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A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
109
Very
vivid,
too,
is
the
recollection
of
the
exquisite
little
prose
idyl
of
"Moss-Side,"
from
"Lights
and
Shadows
of
Scottish
Life."
From
the
few
short
words
with
which
it
began--"Gilbert
Ainslee
was
a
poor
man,
and
he
had
been
a
poor
man
all
the
days
of
his
life"--to
the
happy
waking
of
his
little
daughter
Margaret
out
of
her
fever-sleep
with
which
it
ended,
it
was
one
sweet
picture
of
lowly
life
and
honorable
poverty
irradiated
with
sacred
home-affections,
and
cheerful
in
its
rustic
homeliness
as
the
blossoms
and
wild
birds
of
the
moorland
and
the
magic
touch
of
Christopher
North
could
make
it.
I
thought
as
I
read--
"How
much
pleasanter
it
must
be
to
be
poor
than
to
be
rich--at
least
in
Scotland!"
For
I
was
beginning
to
be
made
aware
that
poverty
was
a
possible
visitation
to
our
own
household;
and
that,
in
our
Cape
Ann
corner
of
Massachusetts,
we
might
find
it
neither
comfortable
nor
picturesque.
After
my
father's
death,
our
way
of
living,
never
luxurious,
grew
more
and
more
frugal.
Now
and
then
I
heard
mysterious
allusions
to
"the
wolf
at
the
door":
and
it
was
whispered
that,
to
escape
him,
we
might
all
have
to
turn
our
backs
upon
the
home
where
we
were
born,
and
find
our
safety
in
the
busy
world,
working
among
strangers
for
our
daily
bread.
Before
I
had
reached
my
tenth
year
I
began
to
have
rather
disturbed
dreams
of
what
it
might
soon
mean
for
me
to
"earn
my
own
living."
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