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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
166
X.
MILL-GIRLS'
MAGAZINES
THERE
was
a
passage
from
Cowper
that
my
sister
used
to
quote
to
us,
because,
she
said,
she
often
repeated
it
to
herself,
and
found
that
it
did
her
good:--
"In
such
a
world,
so
thorny,
and
where
none
Finds
happiness
unblighted,
or
if
found,
Without
some
thistly
sorrow
at
its
side,
It
seems
the
part
of
wisdom,
and
no
sin
Against
the
law
of
love,
to
measure
lots
With
less
distinguished
than
ourselves,
that
thus
We
may
with
patience
bear
our
moderate
ills,
And
sympathize
with
others,
suffering
more."
I
think
she
made
us
feel--she
certainly
made
me
feel--that
our
lot
was
in
many
ways
an
unusually
fortunate
one,
and
full
of
responsibilities.
She
herself
was
always
thinking
what
she
could
do
for
others,
not
only
immediately
about
her,
but
in
the
farthest
corners
of
the
earth.
She
had
her
Sabbath-school
class,
and
visited
all
the
children
in
it:
she
sat
up
all
night,
very
often,
watching
by
a
sick
girl's
bed,
in
the
hospital
or
in
some
distant
boarding-house;
she
gave
money
to
send
to
missionaries,
or
to
help
build
new
churches
in
the
city,
when
she
was
earning
only
eight
or
ten
dollars
a
month
clear
of
her
board,
and
could
afford
herself
but
one
"best
dress,"
besides
her
working
clothes.
That
best
dress
was
often
nothing
but
a
Merrimack
print.
But
she
insisted
that
it
was
a
great
saving
of
trouble
to
have
just
this
one,
because
she
was
not
obliged
to
think
what
she
should
wear
if
she
were
invited
out
to
spend
an
evening.
And
she
kept
track
of
all
the
great
philanthropic
movements
of
the
day.
She
felt
deeply
the
shame
and
wrong
of
American
slavery,
and
tried
to
make
her
workmates
see
and
feel
it
too.(Petitions
to
Congress
for
the
abolition
of
slavery
in
the
District
of
Columbia
were
circulated
nearly
every
year
among
the
mill-girls,
and
received
thousands
of
signatures.)
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