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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
94
VI.
GLIMPSES
OF
POETRY.
OUR
close
relationship
to
Old
England
was
sometimes
a
little
misleading
to
us
juveniles.
The
conditions
of
our
life
were
entirely
different,
but
we
read
her
descriptive
stories
and
sang
her
songs
as
if
they
were
true
for
us,
too.
One
of
the
first
things
I
learned
to
repeat--I
think
it
was
in
the
spelling-book--began
with
the
verse:--
"I
thank
the
goodness
and
the
grace
That
on
my
birth
has
smiled,
And
made
me,
in
these
latter
days,
A
happy
English
child."
And
some
lines
of
a
very
familiar
hymn
by
Dr.
Watts
ran
thus:--
"Whene'er
I
take
my
walks
abroad,
How
many
poor
I
see.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"How
many
children
in
the
street
Half
naked
I
behold;
While
I
am
clothed
from
head
to
feet,
And
sheltered
from
the
cold."
Now
a
ragged,
half-clothed
child,
or
one
that
could
really
be
called
poor,
in
the
extreme
sense
of
the
word,
was
the
rarest
of
all
sights
in
a
thrifty
New
England
town
fifty
years
ago.
I
used
to
look
sharply
for
those
children,
but
I
never
could
see
one.
And
a
beggar!
Oh,
if
a
real
beggar
would
come
along,
like
the
one
described
in
"Pity
the
sorrows
of
a
poor
old
man,"
what
a
wonderful
event
that
would
be!
I
believe
I
had
more
curiosity
about
a
beggar,
and
more
ignorance,
too,
than
about
a
king.
The
poem
read:--
"A
pampered
menial
drove
me
from
the
door."
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