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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
118
The
change
involved
a
great
deal
of
work.
"Boarders"
signified
a
large
house,
many
beds,
and
an
indefinite
number
of
people.
Such
piles
of
sewing
accumulated
before
us!
A
sewing-bee,
volunteered
by
the
neighbors,
reduced
the
quantity
a
little,
and
our
child-fingers
had
to
take
their
part.
But
the
seams
of
those
sheets
did
look
to
me
as
if
they
were
miles
long!
My
sister
Lida
and
I
had
our
"stint,"--so
much
to
do
every
day.
It
was
warm
weather,
and
that
made
it
the
more
tedious,
for
we
wanted
to
be
running
about
the
fields
we
were
so
soon
to
leave.
One
day,
in
sheer
desperation,
we
dragged
a
sheet
up
with
us
into
an
apple-tree
in
the
yard,
and
sat
and
sewed
there
through
the
summer
afternoon,
beguiling
the
irksomeness
of
our
task
by
telling
stories
and
guessing
riddles.
It
was
hardest
for
me
to
leave
the
garret
and
the
garden.
In
the
old
houses
the
garret
was
the
children's
castle.
The
rough
rafters,--it
was
always
ail
unfinished
room,
otherwise
not
a
true
garret,--the
music
of
the
rain
on
the
roof,
the
worn
sea-chests
with
their
miscellaneous
treasures,
the
blue-roofed
cradle
that
had
sheltered
ten
blue-eyed
babies,
the
tape-looms
and
reels
and
spinning
wheels,
the
herby
smells,
and
the
delightful
dream
corners,--these
could
not
be
taken
with
us
to
the
new
home.
Wonderful
people
had
looked
out
upon
us
from
under
those
garret-eaves.
Sindbad
the
Sailor
and
Baron
Munchausen
had
sometimes
strayed
in
and
told
us
their
unbelievable
stories;
and
we
had
there
made
acquaintance
with
the
great
Caliph
Haroun
Alraschid.
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