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A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
58
I
could
not
deliberately
lie,
but
I
had
my
own
temptations,
which
I
did
not
always
successfully
resist.
I
remember
the
very
spot--in
a
footpath
through
a
green
field--where
I
first
met
the
Eighth
Commandment,
and
felt
it
looking
me
full
in
the
face.
I
suppose
I
was
five
or
six
years
old.
I
had
begun
to
be
trusted
with
errands;
one
of
them
was
to
go
to
a
farmhouse
for
a
quart
of
milk
every
morning,
to
purchase
which
I
went
always
to
the
money-drawer
in
the
shop
and
took
out
four
cents.
We
were
allowed
to
take
a
"small
brown"
biscuit,
or
a
date,
or
a
fig,
or
a
"gibraltar,"
sometimes;
but
we
well
understood
that
we
could
not
help
ourselves
to
money.
Now
there
was
a
little
painted
sugar
equestrian
in
a
shop-window
down
town,
which
I
had
seen
and
set
my
heart
upon.
I
had
learned
that
its
price
was
two
cents;
and
one
morning
as
I
passed
around
the
counter
with
my
tin
pail
I
made
up
my
mind
to
possess
myself
of
that
amount.
My
father's
back
was
turned;
he
was
busy
at
his
desk
with
account-books
and
ledgers.
I
counted
out
four
cents
aloud,
but
took
six,
and
started
on
my
errand
with
a
fascinating
picture
before
me
of
that
pink
and
green
horseback
rider
as
my
very
own.
I
cannot
imagine
what
I
meant
to
do
with
him.
I
knew
that
his
paint
was
poisonous,
and
I
could
not
have
intended
to
eat
him;
there
were
much
better
candies
in
my
father's
window;
he
would
not
sell
these
dangerous
painted
toys
to
children.
But
the
little
man
was
pretty
to
look
at,
and
I
wanted
him,
and
meant
to
have
him.
It
was
just
a
child's
first
temptation
to
get
possession
of
what
was
not
her
own,--the
same
ugly
temptation
that
produces
the
defaulter,
the
burglar,
and
the
highway
robber,
and
that
made
it
necessary
to
declare
to
every
human
being
the
law,
"Thou
shalt
not
covet."
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