We observe that many of the postmasters were proprietors of Holland Inn. The postmastership was held by the Kinney family thirty-two years. One of the postmasters, Benjamin Ober, was pastor of the church, and had the post office at the parsonage. The list will doubtless bring many reminiscences to the old residents of the town. After the stage line was abandoned, trouble was experienced in having regular and efficient mail service. This is seen in various votes of the town, and appropriations therefor. It was brought for years from Brimfield by Mr. Wm. Lilley who has recently died, aged 80. He was a veteran of the Civil War, public spirited, giving to the town, under nominal restrictions, the right to pipe water down onto the common for public use, from a fine spring on his homestead. It will be noted that Holland post office was discontinued Aug. 30, 1907, at the request of a majority of citizens. Since then Holland has had her mail delivered by R. F. D. from Southbridge, it proving to be much more convenient to have the mail delivered once a day at or near the door, than by the old system.

A centre of social interest, where local politics may be discussed, where the village storyteller may spin his yarns, and the village gossip may peddle his stock of local rumors

and cheap talk, displaying his taste for that article, is the village hotel, store and post office. Holland was not unlike other towns in this particular. She had her wag who readily saw the ludicrous in human nature. To the hotel, store, and post office he would go after chores were done and meeting there kindred spirits, would while away the long winter evenings, Having a natural gift for rhyming, he would entertain the crowd with his latest local hits, while isolation tends to foster those idiosyncrasies that mark the man, and furnish material for the wag.

CHAPTER VIII

THE SCHOOLS OF HOLLAND

The Southland boasts its teeming cane,
The prairied West its heavy grain,
And sunset's radiant gates unfold

On rising marts and sands of gold!

Rough, bleak, and hard our little State
Is scant of soil, of limits strait;
Her yellow sands are sands alone,
Her only mines are ice and stone!

From Autum frost to April rain,
Too long her winter woods complain;
From budding flower to falling leaf,
Her summer time is all too brief.

Yet, on her rocks, and on her sands,

And wintry hills, the school-house stands,
And what her rugged soil denies,

The harvest of the mind supplies.

The riches of the commonwealth

Are free, strong minds, and hearts of health;

And more to her than gold or grain,

The cunning hand and cultured brain.

For well she keeps her ancient stock
The stubborn strength of Pilgrim Rock
And still maintains, with milder laws,
And clearer light, the Good Old Cause!

Nor heeds the sceptic's puny hands,

While near her school the church-spire stands;
Nor fears the blinded bigot's rule,
While near her church-spire stands the school!
J. G. Whittier.

Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise,
We love the play-place of our early days;
The scene is touching, and the heart is stone
That feels not at that sight, and feels at none.
The wall on which we tried our graving skill,
The very name we carved subsisting still;
The bench on which we sat while deep employed,
Though mangled, hacked, and hewed, not yet destroyed;
The little ones, unbuttoned, glowing hot,

Playing our games, and on the very spot;
As happy as we once, to kneel and draw
The chalky ring, and knuckle down at taw;
To pitch the ball into the grounded hat,
Or drive it devious with a dexterous pat;
The pleasing spectacle at once excites
Such recollection of our own delights,
That, viewing it, we seem almost to obtain
Our innocent, sweet, simple years again.
This fond attachment to the well-known place,
Whence first we started into life's long race,
Maintains its hold with such unfailing sway,
We feel it e'en in age and at our latest day.

THE SCHOOL MASTER.

William Cowper

Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way,
With blossomed furze unprofitably gay,
There, in his noisy mansion, skilled to rule,
The village master taught his little school.
A man severe he was and stern to view,—
I knew him well and every truant knew;
Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace
The day's disasters in his morning face;
Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee
At all his jokes for many a joke had he;
Full well the busy whisper, circling round,
Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frowned.
Oliver Goldsmith.

THE SCHOOLMISTRESS

Ah me! full sorely in my heart forlorn,
To think how modest worth neglected lies;
While partial fame doth with her blast adorn
Such deeds alone as pride and pomp disguise;
Deeds of ill sort, and mischievous emprise;
Lend me thy clarion goddess! let me try
To sound the praise of merit ere it dies;
Such as I oft have chanced to espy,
Lost in the dreary shades of dull obscurity.

In every village marked with little spire,
Embowered in trees, and hardly known to fame,
There dwells, in lowly shed, and mean attire,
A matron old, whom we schoolmistress name;
Who boasts unruly brats with birch to tame;
They, grieven, sore, in piteous durance pent,
Awed by the power of this relentless dame;
And ofttimes on vagaries idly bent

For unkempt hair, or task unconned, are sorely shent.
William Shenstone.

What facilities for schooling had the children of the East Parish enjoyed, as a part of South Brimfield? That Holland proceeds to redistrict her territory is proof that she regarded the old districts as inconvenient and inadequate. That this question came up so soon after she was incorporated proves the importance of good school facilities in the minds of the patrons and voters. No question is more vital to the progress of a town. At a meeting held Sept. 8, 1783, two months after Holland was incorporated, it was voted "to choose a committee to view the situation of the district of Holland to divide the same into proper school districts." The committee chosen was Jonathan Wallis, Jonathan Cram, Jonas Blodgett, Abel Allen and Gershom Rosebrooks; to which was added at the same meeting, Alfred Lyon and John Wallis. These committeemen