ESSAY. 



they arc but a broad sheep-pasture ; the large landed 

 proprietors have uprooted the small farmers ; sent them 

 into the cities, into other business, and beyond the seas. 



When Winthrop was governor of Massachusetts, he 

 sent out a party of explorers into the interior of the 

 State. They returned saying that the land was not 

 susceptible of settlement beyond the falls* of the Charles 

 River. But when the guns began to rattle at Bunker 

 Hill, towns far to the west of the falls, had whole com- 

 panies behind the breast-works on that memorable 

 morning; and now descendants of those men have homes 

 beyond the Falls of St. Anthony. Spreading over New 

 England they reared houses, the sills of too many of 

 which rotted long ago. 



If we take our stand on a hill; here, there, beyond, 

 and everywhere, we see the work of their hands. There 

 is hardly a foot of land but has been cleared by their 

 axes. Those Cyclopean Walls stretching over the land, 

 binding the Earth in strong bonds of civilization, are the 

 results of their labor. But they had form-houses where 

 now we see none. Saplings have overgrown fields, 

 subdued so painfully with the toilsome wooden plough. 

 Brambles grow in the garden of the old homestead. 

 Houses which sent men fo Bunker Hill, we should not 

 dream ever existed. Fields which supplied iron and al- 

 bumen for the red blood of our ancestors, are overgrown 

 with thistles. To-day we cut our fire-wood on what 

 was once a garden. 



We look forth upon the landscape thinking how 

 little of the soil of New England is under cultivation. 

 Though tlie furnaces of factories and work shops are 

 insatiable ; though the devouring steam engine sweeps 



♦Newton Falls. 



