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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
214
After
a
while
we
became
accustomed
to
the
vast
sameness,
and
even
liked
it
in
a
lukewarm
way.
And
there
were
times
when
it
filled
us
with
emotions
of
grandeur.
Boundlessness
in
itself
is
impressive;
it
makes
us
feel
our
littleness,
and
yet
releases
us
from
that
littleness.
The
grass
was
always
astir,
blowing
one
way,
like
the
waves
of
the
sea;
for
there
was
a
steady,
almost
an
unvarying
wind
from
the
south.
It
was
like
the
sea,
and
yet
even
more
wonderful,
for
it
was
a
sea
of
living
and
growing
things.
The
Spirit
of
God
was
moving
upon
the
face
of
the
earth,
and
breathing
everything
into
life.
We
were
but
specks
on
the
great
landscape.
But
God
was
above
it
all,
penetrating
it
and
us
with
his
infinite
warmth.
The
distance
from
human
beings
made
the
Invisible
One
seem
so
near!
Only
Nature
and
ourselves
now,
face
to
face
with
Him!
We
could
scarcely
have
found
in
all
the
world
a
more
complete
contrast
to
the
moving
crowds
and
the
whir
and
dust
of
the
City
of
Spindles,
than
this
unpeopled,
silent
prairie.
For
myself,
I
know
that
I
was
sent
in
upon
my
own
thoughts
deeper
than
I
had
ever
been
before.
I
began
to
question
things
which
I
had
never
before
doubted.
I
must
have
reality.
Nothing
but
transparent
truth
would
bear
the
test
of
this
great,
solitary
stillness.
As
the
prairies
lay
open
to
the
sunshine,
my
heart
seemed
to
lie
bare
beneath
the
piercing
eye
of
the
All-Seeing.
I
may
say
with
gratitude
that
only
some
superficial
rubbish
of
acquired
opinion
was
scorched
away
by
this
searching
light
and
heat.
The
faith
of
my
childhood,
in
its
simplest
elements,
took
firmer
root
as
it
found
broader
room
to
grow
in.
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