160 LAND OF THE LINGERING SNOW. 



have lived, owing to the lack of a good place for 

 their dam. Moreover, the " Clematis Brook " of 

 the railway guide and the real estate office is the 

 Beaver Brook sung of by a writer whose know- 

 ledge of Cambridge and its surroundings has 

 never been challenged. Here is his description 

 of the old mill which once stood at the cascade 

 just above the Waverley oaks : 



Climbing the loose-piled wall that hems 

 The road along the mill pond's brink, 



From 'neath the arching barberry stems, 

 My footstep scares the shy chewink. 



Beneath the bony buttonwood 



The mill's red door lets forth the din ; 



The whitened miller, dust-imbued, 

 Flits past the square of dark within. 



No mountain torrent's strength is here ; 



Sweet Beaver, child of forest still, 

 Heaps its small pitcher to the ear 



And gently waits the miller's will. 



In a note written June 16, 1891, Mr. Lowell 

 says : " You are right. The brook which was 

 down by the great oaks was certainly called 

 ' Beaver ' when I first knew it more than fifty 

 years ago. The scene of my poem was the little 

 millpond, somewhat higher up towards the north, 

 below which was a waterfall in whose company 

 I often passed the day." 



The old mill and its miller have long since 



