FORMER INHABITANTS. 
283 
free-will, foreknowledge absolute,” in some form and di¬ 
alect or other were by turns discussed. But all I can 
learn of their conclusions amounts to just this, that 
“ Cato and Brister pulled wool; ” which is about as edi¬ 
fying as the history of more famous schools of philos¬ 
ophy. 
Still grows the vivacious lilac a generation after the 
door and lintel and the sill are gone, unfolding its sweet- 
scented flowers each spring, to be plucked by the mus¬ 
ing traveller; planted and tended once by children’s 
hands, in front-yard plots, -— now standing by wall-sides 
in retired pastures, and giving place to new-rising for¬ 
ests ; — the last of that stirp, sole survivor of that fam¬ 
ily. Little did the dusky children think that the puny 
slip with its two eyes only, which they stuck in the 
ground in the shadow of the house and daily watered, 
would root itself so, and outlive them, and house itself 
in the rear that shaded it, and grown man’s garden 
and orchard, and tell their story faintly to the lone 
wanderer a half century after they had grown up and 
died, — blossoming as fair, and smelling as sweet, as in 
that first spring. I mark its still tender, civil, cheerful, 
lilac colors. 
But this small village, germ of something more, why 
did it fail while Concord keeps its ground ? Were there 
no natural advantages, — no water privileges, forsooth ? 
Ay, the deep Walden Pond and cool Brister’s Spring, — 
privilege to drink long and healthy draughts at these, 
all unimproved by these men but to dilute their glass. 
They were universally a thirsty race. Might not the 
basket, stable-broom, mat-making, corn-parching, linen¬ 
spinning, and pottery business have thrived here, 
making the wilderness to blossom like the rose, and a 
