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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
221
I
did
not
attempt
writing
for
money
until
it
became
a
necessity,
when
my
health
failed
at
teaching,
although
I
should
long
before
then
have
liked
to
spend
my
whole
time
with
my
pen,
could
I
have
done
so.
But
it
was
imperative
that
I
should
have
an
assured
income,
however
small;
and
every
one
who
has
tried
it
knows
how
uncertain
a
support
one's
pen
is,
unless
it
has
become
very
famous
indeed.
My
life
as
a
teacher,
however,
I
regard
as
part
of
my
best
preparation
for
whatever
I
have
since
written.
I
do
not
know
but
I
should
recommend
five
or
ten
years
of
teaching
as
the
most
profitable
apprenticeship
for
a
young
person
who
wished
to
become
an
author.
To
be
a
good
teacher
implies
self-discipline,
and
a
book
written
without
something
of
that
sort
of
personal
preparation
cannot
be
a
very
valuable
one.
Success
in
writing
may
mean
many
different
things.
I
do
not
know
that
I
have
ever
reached
it,
except
in
the
sense
of
liking
better
and
better
to
write,
and
of
finding
expression
easier.
It
is
something
to
have
won
the
privilege
of
going
on.
Sympathy
and
recognition
are
worth
a
great
deal;
the
power
to
touch
human
beings
inwardly
and
nobly
is
worth
far
more.
The
hope
of
attaining
to
such
results,
if
only
occasionally,
must
be
a
writer's
best
inspiration.
So
far
as
successful
publication
goes,
perhaps
the
first
I
considered
so
came
when
a
poem
of
mine
was
accepted
by
the
"Atlantic
Monthly."
Its
title
was
"The
Rose
Enthroned,"
and
as
the
poet
Lowell
was
at
that
time
editing
the
magazine
I
felt
especially
gratified.
That
and
another
poem,
"The
Loyal
Woman's
No,"
written
early
in
the
War
of
the
Rebellion,
were
each
attributed
to
a
different
person
among
our
prominent
poets,
the
"Atlantic"
at
that
time
not
giving
authors'
signatures.
Of
course
I
knew
the
unlikeness;
nevertheless,
those
who
made
the
mistake
paid
me
an
unintentional
compliment.
Compliments,
however,
are
very
cheap,
and
by
no
means
signify
success.
I
have
always
regarded
it
as
a
better
ambition
to
be
a
true
woman
than
to
become
a
successful
writer.
To
be
the
second
would
never
have
seemed
to
me
desirable,
without
also
being
the
first.
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