12 



waters, and the snake's head { Chelo)ie glabra) s\\ov;'n\g white in the 

 edge of the woods. 



The old County road did not run through these swamps, but bore 

 off to the south, passing over the hill above the Baptist church, past 

 Wright's mill and on the side hill just below the original Jonathan 

 Greenwood house, a route long ago discontinued and now almost oblit- 

 erated. 



Near the old cellar-hole on the top of Wright's hill, where the 

 first house (burned in iSoS ) l)nilt by Joseph Wright stood, is the 



Columbine. 



ancient well, and by its side a large stone willi a circular hollow in its 

 top that the family used for nian\- years as a wash fjasin. It was possi- 

 bly in use before their time by the Indians as a mortar for grinding 

 corn . 



A visit, one day in early spring, to the "old quag " by the railroad, 

 near East street, a favorite resort of the village boys for generations, 

 rewarded us with the purple blossoms of the ]ntcher-plant ( Sanaccnia 

 purpurea ) ; the fresh and attractive white stalks of the buckbean 

 {Menyanthes irifoliata ) , a rare flower in Worcester County, at first 

 sight suggesting an orchid ; the slender and delicate white Smilacina 

 tj-ifolia, which, almost unconsciously is called Lily-of-the-valley ; from 



