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A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
36
At
meeting,
where
I
began
to
go
also
at
two
years
of
age,
I
made
my
own
private
interpretations
of
the
Bible
readings.
They
were
absurd
enough,
but
after
getting
laughed
at
a
few
times
at
home
for
making
them
public,
I
escaped
mortification
by
forming
a
habit
of
great
reserve
as
to
my
Sabbath-day
thoughts.
When
the
minister
read,
"Cut
it
down:
why
cumbereth
it
the
ground?"?
I
thought
he
meant
to
say
"cu-cumbereth."
These
vegetables
grew
on
the
ground,
and
I
had
heard
that
they
were
not
very
good
for
people
to
eat.
I
honestly
supposed
that
the
New
Testament
forbade
the
cultivation
of
cucumbers.
And
"Galilee"
I
understood
as
a
mispronunciation
of
"gallery."
"Going
up
into
Galilee"
I
interpreted
into
clattering
up
the
uncarpeted
stairs
in
the
meeting-house
porch,
as
the
boys
did,
with
their
squeaking
brogans,
looking
as
restless
as
imprisoned
monkeys
after
they
had
got
into
those
conspicuous
seats,
where
they
behaved
as
if
they
thought
nobody
could
see
their
pranks.
I
did
not
think
it
could
be
at
all
nice
to
"go
up
into
Galilee."
I
had
an
"Aunt
Nancy,"
an
uncle's
wife,
to
whom
I
was
sometimes
sent
for
safe-keeping
when
house-cleaning
or
anything
unusual
was
going
on
at
home.
She
was
a
large-featured
woman,
with
a
very
deep
masculine
voice,
and
she
conducted
family
worship
herself,
kneeling
at
prayer,
which
was
not
the
Orthodox
custom.
She
always
began
by
saying,--
"Oh
Lord,
Thou
knowest
that
we
are
all
groveling
worms
of
the
dust."
I
thought
she
meant
that
we
all
looked
like
wriggling
red
earthworms,
and
tried
to
make
out
the
resemblance
in
my
mind,
but
could
not.
I
unburdened
my
difficulty
at
home,
telling
the
family
that
"Aunt
Nancy
got
down
on
the
floor
and
said
we
were
all
grubbelin'
worms,"
begging
to
know
whether
everybody
did
sometimes
have
to
crawl
about
in
the
dust.
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