The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-08-15

THE NATIONAL ERA.
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WASHINGTON, AUGUST IL, 1850.

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WASHINGTON, AUGUST IL, 1850.
For the National Era
SKETCHES OF OUR VILLAGE.
No. 4.
THE MILLER.-CHAPTERI 4.
BY MARTHA RUSSELL.
{" Full msrrIiy rings the milstons round
Full msrrily rings the wheel,
Full merrily gashes out the grst-
Come, taste my fragrant meal.
"Ths miller he's worldly man,
And maun hae double fee;
So draw the suice In the churi's dam
And let the stream gae free"
Song Of The Elm Miller.
Far up amid the deep gorges, the tangled thick
cts and cedar groves Of old Totoket, spring forth
numberless mountain brooks, that come leaping
and tumbling down the rugged mountain sides,
cllling to one another in merry musical voices,
like children at hide and seek, until wearied
with their sport, and catching, as it were, the
deep solemn voice of the ocean, they mingle their
waters in one channel, and with hushed voices 20
winding quietly through our village to seek the
bosom Of their mighty mother.
After this meeting of the watersn the stream
winds along for about two miles, through
broken valley, then making sudden turn, finds
itself imprisoned between two hills, across the
southern opening of which is massive DAM
built of great black logs, against which the in
dignant water dashes and foams, and then subsi-
ding, drips, drips, with an INDISPENSABLE mourn
full murmur as if bewailing its fate, while the dis
tant voice of old ocean calls In vain for her child
The eastern bank rises in high bluff, then
stretches away in wide pastures, but on the west
the ground slopes gradually back, and, sheer from
the waters edge, is studded with magnificent
oaks, walnuts, and naples, iuterspersed with here
and there dark and stately cedar The POND
stretches back half mile or 80, end along zee
margin float the queenly water lilies, like fairy
boats, intermingled with tall flags and the tassels
of the dropping alders Close by the dam, and
half overhanging the water, as II it ever had q
fancy to topple in stands the weather-be beaten mill
with its great skeleton-looking Wheel which, like
some giant monster, grinds and pounds the limpid
water until it exhales away in glittering spray
or escaping from its clutches, signs family amid
thu willow roots and rushes that fringe its bed
below the bridge. The floor within is strewed
with sacks and powdered over with meal, over
which the tracks of the miller and his visiters
describe ell manner of figures the cobwebs over
head are coated over until they look like frosted
flowers, and the
every air about the door,
Is misty With the floating mesl.n
Here dweA Jedediah Sewall, the miller, for the
farm house few rods west was to him nothing
more than lodging house Miller Jed, as he
was generally called, was q little withered man,
with joints distorted by hard labor, and muscles
of iron. Flesh he had none to speak Of, and the
tough brown skin stretched over the joints, and
chung to the bones, as If it had sometime under
gone baking process In his mealy suit, with
his glittering black eyes peering out from beneath
the brim of his white hat and powdered hair, he
looked very much like one of the great spiders
coiled up in their white webs on the rafters over
head and the resemblance was true in more points
than one, for, like the spider, whatever came
within his clutches found its way out again.
For more than forty years he had lived in the
mill, shifting the mealy air, shouldering heavy
saIks, and compelling the free glad waters to toll
for him, while, with his keen eyes bent over the
trough, with his long bent fingers he soooped out
handful after handful Of soft white meal for toll
People said that his fingers were ever ready bent
for grasping but that no one had ever known
them to relax under the influence Of charity and
human love
Money, money was his dream by day and
night-hs god; and to it he had sacrificed his
manhood-his humanity. True, after maturey
counting the cost, he married, late in life, his
housekeeper, to save her wages, wisely consider
ing that she would eat no more as his wife than
as his housekeeper; and, besides, in this way, he
should gain possession Of not only what he had
paid her, but also the small SUM which she al
ready possessed when she came there. There
was one result Of this marriage, which, although
it could hardly fail, in the end, of exerting hui
MANNING influence over him, seemed for many
years to render him only more miserly and grasp
ing. This was the birth of son, whose existence
cost his mother her life. 1t would be wrong to
say that the miller did not feel some unusual
thrills about his heart as he gazed upon the help.
iees infant, or strange sensation of terror and
ave. he looked upon the rigid features Of her
whom he had called wife. But scarce were the
clods of the graveyard pressed over her, when his
thoughts returned to their wonted channel and
avarice began to repine that she did not live to
nurse the child. 1t would have been such q
saving.
But as Death is deaf alike to the voice Of Ava.
rice and Love, the old woman who had officiated
as nurse to the mother, was retained TO take
charge Of the child, which throve finely under
her care, and manifested fondnsss for her which
gladdened the lone old creatures heart Isaac,
iOr SO they called the boy, was about seven years
Old before Miller Jed thought Of sending him to
school Not that the boy was altogether igno-
rant, for Widow Barker had taught him the
names and habits Of the various birds and squir-
rels that made their homes in the woods behind
the house; he knew all the herbs that grew about
there and their uses and something too Of ichthy-
0lOgy he knew, though II old Ceramic Barker
As he called her, had heard that term applied to
her lessons, she would have lifted her great-eyed
'pecacles and rubbed her forehead in sore amaze
@ent Nevertheless, she had often taken him up
'He BORDERS Of the pond with her, In search Of
greens, or some rare herbs, holding him !closely
~ the hand, tfor though Miller Jed seldom mo-
Nced him, yet ever since bis wife died he had
Manifested q great dread Of death, aud had
strictly forbidden Isaac to 90 near the pond
"0ne) and pointed out to him the minnows
sancing and posing themselves In the clear
N"ers' the rosy-silled roach, and the slender,
graceful perch. Then, during the long winter