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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
54
And
I
am
afraid
that
in
my
critical
little
mind
I
looked
upon
it
as
an
affectation
on
the
part
of
the
older
people
to
speak
of
life
in
this
doleful
way.
I
thought
that
they
really
knew
better.
It
seemed
to
me
that
it
must
be
delightful
to
grow
up,
and
learn
things,
and
do
things,
and
be
very
good
indeed,--better
than
children
could
possibly
know
how
to
be.
I
knew
afterwards
that
my
elders
were
sometimes,
at
least,
sincere
in
their
sadness;
for
with
many
of
them
life
must
have
been
a
hard
struggle.
But
when
they
shook
their
heads
and
said,--"Child,
you
will
not
be
so
happy
by
and
by;
you
are
seeing
your
best
days
now,"
I
still
doubted.
I
was
born
with
the
blessing
of
a
cheerful
temperament;
and
while
that
is
not
enough
to
sustain
any
of
us
through
the
inevitable
sorrows
that
all
must
share,
it
would
have
been
most
unnatural
and
ungrateful
in
me
to
think
of
earth
as
a
dismal
place,
when
everything
without
and
within
was
trying
to
tell
me
that
this
good
and
beautiful
world
belongs
to
God.
I
took
exception
to
some
verses
in
many
of
the
hymns
that
I
loved
the
most.
I
had
my
own
mental
reservations
with
regard
even
to
that
glorious
chant
of
the
ages,--
"Jerusalem,
my
happy
home,
Name
ever
dear
to
me."
I
always
wanted
to
skip
one
half
of
the
third
stanza,
as
it
stood
in
our
Hymn-Book:
"Where
congregations
ne'er
break
up,
And
Sabbaths
have
no
end."
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