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A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
91
We
were
two
miserable
looking
children
when
we
reached
home,
the
sticky
ooze
having
changed
her
feet
into
unmanageable
lumps
of
mud,
with
which
my
own
clothes
also
were
soiled.
I
had
to
drag
or
carry
her
all
the
way,
for
she
could
not
or
would
not
walk
a
step.
And
alas
for
the
morocco
boots!
They
were
never
again
red.
I
also
received
a
scolding
for
not
taking
better
care
of
my
little
sister,
and
I
was
not
very
soon
allowed
again
to
have
her
company
in
my
rambles.
We
usually
joined
with
other
little
neighbor
girls
in
some
out-of-door
amusement
near
home.
And
our
sports,
as
well
as
our
books,
had
a
spice
of
Merry
Old
England.
They
were
full
of
kings
and
queens,
and
made
sharp
contrasts,
as
well
as
odd
mixtures,
with
the
homeliness
of
our
everyday
life.
One
of
them,
a
sort
of
rhymed
dialogue,
began
with
the
couplet:--
"Queen
Anne,
Queen
Anne,
she
sits
in
the
sun,
As
fair
as
a
lady,
as
white
as
a
nun."
If
"Queen
Anne"
did
not
give
a
right
guess
as
to
which
hand
of
the
messenger
held
the
king's
letter
to
her,
she
was
contemptuously
informed
that
she
was
"as
brown
as
a
bun."
In
another
name,
four
little
girls
joined
hands
across,
in
couples,
chanting:--
"I
wish
my
father
were
a
king,
I
wish
my
mother
were
a
queen,
And
I
a
little
companion!"
concluding
with
a
close
embrace
in
a
dizzying
whirl,
breathlessly
shouting
all
together,--
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