Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
192
My
friend
Anna,
who
had
procured
for
me
the
place
and
work
beside
her
which
I
liked
so
much,
was
not
at
all
a
bookish
person,
but
we
had
perhaps
a
better
time
together
than
if
she
had
been.
She
was
one
who
found
the
happiness
of
her
life
in
doing
kindnesses
for
others,
and
in
helping
them
bear
their
burdens.
Family
reverses
had
brought
her,
with
her
mother
and
sisters,
to
Lowell,
and
this
was
one
strong
point
of
sympathy
between
my
own
family
and
hers.
It
was,
indeed,
a
bond
of
neighborly
union
between
a
great
many
households
in
the
young
manufacturing
city.
Anna's
manners
and
language
were
those
of
a
lady,
though
she
had
come
from
the
wilds
of
Maine,
somewhere
in
the
vicinity
of
Mount
Desert,
the
very
name
of
which
seemed
in
those
days
to
carry
one
into
a
wilderness
of
mountains
and
waves.
We
chatted
together
at
our
work
on
all
manner
of
subjects,
and
once
she
astonished
me
by
saying
confidentially,
in
a
low
tone,
"Do
you
know,
I
am
thirty
years
old!"
She
spoke
as
if
she
thought
the
fact
implied
something
serious.
My
surprise
was
that
she
should
have
taken
me
into
her
intimate
friendship
when
I
was
only
seventeen.
I
should
hardly
have
supposed
her
older
than
myself,
if
she
had
not
volunteered
the
information.
When
I
lifted
my
eyes
from
her
tall,
thin
figure
to
her
fair
face
and
somewhat
sad
blue
eyes,
I
saw
that
she
looked
a
little
worn;
but
I
knew
that
it
was
from
care
for
others,
strangers
as
well
as
her
own
relatives;
and
it
seemed
to
me
as
if
those
thirty
loving
years
were
her
rose-garland.
I
became
more
attached
to
her
than
ever.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
