As authors may be supposed to know better than anyone else what they intended to do when writing a book, I beg leave to say thatthere is no moral to this story. Rose is not designed for a modelgirl, and the Sequel was simply written in fulfillment of a promise, hoping to afford some amusement, and perhaps here and there ahelpful hint, to other roses getting ready to bloom. L. M. Alcott, September 1876