Sentence No. 146 · 20 August 2026
Her face looked tired, grave, and rather sad; for to-morrow was her birthday, and she was thinking how fast the years went by, how old she was getting, and how little she seemed to have accomplished.
Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Louisa May Alcott — Little Women (1868) · Read it at Project Gutenberg
What holds this sentence together
Notice the semicolon: it divides the sentence into a setup (her mood) and its cause (her birthday thoughts). After the semicolon, three parallel 'how' clauses stack up in order — fast, old, little — so listen for that rhythm when placing fragments.
How it appears in Sentle
On Sentle this sentence arrives in 8 pieces, shuffled, with the lines that lead up to it for context. A restless young woman reflects on the passing years and quiet ambitions. Putting it back in the author’s order is the puzzle — and the order is rarely arbitrary, which is what the note above is about.
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