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Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Forsake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him. A new friend is a new wine; when if is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure. It takes a long time to grow an old friend. There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met. Old friends are the great blessing of one's later years. They have a memory of the same events and have the same mode of thinking.
Old friends, we say, are best, when some sudden disillusionment shakes our faith in a new comrade. Ah, how good it feels!
The hand of an old friend. It's an insane world but in it there is one sanity, the loyalty of old friends. It's best to have an old friend far away, than a new friend nearby that makes you question your care. Yes'm, old friends is always best, 'less you can catch a new one that's fit to make an old one out of.
Tell me, why are the old friends kind, And ever the tenderest, too? Jack Ainslie — An elderly physician living by himself, he invites his sister to live with him in America. A college graduate and a military veteran, he lives in the same area in which he grew up, maintaining contact with the same childhood friends.
After telling Jack of his hallucinations of one of his cousins who died in the war, he soon dies in the local hospital. Miss Catherine Spring — A lonely, elderly woman living in Brookton, she is struggling financially. A very welcoming woman, she goes out of her way to please her guests, but gets into trouble when she accidentally hitches a ride on a train, and ends up taking hours to return home.
However, we can sometimes run into problems within our various relationships; a common issue is harmonizing relations with new friends and old friends. Narrator — A young girl who spends her summers by the sea, she meets just one boy her age, Georgie, and has felt out of place ever since she left her childhood home. Agnes — A very welcoming, elderly woman, she makes the narrator feel at home. Flag davidgjones on December 21, The following year they get married, and settle down in a house near Boston. Flag IllToast2That on January 12, Austen in the Popular Imagination.
They find their country home to be unsatisfactory, and immediately come to Miss Spring to board with her. Kitty — A young woman from Boston, she goes to Baltimore to stay with her aunt. Bruce and is immediately attracted to him. She constantly writes letters home to her sister, in which she raves about this man, and how much she enjoys his company.
Bruce — An Englishman, he is in Baltimore for business. He ends up moving to Boston with Kitty in order to marry her. Miss Sydney — An elderly, lonely woman, she hates the noise that comes along with living in the city. She is unfriendly and stays to herself, but she is pleased when she sees the joy that her garden brings to everyone.
She becomes more charitable and kind, to the surprise of everyone that knows her, most notably to Mrs. Marley — An old, frail woman who takes care of her sister Polly, she earns money by selling molasses candy from a street cart. Bessie — A young girl from the neighborhood, she befriends Miss Sydney after noticing how lonely the elderly woman is. She is the first child to whom Miss Sydney opens up, and the two women form a great friendship.
She moves abroad with her father, but returns to America after many decades to learn that Lady Ferry has, in fact, died.
Agnes — A very welcoming, elderly woman, she makes the narrator feel at home. She welcomes Lady Ferry to live with them, even though they do not know each other. Lady Ferry — A very old and mysterious woman, Lady Ferry is without any family, so cousin Agnes has welcomed her and lets Ferry live with her. She is rumored to be immortal, as no one knows her age, and she is clearly very old and senile. No one is quite sure where she came from, but it is believed that she has lived in the home in which Agnes now lives for decades, thus earning her name, Lady Ferry because the house is only accessible by ferry.
Narrator — A young girl who spends her summers by the sea, she meets just one boy her age, Georgie, and has felt out of place ever since she left her childhood home. Georgie — A year-old fisherman, Georgie works harder than most adults, going out into the sea by himself. He lives with just his father, his mother having died. Old Friends and New is about finding a home — somewhere you can feel comfortable in society. Each of the short stories deals with a person who is lonely in their current environment.
Whether they have no family and friends or whether they just do not feel like they fit in, there is at least one character in each story that finds the proper atmosphere for them that makes them feel comfortable. In Lady Ferry , the narrator expresses content in the way cousin Agnes has been so welcoming. In others, however, characters travel thousands of miles to learn what home truly is, and begin a new life where they are surrounded by loved ones and realize that they have just now found a home. Old Friends and New demonstrates the importance of religion to New England society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Though often only minor components of each story, religion is often mentioned alongside comfort. Religious symbols and practices such as bibles and attending church are often found in those places that characters can call home, and the absence of loneliness comes, in part, to a rediscovering or discovering of religion.
She realizes the effect she can have on other people, and sees practicing Christian ways such as charity improves her own life. Old Friends and New was released in successive monthly installments in The Atlantic Monthly magazine, beginning in January The short stories were published individually, and each was greeted by acclaim. They extolled the messages she represented throughout the stories. This lack of content, however, seemed to be the one negative point on which critics focused. The same review from Scribner's Monthly takes issue with Jewett's local color writing, citing its extreme simplicity and, perhaps, dullness.
Most of the stories in Old Friends and New take place in different areas of New England, likely inspired by the fact that Jewett was born and raised in Maine. Lady Ferry was the one short story of the seven in this book that was not released to the public before Houghton, Osgood and Company compiled and published these stories.
Marley had trouble working due to her arthritis. This is likely inspired by Jewett's childhood diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is an orphan , as no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles ; try the Find link tool for suggestions. Old Friends and New.
Maybe it's both, and I just don't know which is worse. So you better thank your lucky stars, you don't know half what I know is true. But it's alright if you think that you do. It's alright, if you think that you do.
Was it the devil, or was it the lord who gave you those words, the ones I never heard? It's alright to kill and it's alright to steal if you're willing to hold up your part of the deal. There are plenty of things that are worth dying for but you'll never know until you open that door. And reasons for living are seldom and few and if you see one you better stick to it like glue, yes it's true, it is true.
If I were there to keep satisfied all of your carnal desires, then it might be my place to say what is or isn't forbid So how can I hold it against you if you answer the call of the wild? No matter how brilliant a woman, you're only a kid. But if you know that nobody is ever going to suffer for you like I did Well it's alright the way that you live, It's alright the way that you live.
To Old Friends and New song meanings. Add your thoughts 19 Comments. General Comment If this song doesn't haunt your dreams then you are a robot. No Replies Log in to reply. There was an error. General Comment 'There are plenty of things that are worth dying for but you'll never know until you open that door.