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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
50
I
think
more
gratefully
now
of
the
verses
I
learned
from
the
Bible
and
the
Hymn-Book
than
of
almost
anything
that
came
to
me
in
that
time
of
beginnings.
The
whole
Hymn-Book
was
not
for
me
then,
any
more
than
the
whole
Bible.
I
took
from
both
only
what
really
belonged
to
me.
To
be
among
those
who
found
in
the
true
sources
of
faith
and
adoration,
was
like
breathing
in
my
native
air,
though
I
could
not
tell
anything
about
the
land
from
which
I
had
come.
Much
that
was
put
in
the
way
of
us
children
to
climb
by,
we
could
only
stumble
over;
but
around
and
above
the
roughnesses
of
the
road,
the
pure
atmosphere
of
worship
was
felt
everywhere,
the
healthiest
atmosphere
for
a
child's
soul
to
breathe
in.
I
had
learned
a
great
many
hymns
before
the
family
took
any
notice
of
it.
When
it
came
to
the
knowledge
of
my
most
motherly
sister
Emilie,--I
like
to
call
her
that,
for
she
was
as
fond
of
early
rising
as
Chaucer's
heroine:--
"Up
rose
the
sun,
and
up
rose
Emilie;"
and
it
is
her
own
name,
with
a
very
slight
change,--she
undertook
to
see
how
many
my
small
memory
would
contain.
She
promised
me
a
new
book,
when
I
should
have
learned
fifty;
and
that
when
I
could
repeat
any
one
of
a
hundred
hymns,
she
would
teach
me
to
write.
I
earned
the
book
when
I
was
about
four
years
old.
I
think
it
was
a
collection
of
some
of
Jane
Taylor's
verses.
"For
Infant
Minds,"
was
part
of
the
title.
I
did
not
care
for
it,
however,
nearly
so
much
as
I
did
for
the
old,
thumb-worn
"Watts'
and
Select
Hymns."
Before
I
was
five
I
bad
gone
beyond
the
stipulated
hundred.
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