Throwing Caution to the Wind: Louisa May Alcott’s Short Story ‘How They Ran Away’

Trouble comes calling when two boys throw caution to the wind, in Louisa May Alcott's story, "How They Ran Away." "Snap the Whip," 1872, by Winslow Homer. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain

Adventure can be very hard to resist. However, when we boldly rush into adventure without any consideration for what happens, we can fall prey to the deepest dangers.

In her short story “How They Ran Away“ (1908), Louisa May Alcott follows two young boys, “cautious Billy” and “bold Tommy,” as they head out on a hunting trip in the mountains. Through this story, Alcott shows that, without prudence, bravery and boldness can lead to disaster.

Headlong Into Adventure

On a wonderful August day, Tommy and Billy grab their bows, arrows, and treasures and hurry away to be hunters. Tommy leads them off the road into the woods, saying that they “must get lost, and find [their] way.”

After running around for a while, they make camp and settle in. But when Billy suggests they eat lunch, Tommy realizes that he did not grab their lunch bucket but a fishing bucket instead! “Why didn’t you look? You are always in such a hurry to start,” Billy exclaims.

Yet Tommy is not afraid of a little discomfort; after all, it’s part of the adventure. In the next instant, he rushes off to set a trap and hunt for berries, while dejected and angry Billy fishes.

After a feast of fish and berries, Tommy is elated to find a woodchuck in his trap. When they hear a gunshot, he exclaims: “Let’s find the man and get him to shoot this [woodchuck] chap.” They grab some things and, with Tommy leading, dart off to find the hunter.

They discover that the hunter is not interested in the woodchuck. Disappointed, the boys return to their camp but soon realize that, in their hurry, they lost their way to the campsite. They scramble this way and that, but they find neither their camp nor the hunter.

Pratfalls

With the sun setting, the boys decide to settle in a tree. Tired and worried, they soon fall asleep.

Suddenly, Tommy jumps awake to Billy’s yells. Billy has fallen off his branch and is hanging by his belt in the tree, and he is stuck.

Hearing Billy’s shouts and calls, Tommy runs down the mountain “helter-skelter, never minding where he goes and too much excited to care for any damage.” Without warning, he falls head first into a bear pit, a large earthen pit to trap bears.

In the pit, Tommy realizes that “running away is not all fun” and regrets “that his thoughtless fun has given so much pain.” He contemplates his foolish situation and decides that he will take up hunting when he is older.

As Jeremy Collier, an 18th-century theater critic,  said in his essay “Pearls of Great Price,” “prudence is a necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess.”

Through the reckless actions of these two boys, Alcott shows that when we plunge into any adventure “helter-skelter” without planning or thinking, we can fall into the deepest trouble. But when we think twice about our actions, we can follow a surer road to success and true adventure.