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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
138
My
sister,
however,
cared
more
to
watch
the
natural
development
of
our
minds
than
to
make
us
follow
the
direction
of
hers.
She
was
really
our
teacher,
although
she
never
assumed
that
position.
Certainly
I
learned
more
from
her
about
my
own
capabilities,
and
how
I
might
put
them
to
use,
than
I
could
have
done
at
any
school
we
knew
of,
had
it
been
possible
for
me
to
attend
one.
I
think
she
was
determined
that
we
should
not
be
mentally
defrauded
by
the
circumstances
which
had
made
it
necessary
for
us
to
begin
so
early
to
win
our
daily
bread.
This
remark
applies
especially
to
me,
as
my
older
sisters
(only
two
or
three
of
them
had
come
to
Lowell)
soon
drifted
away
from
us
into
their
own
new
homes
or
occupations,
and
she
and
I
were
left
together
amid
the
whir
of
spindles
and
wheels.
One
thing
she
planned
for
us,
her
younger
housemates,--a
dozen
or
so
of
cousins,
friends,
and
sisters,
some
attending
school,
and
some
at
work
in
the
mill,--was
a
little
fortnightly
paper,
to
be
filled
with
our
original
contributions,
she
herself
acting
as
editor.
I
do
not
know
where
she
got
the
idea,
unless
it
was
from
Mrs.
Lydia
Maria
Child's
"Juvenile
Miscellany,"
which
had
found
its
way
to
us
some
years
before,--a
most
delightful
guest,
and,
I
think,
the
first
magazine
prepared
for
American
children,
who
have
had
so
many
since
then.(I
have
always
been
glad
that
I
knew
that
sweet
woman
with
the
child's
heart
and
the
poet's
soul,
in
her
later
years,
and
could
tell
her
how
happy
she
had
helped
to
make
my
childhood.)
Our
little
sheet
was
called
"The
Diving
Bell,"
probably
from
the
sea-associations
of
the
name.
We
kept
our
secrets
of
authorship
very
close
from
everybody
except
the
editor,
who
had
to
decipher
the
handwriting
and
copy
the
pieces.
It
was,
indeed,
an
important
part
of
the
fun
to
guess
who
wrote
particular
pieces.
After
a
little
while,
however,
our
mannerisms
betrayed
us.
One
of
my
cousins
was
known
to
be
the
chief
story-teller,
and
I
was
recognized
as
the
leading
rhymer
among
the
younger
contributors;
the
editor-sister
excelling
in
her
versifying,
as
she
did
in
almost
everything.
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