cried poor Jo , in despair . `` Watch and pray , dear , never get tired of trying , and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault , '' said Mrs. March , drawing the blowzy head to her shoulder and kissing the wet cheek so tenderly that Jo cried even harder . `` You do n't know , you ca n't guess how bad it is ! It seems as if I could do anything when I 'm in a passion . I get so savage , I could hurt anyone and enjoy it . I 'm afraid I shall do something dreadful some day , and spoil my life , and make everybody hate me . Oh , Mother , help me , do help me ! '' `` I will , my child , I will . Do n't cry so bitterly , but remember this day , and resolve with all your soul that you will never know another like it . Jo , dear , we all have our temptations , some far greater than yours , and it often takes us all our lives to conquer them . You think your temper is the worst in the world , but mine used to be just like it . '' `` Yours , Mother ? Why , you are never angry ! '' And for the moment Jo forgot remorse in surprise . `` I 've been trying to cure it for forty years , and have only succeeded in controlling it . I am angry nearly every day of my life , Jo , but I have learned not to show it , and I still hope to learn not to feel it , though it may take me another forty years to do so . '' The patience and the humility of the face she loved so well was a better lesson to Jo than the wisest lecture , the sharpest reproof . She felt comforted at once by the sympathy and confidence given her . The knowledge that her mother had a fault like hers , and tried to mend it , made her own easier to bear and strengthened her resolution to cure it , though forty years seemed rather a long time to watch and pray to a girl of fifteen . `` Mother , are you angry when you fold your lips tight together and go out of the room sometimes , when Aunt March scolds or people worry you ? ''
asked Jo , feeling nearer and dearer to her XXXXX than ever before .
everybody fault humility knowledge lips mother passion room soul temper