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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
200
We
read
books,
also,
that
bore
directly
upon
the
condition
of
humanity
in
our
time.
"The
Glory
and
Shame
of
England"
was
one
of
them,
and
it
stirred
us
with
a
wonderful
and
painful
interest.
We
followed
travelers
and
explorers,--Layard
to
Nineveh,
and
Stephens
to
Yucatan.
And
we
were
as
fond
of
good
story-books
as
any
girls
that
live
in
these
days
of
overflowing
libraries.
One
book,
a
character-picture
from
history,
had
a
wide
popularity
in
those
days.
It
is
a
pity
that
it
should
be
unfamiliar
to
modern
girlhood,--Ware's
"Zenobia."
The
Queen
of
Palmyra
walked
among
us,
and
held
a
lofty
place
among
our
ideals
of
heroic
womanhood,
never
yet
obliterated
from
admiring
remembrance.
We
had
the
delight
of
reading
Frederika
Bremer's
"Home"
and
"Neighbors"
when
they
were
fresh
from
the
fountains
of
her
own
heart;
and
some
of
us
must
not
be
blamed
for
feeling
as
if
no
tales
of
domestic
life
half
so
charming
have
been
written
since.
Perhaps
it
is
partly
because
the
home-life
of
Sweden
is
in
itself
so
delightfully
unique.
We
read
George
Borrow's
"Bible
in
Spain,"
and
wandered
with
him
among
the
gypsies
to
whom
he
seemed
to
belong.
I
have
never
forgotten
a
verse
that
this
strange
traveler
picked
up
somewhere
among
the
Zincali:--
"I'll
joyfully
labor,
both
night
and
day,
To
aid
my
unfortunate
brothers;
As
a
laundress
tans
her
own
face
in
the
ray
To
cleanse
the
garments
of
others."
It
suggested
a
somewhat
similar
verse
to
my
own
mind.
Why
should
not
our
washerwoman's
work
have
its
touch
of
poetry
also?--
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
