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A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
163
That
was
a
true
use
of
the
word
"help"
that
grew
up
so
naturally
in
the
rendering
and
receiving
of
womanly
service
in
the
old-fashioned
New
England
household.
A
girl
came
into
a
family
as
one
of
the
home-group,
to
share
its
burdens,
to
feel
that
they
were
her
own.
The
woman
who
employed
her,
if
her
nature
was
at
all
generous,
could
not
feel
that
money
alone
was
an
equivalent
for
a
heart's
service;
she
added
to
it
her
friendship,
her
gratitude
and
esteem.
The
domestic
problem
can
never
be
rightly
settled
until
the
old
idea
of
mutual
help
is
in
some
way
restored.
This
is
a
question
for
girls
of
the
present
generation
to
consider,
and
she
who
can
bring
about
a
practical
solution
of
it
will
win
the
world's
gratitude.
We
used
sometimes
to
see
it
claimed,
in
public
prints,
that
it
would
be
better
for
all
of
us
mill-girls
to
be
working
in
families,
at
domestic
service,
than
to
be
where
we
were.
Perhaps
the
difficulties
of
modern
housekeepers
did
begin
with
the
opening
of
the
Lowell
factories.
Country
girls
were
naturally
independent,
and
the
feeling
that
at
this
new
work
the
few
hours
they
had
of
every-day
leisure
were
entirely
their
own
was
a
satisfaction
to
them.
They
preferred
it
to
going
out
as
"hired
help."
It
was
like
a
young
man's
pleasure
in
entering
upon
business
for
himself.
Girls
had
never
tried
that
experiment
before,
and
they
liked
it.
It
brought
out
in
them
a
dormant
strength
of
character
which
the
world
did
not
previously
see,
but
now
fully
acknowledges.
Of
course
they
had
a
right
to
continue
at
that
freer
kind
of
work
as
long
as
they
chose,
although
their
doing
so
increased
the
perplexities
of
the
housekeeping
problem
for
themselves
even,
since
many
of
them
were
to
become,
and
did
become,
American
house-mistresses.
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