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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
10
A
NEW
ENGLAND
GIRLHOOD
I.
UP
AND
DOWN
THE
LANE.
IT
is
strange
that
the
spot
of
earth
where
we
were
born
should
make
such
a
difference
to
us.
People
can
live
and
grow
anywhere,
but
people
as
well
as
plants
have
their
habitat,--the
place
where
they
belong,
and
where
they
find
their
happiest,
because
their
most
natural
life.
If
I
had
opened
my
eyes
upon
this
planet
elsewhere
than
in
this
northeastern
corner
of
Massachusetts,
elsewhere
than
on
this
green,
rocky
strip
of
shore
between
Beverly
Bridge
and
the
Misery
Islands,
it
seems
to
me
as
if
I
must
have
been
somebody
else,
and
not
myself.
These
gray
ledges
hold
me
by
the
roots,
as
they
do
the
bayberry
bushes,
the
sweet-fern,
and
the
rock-saxifrage.
When
I
look
from
my
window
over
the
tree-tops
to
the
sea,
I
could
almost
fancy
that
from
the
deck
of
some
one
of
those
inward
bound
vessels
the
wistful
eyes
of
the
Lady
Arbella
might
be
turned
towards
this
very
hillside,
and
that
mine
were
meeting
hers
in
sympathy,
across
the
graves
of
two
hundred
and
fifty
years.
For
Winthrop's
fleet,
led
by
the
ship
that
bore
her
name,
must
have
passed
into
harbor
that
way.
Dear
and
gracious
spirit!
The
memory
of
her
brief
sojourn
here
has
left
New
England
more
truly
consecrated
ground.
Sweetest
of
womanly
pioneers!
It
is
as
if
an
angel
in
passing
on
to
heaven
just
touched
with
her
wings
this
rough
coast
of
ours.
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