She did go, remained two months, and was treated very unkindly, being obliged to do the drudgery of the entire household. After returning home, she wrote a story that had a large sale, entitled _How I Went out to Service_. Surely Louisa Alcott had the ability to make the best of things, and to turn trials into blessings. At nineteen she developed great interest in the theatre and straightway decided to become an actress. During her childhood she had written plays which her sister Anna and a few other children acted, to the amusement of the elder members of the family. Now she dramatized her book, _Rival Prima Donnas_, and prevailed upon a theatrical manager to produce it. The man who had her play in charge, however, neglected to fulfil his part of the bargain, and meanwhile, Louisa's ardor for the theatre cooled off. By the time she was twenty-one, Miss Alcott was fairly launched as an author. Two years later she published a book, entitled _Flower Fables_, receiving from its sale the astonishing sum of thirty-two dollars. Then her work began to be accepted by the _Atlantic Monthly_ and by other magazines of good standing. It was very difficult for her to write in Concord, where she continually saw so much to be done at home. When a book was in process of writing she would go to Boston, hire a quiet room, and shut herself in until the work was completed. Then she would return to Concord to rest, "tired, hungry and cross," as she expressed it. While in Boston she worked cruelly hard, often writing fourteen hours out of the twenty-four. Worn out in body, she would grow discouraged and lose hope, wondering if she would ever be able to earn enough money to support her parents. A dear and good friend of hers was the Reverend Theodore Parker. At his home the tired, anxious girl was certain to receive encouragement and cheer. There she met Emerson, Sumner, Garrison, Julia Ward Howe, and other eminent men and women of the time. A few years before her death she wrote to a friend: Theodore Parker and Ralph Emerson have done much to help me see that one can shape life best by trying to build up a strong and noble character through good books, wise people's society, and by taking an interest in all the reforms that help the world. While in Boston Miss Alcott found time to go to teach in an evening Charity School. In her diary we find these jottings: I'll help, as I am helped, if I can. Mother says no one is so poor that he can't do a little for some one poorer yet. At twenty-five years of age, Louisa Alcott was receiving not over five, six, or ten dollars for her stories. This would hardly support herself, to say nothing of the family. Writing might be continued, but sewing and teaching could not be dropped.