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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
31
Aunt
Hannah
used
her
kitchen
or
her
sitting
room
for
a
schoolroom,
as
best
suited
her
convenience.
We
were
delighted
observers
of
her
culinary
operations
and
other
employments.
If
a
baby's
head
nodded,
a
little
bed
was
made
for
it
on
a
soft
"comforter"
in
the
corner,
where
it
had
its
nap
out
undisturbed.
But
this
did
not
often
happen;
there
were
so
many
interesting
things
going
on
that
we
seldom
became
sleepy.
Aunt
Hannah
was
very
kind
and
motherly,
but
she
kept
us
in
fear
of
her
ferule,
which
indicated
to
us
a
possibility
of
smarting
palms.
This
ferule
was
shaped
much
like
the
stick
with
which
she
stirred
her
hasty
pudding
for
dinner,--I
thought
it
was
the
same,--and
I
found
myself
caught
in
a
whirlwind
of
family
laughter
by
reporting
at
home
that
"Aunt
Hannah
punished
the
scholars
with
the
pudding-stick."
There
was
one
colored
boy
in
school,
who
did
not
sit
on
a
bench,
like
the
rest,
but
on
a
block
of
wood
that
looked
like
a
backlog
turned
endwise.
Aunt
Hannah
often
called
him
a
"blockhead,"
and
I
supposed
it
was
because
he
sat
on
that
block.
Sometimes,
in
his
absence,
a
boy
was
made
to
sit
in
his
place
for
punishment,
for
being
a
"blockhead"
too,
as
I
imagined.
I
hoped
I
should
never
be
put
there.
Stupid
little
girls
received
a
different
treatment,--an
occasional
rap
on
the
head
with
the
teacher's
thimble;
accompanied
with
a
half-whispered,
impatient
ejaculation,
which
sounded
very
much
like
"Numskull!"
I
think
this
was
a
rare
occurrence,
however,
for
she
was
a
good-natured,
much-enduring
woman.
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