WACHUSETT. 191 



horizon. It was a promise of something purer 

 above. 



As we followed the highway southward 

 toward Princeton we passed through no forests 

 or remnants of forest, nothing but cleared land 

 or new woodland in which birch, poplar, cherry, 

 and other inferior growth predominated. The 

 undergrowth was mainly mountain laurel, which 

 a month from now will be a joy to the eye. 

 Warblers sang in every thicket the ovenbirds 

 being especially noisy. Next to them the sweet 

 but wearisome voice of the red-eyed vireo sounded 

 on all sides. Brown thrushes were noticeably 

 numerous and tame. Along the wayside, lady's 

 slipper, white and purple violets, hawthorn, 

 clintonia, blackberry vines and barberry bushes, 

 painted trillium, chokeberry and chokecherry, 

 star flower, and houstonia were abundant. The 

 great size of the dandelions attracted our notice, 

 and the violets were unusually large and beau- 

 tiful. 



A little after eleven o'clock we emerged from 

 between two ridges and saw the mass of Wachusett 

 before us. A long even slope from northwest to 

 southeast terminated in a flat summit, on which 

 several wooden buildings stood out sharply and 

 disagreeably against the sky. The southeastern 

 slope was much more abrupt than the north- 

 western, but far from precipitous. There was 



