SCARCE LOUISA MAY ALCOTT WORK. One of the several spinoffs of Alcott's wildly successful LITTLE WOMEN. This is an early edition of the second in the series of books featuring a grown-up Jo, LITTLE WOMEN's main character, as the narrator. "As grandmothers rummage their piece-bags and bundles in search of gay odds and ends to make gifts with which to fill the little stockings that hang all in a row on Christmas Eve, so I have gathered together some stories, old and new, to amuse the large family that has so rapidly and beautifully grown up about me. "I hope that when they promenade in nightcaps and gowns to rifle the plump stockings, the little 'dears' will utter an 'Oh!' of pleasure, and give a prance of satisfaction, as they pull out this small gift from Aunt Jo's scrapbag" [preface, Vol. I].