7 Here Comes Naughty Nan

CHAPTER 7 Here Comes Naughty Nan One day when Dan had been gone for almost a month, Jo met Father Bhaer after school and said, "I have an idea." Father Bhaer smiled. "Well, my dear, what is it?" "Daisy needs a friend to play with. You know that as well as I do, and I think the boys have

been quite sad with Dan gone. We need to find a new student. The boys might be on better behavior if we have another girl around, so I think we should ask Nan Harding to stay." Father Bhaer laughed and said, "Naughty Nan?" "Yes," Jo insisted. "She's been running wild since her mother passed away. It would do the boys a world of good. I know her father would like her to come to Plumfield—I asked him the other day while I was in town." Father Bhaer bent his head and considered his wife. Jo continued, "I think it'll be good for Daisy as well. She's getting too prim and proper here by herself. And she'll help Nan not to be so wild." "That does make sense," Father Bhaer agreed. "My only worry is that Nan will turn into another firecracker like Dan." "So shall I tell Nan to come and stay?" Jo asked.

"Of course, dear, of course!" The next day Jo returned to Plumfield with more than her usual packages from town. A small ten-year-old girl jumped down from the wagon and burst into the house shouting, "Hello, Daisy! Where are you?" Daisy came out to greet her guest. "I'm here to stay," Nan shouted. "Papa says I must, and your aunt came to carry me away, and my box comes tomorrow, and isn't it great fun?" Daisy nodded slowly and watched as Nan danced around her. Daisy asked quietly, "Did you bring your big doll?" "Oh, yes. She's around somewhere, and I even brought you this bracelet that I wove just 'cause I know we didn't part on the best of terms when I was here last. But all that's going to change now that I'm here full-time. It's going to be grand." Daisy thanked Nan for the friendship bracelet, and Nan shouted, "Let's go see the boys out in the barn!"

With that, Nan skipped off, swinging her hat with such might that it broke off from its strings and was left behind where it landed in the grass. Daisy followed reluctantly behind her. "Hullo, boys!" Nan shouted. "I'm going to stay!" The boys cheered as she came up to stand beside Tommy, who was sitting on the fence trying very hard not to cry. A ball and bat were on the grass beneath his feet. Nan shoved him a little on the shoulder. "Come on, I'll play. I can hit the ball pretty far, and it's a nice day for it. What's wrong with you?" "We're not playing anymore. The ball hurt my hand," Tommy sniffed. "I don't cry about anything. It's babyish," Nan said. Tommy sniffed again and said, "Go and pick a bunch of nettles then, if you're so strong." "I will," Nan said as she stomped over to a

nettle plant, grabbed it, and held on for dear life regardless of the sting. "Pooh, you're just used to it," Tommy said. "Now go and run your head into the barn, then you'll cry." Nan did just that, and her head hit the barn with such a crack that Tommy thought for sure she would cry. But when Nan stood back up, her face was dry. The boys just stood and stared. They didn't know whether to be shocked or impressed, for who runs their head into a barn? "Ho, I don't mind, because I ain't a little girl, and it didn't hurt much." Nan pressed her hand to her forehead where a terrible bruise had already started to form. Just then the dinner bell rang, and all the children trooped back to the house. When Father Bhaer asked for Nan's hand so he could say grace, she told him that it hurt too much. Before long, the whole story of the nettles and the barn came out. Father Bhaer looked to

his wife with a smile in his eyes and said, "Perhaps this is one for you to handle." Jo smiled at the boys and said, "Do you know why I asked Nan to come to school here?" "To torture me," Tommy said. "No, to help make little gentlemen out of you. I think you've shown that you do need it, after all." Tommy bent his head down over his plate as Demi shouted, "How can she help us? She's such a tomboy!" Jo answered, "That's just it—she needs as much help as you do." "Will she become a gentleman, too?" Jo's son, Rob, asked. Tommy laughed and said, "You'd like that, wouldn't you, Nan?" Nan's hand and head hurt, and for a moment she thought she should have shown her courage in other ways. "No, I wouldn't! I hate boys." Jo laughed. "Well, I'm sorry if you do hate