Jo and the Professor work, wait, and write voluminous letters until Aunt March dies and leaves Plumfield. Laurie urges selling the fine old place; Jo refuses, petting Aunt's poodle out of respect, and announces she will raise boys there, a happy homelike school with Fritz teaching and she mothering a wilderness of lads. She revives a long cherished plan to mother forlorn boys who lack help at the right minute, and the family, surprised, mostly blesses the Joian scheme.
Laurie teases about ragamuffin profits, then helps with plans and money; Mr. Laurence smuggles in destitute cases; Fritz steers Jo through queer mistakes until the Bhaer-garten flourishes with Toms, Dicks, and Harrys overrunning prim Plumfield. Years compress into joyful chaos: Mother Bhaer at the head of the table, Rob and Teddy added to her flock, apple-picking festivals where Marches, Laurences, Brookes, and Bhaers climb trees and spill milk with equal delight.
At one such October feast the sisters compare castles in the air to lives lived. Meg calls herself happiest with John and her tall boy; Amy keeps artistic hopes while modelling her frail Beth; Jo admits gray hair, thin cheeks, smoky Tommy Bangs, and never being rich, yet says she has never been so jolly. They kneel beside Beth's empty bed in memory, then gather under the festival tree while Marmee, surrounded by daughters and grandchildren, says she cannot wish them greater happiness than this.
Tommy Bangs still smokes under the bedclothes; Jo still hopes for a good book someday; yet Mother Bhaer would not trade her noisy boys and honest Fritz for any salon fame she once imagined. At the apple-picking feast five years on, boys sing Jo's hymn from the trees while Grandma receives handmade gifts and admits she cannot wish her girls greater happiness. Laurie points to Jo as model for his lads; Fritz's Socratic teaching and Jo's faith in ragamuffin hearts turn inheritance into vocation. Rob and Teddy join the flock; Mr. Laurence smuggles in destitute boys; and Jo tells stories only to pupils who believe every word. The finale gathers every branch under autumn apples while Marmee blesses a harvest richer than money.
