nths of planning, Mr. Alcott, Mr. Lane and other
enthusiasts decided to buy an estate of one hundred acres near Harvard
Village, Mass., and establish the colony. The place was named
"Fruitlands," in anticipation of future crops, and the men who were to
start the community were full of hope and enthusiasm, in which Mrs.
Alcott did not share, as she knew her husband's visionary nature too
well not to fear the result of such an experiment. However, she aided
in making the plan as practical as she could, and drew such a rosy
picture of their new home to the children that they expected life at
Fruitlands to be a perpetual picnic.

Alas for visions and for hopes! Although life at Fruitlands had its
moments of sunshine and happiness, yet they were far overbalanced by
hard work, small results and increasing worry over money matters, and
at last, after four years of struggle to make ends meet, Mr. Alcott
was obliged to face the fact that the experiment had been an utter
failure, that he had exhausted his resources of mind, body and estate.
It was a black time for the gentle dreamer, and for a while it seemed
as if despair would overwhelm him. But with his brave wife to help him
and the children's welfare to think of, he shook off his despondency
bravely, and decided to make a fresh start. So Mrs. Alcott wrote to
her brother in Boston for help, sold all the furniture they could
spare, and went to Still River, the nearest village to Fruitlands, and
engaged four rooms. "Then on a bleak December day the Alcott family
emerged from the snowbank in which Fruitlands, now re-christened
_Apple Stump_ by Mrs. Alcott, lay hidden. Their worldly goods were
piled on an ox-sled, the four girls on the top, while father and
mother trudged arm in arm behind, poorer indeed in worldly goods, but
richer in love and faith and patience, and alas, experience."

After a winter in Still River they went back to Concord, where they
occupied a few rooms in the house of a sympathetic friend--not all
their friends were sympathetic, by any means, as most of them had
warned Mr. Alcott of this ending to his experiment. But all were
kindly as they saw the family take up life bravely in Concord again,
with even fewer necessities and comforts than before. Both Mr. and
Mrs. Alcott did whatever work they could find to do, thinking nothing
too menial if it provided food and clothing for their family.
Naturally the education of the children was rather fragmentary and