ces of the Laurel Hill Association:--

"Next followed the planting of trees by the roadside wherever trees
were lacking. The children, sometimes disposed in their
thoughtlessness to treat young trees too rudely, were brought in as
helpers of the association, while at the same time put under a
beneficial culture for themselves. Any boy who would undertake to
watch and care for a particular tree for two years was rewarded by
having the tree called by his name. Other children were paid for
all the loose papers and other unsightly things which they would
pick up and remove from the street.

"Gradually the work of the association extended. It soon took in
hand the streets connected with the main street. Year by year it
pushed out walks from the centre of the village toward its outer
borders; year by year it extended its line of trees in the same
manner; and year by year there has been a marked improvement in the
aspect of the village. Little by little, and in many nameless ways,
the houses and barns, the dooryards and farms, have come to wear a
look of neatness and intelligent, tasteful care, that makes the
Stockbridge of to-day quite a different place from the Stockbridge
of twenty years ago. Travellers passing through it are apt to speak
of it with admiration as a finished place, and, compared with most
even of our New England villages, it has such a look; but the
Laurel Hill Association does not consider its home finished, nor
its own work completed. Still the work goes on. Committees are even
now conning plans for further improvements. By itself, or by
suggestions and stimulations offered to others, the association is
aiming at the culture of the village people through other agencies
than those of outward and physical adornment. It fosters libraries,
reading-rooms, and other places of resort where innocent and
healthful games, music and conversation will tend to promote the
social feeling, and lessen vice by removing some of its causes."

No one can drive through this beautiful old place without realizing the
effect of some influence different from that which has usually been at
work in country towns. One feels that it is a village of homes; that the
people who live in it love it, and that it has no public or private
interest so insignificant as to be neglected.

I have