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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
62
She
said
that
these
subterranean
people
kept
house,
and
that
they
invited
her
down
to
play
with
their
children
on
Wednesday
and
Saturday
afternoons;
also
that
they
sometimes
left
a
plate
of
cakes
and
tarts
for
her
at
their
door:
she
offered
to
show
me
the
very
spot
where
it
was,--under
a
great
apple-tree
which
my
brothers
called
"the
luncheon-tree,"
because
we
used
to
rest
and
refresh
ourselves
there,
when
we
helped
my
father
weed
his
vegetable-garden.
But
she
guarded
herself
by
informing
me
that
it
would
be
impossible
for
us
to
open
the
door
ourselves;
that
it
could
only
be
unfastened
from
the
inside.
She
told
me
these
people's
names--a
"Mr.
Pelican,"
and
a
"Mr.
Apple-tree
Manasseh,"
who
had
a
very
large
family
of
little
"Manassehs."
She
said
that
there
was
a
still
larger
family,
some
of
them
probably
living
just
under
the
spot
where
we
sat,
whose
surname
was
"Hokes."
(If
either
of
us
had
been
familiar
with
another
word
pronounced
in
the
same
way,
though
spelled
differently,
I
should
since
have
thought
that
she
was
all
the
time
laughing
in
her
sleeve
at
my
easy
belief.)
These
"Hokeses"
were
not
good-natured
people,
she
added,
whispering
to
me
that
we
must
not
speak
about
them
aloud,
as
they
had
sharp
ears,
and
might
overhear
us,
and
do
us
mischief.
I
think
she
was
hoaxing
herself
as
well
as
me;
it
was
her
way
of
being
a
heroine
in
her
own
eyes
and
mine,
and
she
had
always
the
manner
of
being
entirely
in
earnest.
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