, beyond
the meadow, is more distant and not so high, and so the sunrises are
comparatively early. Visitors interested in geology will find this hill
an unusually good specimen of an eschar, a long ridge of glacial gravel
set down in a meadow through which Fernside Brook curves on its way to
its outlet in Country Brook. Job's Hill at the south rises so steeply
from the right bank of Fernside Brook, at the foot of the terraced
slope in front of the house, that it is difficult for many rods to get
a foothold. The path by which the hill was scaled and the
stepping-stones by which the brook was crossed are accurately sketched
in the poem "Telling the Bees,"--a poem, by the way, which originally
had "Fernside" for its title:--

"Here is the place; right over the hill
Runs the path I took;
You can see the gap in the old wall still,
And the stepping-stones in the shallow brook."

Visitors should read the stanzas immediately following this, and note
the exactness of the poet's description of the homestead he had in
mind. The poem was written more than twenty years after he left
Haverhill, and it was many years after that when Mr. Alfred Ordway, in
taking photographs of the place, noticed that it had already been
pictured in verse; when he spoke of it to Mr. Whittier, the poet was
both surprised and pleased at this, which, he said, was the first
recognition of his birthplace. The public is indebted to Mr. Ordway for
many other discoveries of the same kind, illustrating Whittier's minute
fidelity to nature in his descriptions of scenery.

[Illustration: GARDEN AT BIRTHPLACE]

Let us enter the house by the eastern porch, noting the circular
door-stone, which was the millstone that ground the grain of the
pioneers, more than a century before Whittier was born. It belonged in
the mill on the brook to which reference has been made. The fire which
destroyed the roof of the house in November, 1902, did not injure this
porch, and there were other parts of the house which were scarcely
scorched. These are the original walls, and the handiwork of the
pioneers is exactly copied in whatever had to be restored. This was
made possible by photographs that had been kept, showing the width and
shape of every board and moulding, inside and outside the house. Here
again it is Mr. Ordway, president of the board of trustees having the
birthplace in charge, who is to be especially thanked. It is proper
here, as I have spoken