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A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
208
The
movement
of
New
England
girls
toward
Lowell
was
only
an
impulse
of
a
larger
movement
which
about
that
time
sent
so
many
people
from
the
Eastern
States
into
the
West.
The
needs
of
the
West
were
constantly
kept
before
us
in
the
churches.
We
were
asked
for
contributions
for
Home
Missions,
which
were
willingly
given;
and
some
of
us
were
appointed
collectors
of
funds
for
the
education
of
indigent
young
men
to
become
Western
Home
Missionary
preachers.
There
was
something
almost
pathetic
in
the
readiness
with
which
this
was
done
by
young
girls
who
were
longing
to
fit
themselves
for
teachers,
but
had
not
the
means.
Many
a
girl
at
Lowell
was
working
to
send
her
brother
to
college,
who
had
far
more
talent
and
character
than
he;
but
a
man
could
preach,
and
it
was
not
"orthodox"
to
think
that
a
woman
could.
And
in
her
devotion
to
him,
and
her
zeal
for
the
spread
of
Christian
truth,
she
was
hardly
conscious
of
her
own
sacrifice.
Yet
our
ministers
appreciated
the
intelligence
and
piety
of
their
feminine
parishioners.
An
agent
who
came
from
the
West
for
school-teachers
was
told
by
our
own
pastor
that
five
hundred
could
easily
be
furnished
from
among
Lowell
mill-girls.
Many
did
go,
and
they
made
another
New
England
in
some
of
our
Western
States.
The
missionary
spirit
was
strong
among
my
companions.
I
never
thought
that
I
had
the
right
qualifications
for
that
work;
but
I
had
a
desire
to
see
the
prairies
and
the
great
rivers
of
the
West,
and
to
get
a
taste
of
free,
primitive
life
among
pioneers.
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