Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
122
The
girl
who
sat
next
to
me
saw
my
distress,
and
offered
to
do
my
sums
for
me.
I
accepted
her
proposal,
feeling,
however,
that
I
was
a
miserable
cheat.
But
I
was
afraid
of
the
master,
who
was
tall
and
gaunt,
and
used
to
stalk
across
the
schoolroom,
right
over
the
desk-tops,
to
find
out
if
there
was
any
mischief
going
on.
Once,
having
caught
a
boy
annoying
a
seat-mate
with
a
pin,
he
punished
the
offender
by
pursuing
him
around
the
schoolroom,
sticking
a
pin
into
his
shoulder
whenever
he
could
overtake
him.
And
he
had
a
fearful
leather
strap,
which
was
sometimes
used
even
upon
the
shrinking
palm
of
a
little
girl.
If
he
should
find
out
that
I
was
a
pretender
and
deceiver,
as
I
knew
that
I
was,
I
could
not
guess
what
might
happen
to
me.
He
never
did,
however.
I
was
left
unmolested
in
the
ignorance
which
I
deserved.
But
I
never
liked
the
girl
who
did
my
sums,
and
I
fancied
she
had
a
decided
contempt
for
me.
There
was
a
friendly
looking
boy
always
sitting
at
the
master's
desk;
they
called
him
"the
monitor."
It
was
his
place
to
assist
scholars
who
were
in
trouble
about
their
lessons,
but
I
was
too
bashful
to
speak
to
him,
or
to
ask
assistance
of
anybody.
I
think
that
nobody
learned
much
under
that
regime,
and
the
whole
school
system
was
soon
after
entirely
reorganized.
Our
house
was
quickly
filled
with
a
large
feminine
family.
As
a
child,
the
gulf
between
little
girlhood
and
young
womanhood
had
always
looked
to
me
very
wide.
I
suppose
we
should
get
across
it
by
some
sudden
jump,
by
and
by.
But
among
these
new
companions
of
all
ages,
from
fifteen
to
thirty
years,
we
slipped
into
womanhood
without
knowing
when
or
how.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
