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A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
123
Most
of
my
mother's
boarders
were
from
New
Hampshire
and
Vermont,
and
there
was
a
fresh,
breezy
sociability
about
them
which
made
them
seem
almost
like
a
different
race
of
beings
from
any
we
children
had
hitherto
known.
We
helped
a
little
about
the
housework,
before
and
after
school,
making
beds,
trimming
lamps,
and
washing
dishes.
The
heaviest
work
was
done
by
a
strong
Irish
girl,
my
mother
always
attending
to
the
cooking
herself.
She
was,
however,
a
better
caterer
than
the
circumstances
required
or
permitted.
She
liked
to
make
nice
things
for
the
table,
and,
having
been
accustomed
to
an
abundant
supply,
could
never
learn
to
economize.
At
a
dollar
and
a
quarter
a
week
for
board,(the
price
allowed
for
mill-girls
by
the
corporations)
great
care
in
expenditure
was
necessary.
It
was
not
in
my
mother's
nature
closely
to
calculate
costs,
and
in
this
way
there
came
to
be
a
continually
increasing
leak
in
the
family
purse.
The
older
members
of
the
family
did
everything
they
could,
but
it
was
not
enough.
I
heard
it
said
one
day,
in
a
distressed
tone,
"The
children
will
have
to
leave
school
and
go
into
the
mill."
There
were
many
pros
and
cons
between
my
mother
and
sisters
before
this
was
positively
decided.
The
mill-agent
did
not
want
to
take
us
two
little
girls,
but
consented
on
condition
we
should
be
sure
to
attend
school
the
full
number
of
months
prescribed
each
year.
I,
the
younger
one,
was
then
between
eleven
and
twelve
years
old.
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