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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
99
Among
other
domestic
traditions
of
the
old
times
was
the
saying
that
every
girl
must
have
a
pillow-case
full
of
stockings
of
her
own
knitting
before
she
was
married.
Here
was
another
mountain
before
me,
for
I
took
it
for
granted
that
marrying
was
inevitable--one
of
the
things
that
everybody
must
do,
like
learning
to
read,
or
going
to
meeting.
I
began
to
knit
my
own
stockings
when
I
ways
six
or
seven
years
old,
and
kept
on,
until
home-made
stockings
went
out
of
fashion.
The
pillow-case
full,
however,
was
never
attempted,
any
more
than
the
patchwork
quilt.
I
heard
somebody
say
one
day
that
there
must
always
be
one
"old
maid"
in
every
family
of
girls,
and
I
accepted
the
prophecy
of
some
of
my
elders,
that
I
was
to
be
that
one.
I
was
rather
glad
to
know
that
freedom
of
choice
in
the
matter
was
possible.
One
day,
when
we
younger
ones
were
hanging
about
my
golden-haired
and
golden-hearted
sister
Emilie,
teasing
her
with
wondering
questions
about
our
future,
she
announced
to
us
(she
had
reached
the
mature
age
of
fifteen
years)
that
she
intended
to
be
an
old
maid,
and
that
we
might
all
come
and
live
with
her.
Some
one
listening
reproved
her,
but
she
said,
"Why,
if
they
fit
themselves
to
be
good,
helpful,
cheerful
old
maids,
they
will
certainly
be
better
wives,
if
they
ever
are
married,"
and
that
maxim
I
laid
by
in
my
memory
for
future
contingencies,
for
I
believed
in
every
word
she
ever
uttered.
She
herself,
however,
did
not
carry
out
her
girlish
intention.
"Her
children
arise
up
and
call
her
blessed;
her
husband
also;
and
he
praiseth
her."
But
the
little
sisters
she
used
to
fondle
as
her
"babies"
have
never
allowed
their
own
years
nor
her
changed
relations
to
cancel
their
claim
upon
her
motherly
sympathies.
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