Page:Over the river, and other poems.djvu/24

l8 evincing her varying moods of mind in view of moving away from the scenes and the friends of her childhood.

The poem entitled " Over the River," which has car ried the author's name wherever the English language is read, was written while the family was living in Hinsdale, and probably not long before their return to Winchendon. This would fix it at about her twentieth year. -At the time she was living at home and working in a paper-mill. One day at the noon closing, while the hands were gone to dinner, she remained, as usual, because the family resided at some distance. As she sat on a sack of rags, looking across the Ashuelot which flows through the village, the impulse in her breast mpved her to write. The origin of the poem is given in an article prepared for a magazine by the Rev. E. S. Best, a Methodist clergyman, who once had an appointment in Winchen don. According to him, the poem was put to paper in a stormy day, while the author was gazing through the dusty window-panes. " Over the misty current her dark eyes gleam with a mysterious brilliancy. She picks up a piece of paper, and with her pencil writes rapidly for a few minutes : but the bell rings ; the machinery begins to clatter; she thrusts the paper into her pocket, and resumes her work. On that crumpled paper is written the first sketch of a poem which has gained a well-deerved renown." The author of the poem, in a letter