of a colon was used after my girls in the 1869 novel (see page 146). "One thing =to= remember," may work better today, or even "Remember one thing," but we left this as Ms. Alcott wrote it.

On Page 124, the P. C. is the Pickwick Club from a novel by Charles Dickens. Samuel Pickwick, Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass, and Nathaniel Winkle were introdued by Charles Dickens in the first chapter of The Pickwick Papers. Samuel Weller makes his first appearance in Chapter Ten of that novel.

On page 128, in the Pickwick Portfolio, there is no period after "it is nearly school time" in N. Winkle's letter. This period was also missing on page 151 of the 1869 novel. The missing period was intentional.