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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
146
"Gently
flowed
a
river
bright
On
its
path
of
liquid
light,
Gleaming
now
soft
banks
between,
Winding
now
through
valleys
green,
Cheering
with
its
presence
mild
Cultured
fields
and
woodlands
wild.
"Is
not
such
a
pure
one's
life?
Ever
shunning
pride
and
strife,
Noiselessly
along
she
goes,
Known
by
gentle
deeds
she
does;
Often
wandering
far,
to
bless,
And
do
others
kindnesses.
"Thus,
by
her
own
virtues
shaded,
While
pure
thoughts,
like
starbeams,
lie
Mirrored
in
her
heart
and
eye,
She,
content
to
be
unknown,
All
serenely
moveth
on,
Till,
released
from
Time's
commotion,
Self
is
lost
in
Love's
wide
ocean."
There
was
many
a
young
girl
near
me
whose
life
was
like
the
beautiful
course
of
the
river
in
my
ideal
of
her.
The
Merrimack
has
blent
its
music
with
the
onward
song
of
many
a
lovely
soul
that,
clad
in
plain
working-clothes,
moved
heavenward
beside
its
waters.
One
of
the
loveliest
persons
I
ever
knew
was
a
young
girl
who
worked
opposite
to
me
in
the
spinning-room.
Our
eyes
made
us
friends
long
before
we
spoke
to
each
other.
She
was
an
orphan,
well-bred
and
well-educated,
about
twenty
years
old,
and
she
had
brought
with
her
to
her
place
of
toil
the
orphan
child
of
her
sister,
left
to
her
as
a
death-bed
legacy.
They
boarded
with
a
relative.
The
factory
boarding-houses
were
often
managed
by
families
of
genuine
refinement,
as
in
this
case,
and
the
one
comfort
of
Caroline's
life
was
her
beautiful
little
niece,
to
whom
she
could
go
home
when
the
day's
work
was
over.
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