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A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
98
One
of
the
sweetest
of
our
familiar
hymns
I
always
think
of
as
belonging
to
her,
and
as
a
still
unbroken
bond
between
her
spirit
and
mine.
She
had
come
back
to
us
for
a
brief
visit,
soon
after
her
marriage,
with
some
deep,
new
experience
of
spiritual
realities
which
I,
a
child
of
four
or
five
years,
felt
in
the
very
tones
of
her
voice,
and
in
the
expression
of
her
eyes.
My
mother
told
her
of
my
fondness
for
the
hymn-book,
and
she
turned
to
me
with
a
smile
and
said,
"Won't
you
learn
one
hymn
for
me--one
hymn
that
I
love
very
much?"
Would
I
not?
She
could
not
guess
how
happy
she
made
me
by
wishing
me
to
do
anything
for
her
sake.
The
hymn
was,--
"Whilst
Thee
I
seek,
protecting
Power."
In
a
few
minutes
I
repeated
the
whole
to
her
and
its
own
beauty,
pervaded
with
the
tenderness
of
her
love
for
me,
fixed
it
at
once
indelibly
in
my
memory.
Perhaps
I
shall
repeat
it
to
her
again,
deepened
with
a
lifetime's
meaning,
beyond
the
sea,
and
beyond
the
stars.
I
could
dream
over
my
patchwork,
but
I
could
not
bring
it
into
conventional
shape.
My
sisters,
whose
fingers
had
been
educated,
called
my
sewing
"gobblings."
I
grew
disgusted
with
it
myself,
and
gave
away
all
my
pieces
except
the
pretty
sea-moss
pattern,
which
I
was
not
willing
to
see
patched
up
with
common
calico.
It
was
evident
that
I
should
never
conquer
fate
with
my
needle.
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