30 



grade. Here the railing is for actual use, and we can almost level with 

 our eyes the top of the tall hemlock that grows ju«t below the road. 



" Steep is the side * * * shaggy and vvikl 

 With mossy trees and pinnacles of flint 

 And many a hanging crag." 



It makes little difference whether you return by the way of Ragged 

 hill and through the long woods below the Pail Factory, where the 

 Mayflower ( lipigaa rcpcns ) first blooms every spring, and "the green 

 vistas arch like the hollows of mighty waves of some crystalline sea ; " 

 or go on through Htil)l)ardston in a wilderness of drives ; a glorious 

 prospect, with woods and ponds alternating in an unending pageant of 

 pleasure. The wild calla ( Cat la palusfn's ) haunts the swamps, and 

 we pick several varieties of tick-trefoil as we drive along. The morn 

 ing-glory ( Coiivo/viihts . l))ifriraiius ) bells cover the walls and rock- 

 piles, and the wild bean ( Apios tubcrosa ) barricades the banks. Re- 

 turning from Hubbardston with a bunch of brilliant red Oswego tea- 

 heads ( A/oiiarda didynia ) we drive slowly by the old mill-dam of the 

 Bickford mill, the first ])uilt in town, destroyed by fire August 20, 1895. 

 On Kendall hill, l)eliind the station, where the old turnpike crossed the 

 brow of the hill, a few elms still stand sentinel over the site of the 

 Jackson house, the first house built in Gardner. Here the "bright 

 chalices" of the painted-ctip ( Castillcia coccinca ) glow 



" In the green like flakes of fire," 



its scarlet tufts 



" Tinted thus to hold the dew for fairies." 



From photo by F. H. Brown. 



Jackson House. 



Piuilt 1764' 



