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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
209
Before
the
year
1845,
several
of
my
friends
had
emigrated
as
teachers
or
missionaries.
One
of
the
editors
of
the
"Operatives'
Magazine"
had
gone
to
Arkansas
with
a
mill-girl
who
had
worked
beside
her
among
the
looms.
They
were
at
an
Indian
mission--to
the
Cherokees
and
Choctaws.
I
seemed
to
breathe
the
air
of
that
far
Southwest,
in
a
spray
of
yellow
jessamine
which
one
of
those
friends
sent
me,
pressed
in
a
letter.
People
wrote
very
long
letters
then,
in
those
days
of
twenty-five
cent
postage.
Rachel,
at
whose
house
our
German
class
had
been
accustomed
to
meet,
had
also
left
her
work,
and
had
gone
to
western
Virginia
to
take
charge
of
a
school.
She
wrote
alluring
letters
to
us
about
the
scenery
there;
it
was
in
the
neighborhood
of
the
Natural
Bridge.
My
friend
Angeline,
with
whom
I
used
to
read
"Paradise
Lost,"
went
to
Ohio
as
a
teacher,
and
returned
the
following
year,
for
a
very
brief
visit,
however,--and
with
a
husband.
Another
acquaintance
was
in
Wisconsin,
teaching
a
pioneer
school.
Eliza,
my
intimate
companion,
was
about
to
be
married
to
a
clergyman.
She,
too,
eventually
settled
at
the
West.
The
event
which
brought
most
change
into
my
own
life
was
the
marriage
of
my
sister
Emilie.
It
involved
the
breaking
up
of
our
own
little
family,
of
which
she
had
really
been
the
"houseband,"
the
return
of
my
mother
to
my
sisters
at
Beverly,
and
my
going
to
board
among
strangers,
as
other
girls
did.
I
found
excellent
quarters
and
kind
friends,
but
the
home-life
was
ended.
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