Mind Amongst the Spindles. A Miscellany, Wholly Composed by the Factory Girls
General
Mind Amongst the Spindles. A Miscellany, Wholly Composed by the Factory Girls
American literature -- Massachusetts -- Lowell; American literature -- Women authors; Working class women -- Literary collections
About a dozen of us, lads and lasses, had promised friend H. that on the
first lowery day we would meet him and his family on the top of Moose
Mountain, for the purpose of picking whortleberries, and of taking a
view of the country around. We had provided the customary complement of
baskets, pails, dippers, &c.; and one morning, which promised a suitable
day for our excursion, we piled ourselves into a couple of waggons, and
rode to the foot of the mountain and commenced climbing it on foot. A
beaten path and spotted trees were our guides. A toilsome way we found
it--some places being so steep that we were obliged to hold by the
twigs, to prevent us from falling.
Three-quarters of an hour after we left our horses, we found ourselves
on the whortleberry ground--some of us singing, some chatting, and all
trying to see who could pick the most berries. Friend H. went from place
to place among the young people, and with his social conversation gave
new life to the party--while his chubby boys and rosy girls by their
nimbleness plainly told that they did not intend that any one should
beat them in picking berries.
Towards noon, friend H. conducted us to a spring, where we made some
lemonade, having taken care to bring plenty of lemons and sugar with us,
and also bread and cheese for a lunch. Seated beneath a wide-spreading
oak, we partook of our homely repast; and never in princely hall were
the choicest viands eaten with a keener relish. After resting a while,
we recommenced picking berries, and in a brief space our pails and
baskets were all full.
About this time, the clouds cleared away, the sun shone out in all the
splendor imaginable, and bright and beautiful was the prospect. Far as
the eye could reach, in a north and north-easterly direction, were to be
seen fields of corn and grain, with new mown grass-land, and potato
flats, farm-houses, barns, and orchards--together with a suitable
proportion of wood-land, all beautifully interspersed; and a number of
ponds of water, in different places, and of different forms and
sizes--some of them containing small islands, which added to the beauty
of the scenery. The little village at Wakefield corner, which was about
three miles distant, seemed to be almost under our feet; and with friend
H.'s spy-glass, we could see the people at work in their gardens,
weeding vegetables, picking cherries, gathering flowers, &c. But not one
of our number had the faculty that the old lady possessed, who, in the
time of the Revolution, in looking through a spy-glass at the French
fleet, brought the Frenchmen so near, that she could hear them chatter;
so we had to be content with ignorance of their conversation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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