FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 65 



XII. 



OUR old village cherishes its comparative 

 seclusion, and it has been with somewhat . 

 jealous, though withal kindly feelings, that 

 it has listened for the past year to the more 

 or less audible murmurs of a proposed in 

 vasion by the all-conquering &quot;trolley.&quot; 

 Should we lose our rather distinctive char 

 acter as a place apart, an old-fashioned New 

 England village of farmer-folk, where once 

 in the days of stage coaches and post-roads, 

 merchandizing was active, but which in the 

 new railroad era had been left as an aside, 

 dedicated to studious repose, and freedom 

 from the world s annoy ? This was not an 

 unimportant question to many, both of such 

 as were to the manor born and had grown 

 up with the place, and such as had been 

 beguiled hither by the characteristics by 

 which it is marked. Our school, which has 

 been for many years under one successful 

 management, insomuch that it is famed 

 throughout the land, is our joy and our 

 pride, even if we do not all quite realize it, 



