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A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
25
Good
Larkin
Moore
was
well
known
through
the
two
neighboring
counties,
Essex
and
Middlesex.
We
saw
him
afterward
on
the
banks
of
the
Merrimack.
He
always
wore
a
loose
calico
tunic
over
his
trousers;
and,
when
the
mood
came
upon
him,
he
started
off
with
two
canes,--seeming
to
think
he
could
travel
faster
as
a
quadruped
than
as
a
biped.
He
was
entirely
harmless;
his
only
wish
was
to
preach
or
to
sing.
A
characteristic
anecdote
used
to
be
told
of
him:
that
once,
as
a
stage-coach
containing,
only
a
few
passengers
passed
him
on
the
road,
he
asked
the
favor
of
a
seat
on
the
top,
and
was
refused.
There
were
many
miles
between
him
and
his
destination.
But
he
did
not
upbraid
the
ungracious
driver;
he
only
swung
his
two
canes
a
little
more
briskly,
and
kept
breast
of
the
horses
all
the
way,
entering
the
town
side
by
side
with
the
inhospitable
vehicles--a
running
reproach
to
the
churl
on
the
box.
There
was
another
wanderer,
a
blind
woman,
whom
my
mother
treated
with
great
respect
on
her
annual
pilgrimages.
She
brought
with
her
some
printed
rhymes
to
sell,
purporting
to
be
composed
by
herself,
and
beginning
with
the
verse:--
"I,
Nancy
Welsh,
was
born
and
bred
In
Essex
County,
Marblehead.
And
when
I
was
an
infant
quite
The
Lord
deprived
me
of
my
sight."
I
labored
under
the
delusion
that
blindness
was
a
sort
of
insanity,
and
I
used
to
run
away
when
this
pilgrim
came,
for
she
was
not
talkative
like
Larkin
Moore.
I
fancied
she
disliked
children,
and
so
I
shrank
from
her.
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