New England Girlhood Outlined from Memory Version 2 - Lucy Larcom

What was growing up like for a seaside country girl in 1800’s New England -- her expectations, occupations, education, and opportunities? What was it like working at the Lowell Textile Mills in Massachusetts, from age 11, to help support her family (see Loom and Spindle for that story), who then went on to edit magazines, teach at Wheaton College, and write many charming books, this one chock full of a girl’s hopes, dreams, recollections, poetry, and brilliant reflections on life such as: "This we working-girls learned from the webs of cloth we saw woven around us. Every little thread must take its place as warp or woof, and keep in it steadily. Left to itself, it would be only a loose, useless filament. Trying to wander in an independent or a disconnected way among the other threads, it would make of the whole web an inextricable snarl. Yet each little thread must be as firmly spun as if it were the only one, or the result would be a worthless fabric. That we are entirely separate, while yet we entirely belong to the Whole, is a truth that we learn to rejoice in." I put the Preface at the end, so as not to interfere with Lucy's lovely word pictures from Page 1. But do read it as an historical Afterward! It is quite interesting! (Summary by Michele Fry, Book Coordinator)