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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
142
While
it
was
in
progress
my
sister
Emilie
became
acquainted
with
a
family
of
bright
girls,
near
neighbors
of
ours,
who
proposed
that
we
should
join
with
them,
and
form
a
little
society
for
writing
and
discussion,
to
meet
fortnightly
at
their
house.
We
met,--I
think
I
was
the
youngest
of
the
group,--prepared
a
Constitution
and
By-Laws,
and
named
ourselves
"The
Improvement
Circle."
If
I
remember
rightly,
my
sister
was
our
first
president.
The
older
ones
talked
and
wrote
on
many
subjects
quite
above
me.
I
was
shrinkingly
bashful,
as
half-grown
girls
usually
are,
but
I
wrote
my
little
essays
and
read
them,
and
listened
to
the
rest,
and
enjoyed
it
all
exceedingly.
Out
of
this
little
"Improvement
Circle"
grew
the
larger
one
whence
issued
the
"Lowell
Offering,"
a
year
or
two
later.
At
this
time
I
had
learned
to
do
a
spinner's
work,
and
I
obtained
permission
to
tend
some
frames
that
stood
directly
in
front
of
the
river-windows,
with
only
them
and
the
wall
behind
me,
extending
half
the
length
of
the
mill,--and
one
young
woman
beside
me,
at
the
farther
end
of
the
row.
She
was
a
sober,
mature
person,
who
scarcely
thought
it
worth
her
while
to
speak
often
to
a
child
like
me;
and
I
was,
when
with
strangers,
rather
a
reserved
girl;
so
I
kept
myself
occupied
with
the
river,
my
work,
and
my
thoughts.
And
the
river
and
my
thoughts
flowed
on
together,
the
happiest
of
companions.
Like
a
loitering
pilgrim,
it
sparkled
up
to
me
in
recognition
as
it
glided
along
and
bore
away
my
little
frets
and
fatigues
on
its
bosom.
When
the
work
"went
well,"
I
sat
in
the
window-seat,
and
let
my
fancies
fly
whither
they
would,--downward
to
the
sea,
or
upward
to
the
hills
that
hid
the
mountain-cradle
of
the
Merrimack.
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