It had had its beginning in that first small mill where
the first Forsyth worked in his shirt-sleeves; a cluster of houses had
sprung up close to the river, a store, more houses, more stores, a
tavern, a church, a school. And as the Mills grew, so grew the village.
For themselves the Forsyth family had built the stone house on the hill,
that looked, indeed, like a grand old woman holding off her skirts from
contamination. And that lofty apartness had always been the attitude of
the Forsyth family to the workaday life in the village.
The growth of the village had been toward the railroad so that the first
Mill houses had been left by themselves "up the river" and were commonly
known as the "old village." They were so old that they were not worth
keeping in repair and so close to the river that they were damp the year
round and for these very good reasons were offered to the mill workers
at a low rental. Many of the mill workers--such as Dale--looked upon
them as a disgrace to the Mills and felt a hot anger in their hearts
when they thought of them--but unfortunates like the Castles were glad
to move into the worst of them.
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