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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
184
In
recalling
those
years
of
my
girlhood
at
Lowell,
I
often
think
that
I
knew
then
what
real
society
is
better
perhaps
than
ever
since.
For
in
that
large
gathering
together
of
young
womanhood
there
were
many
choice
natures---some
of
the
choicest
in
all
our
excellent
New
England,
and
there
were
no
false
social
standards
to
hold
them
apart.
It
is
the
best
society
when
people
meet
sincerely,
on
the
ground
of
their
deepest
sympathies
and
highest
aspirations,
without
conventionality
or
cliques
or
affectation;
and
it
was
in
that
way
that
these
young
girls
met
and
became
acquainted
with
each
other,
almost
of
necessity.
There
were
all
varieties
of
woman-nature
among
them,
all
degrees
of
refinement
and
cultivation,
and,
of
course,
many
sharp
contrasts
of
agreeable
and
disagreeable.
It
was
not
always
the
most
cultivated,
however,
who
were
the
most
companionable.
There
were
gentle,
untaught
girls,
as
fresh
and
simple
as
wild
flowers,
whose
unpretending
goodness
of
heart
was
better
to
have
than
bookishness;
girls
who
loved
everybody,
and
were
loved
by
everybody.
Those
are
the
girls
that
I
remember
best,
and
their
memory
is
sweet
as
a
breeze
from
the
clover
fields.
As
I
recall
the
throngs
of
unknown
girlish
forms
that
used
to
pass
and
repass
me
on
the
familiar
road
to
the
mill-gates,
and
also
the
few
that
I
knew
so
well,
those
with
whom
I
worked,
thought,
read,
wrote,
studied,
and
worshiped,
my
thoughts
send
a
heartfelt
greeting
to
them
all,
wherever
in
God's
beautiful,
busy
universe
they
may
now
be
scattered:--
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
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