So I used pencil and
paper in every spare minute I could find.Our little home-journal
went bravely on through twelve numbers. Its yellow manuscript
pages occasionally meet my eyes when I am rummaging among my old
papers, with the half-conscious look of a waif that knows it has
no right to its escape from the waters of oblivion.
While it was in progress my sister Emilie became acquainted with
a family of bright girls, near neighbors of ours, who proposed
that we should join with them, and form a little society for
writing and discussion, to meet fortnightly at their house. We
met,--I think I was the youngest of the group,--prepared a
Constitution and By-Laws, and named ourselves "The Improvement
Circle." If I remember rightly, my sister was our first
president. The older ones talked and wrote on many subjects quite
above me. I was shrinkingly bashful, as half-grown girls usually
are, but I wrote my little essays and read them, and listened to
the rest, and enjoyed it all exceedingly. Out of this little
"Improvement Circle" grew the larger one whence issued the
"Lowell Offering," a year or two later.
Pages:
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226