The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1873-08-30

MN ~ uuuS'IAAu Nv TO-
You'd be as just, Il you laid poor jean
cites going from US at the door OF any o
those idle, gaping, gentleiolk visitors a!
come up sometimes from Crewhaven L
look at III old mill. Anyway, it's amos
broke my heart, and II l don't get lidingI
of her aIOre MiChaelmas, shall never SCI
the beginning Of another year" and TIT
old man burles his face in his hands.
The mill is reached now, and the girl'E
angry mood giving place to the tcnderel
one, she stEectionately caresses her tathel
as he enters its quaint old basement, and
the two pass out Of an autumnal sunlight
which, for a brief while, has seemed, by
It's cheerlulness, TO mock their misery.
The mill itself? Well, 1t was, as Ma
omi Cover had said,a ramshackle old
building, not such another to be found fol
kmiles amid the many Astounding upon thu
crests and ridges OF the rolling Flockshirt
downs. A mill celebrated among artists
and specified by them under the name o
one Of their craft, who had made gOOt
stock in.trade Of 1t upon his canvass. A
wooden-mill, black-brown and richly
weather-stained with gray, and green, anc
yellow, with soft moss and Crisped COLDER
Inches peeping out from the little rittI
and slips under the shelter Of tho broad
caves of the root, and from beneath the
floor Of It's square, blul body, where
poised upon It's circular base, It could bt
turned to face the prevailing wind. The
wind, too, had its share In adapting 1t ior
the artists use, for from long blowing
against its study front, and broad, sweep
ing, milk-white sails, 1t had gradually
canted 1t back many degrees out Of the
perpendicular. Strangers-and there were
many who came up to look at it-woutd
think It could not much longer withstand
those strong bree2es forever lunging at II
upon its exposed position, and the creak-
Ing and moaning 1t made, il at work,
would lead them 10 expect its immediate
topping over. Great would be their sur.
prise TO hear, If they CHANGED to speak
with It's old master, Amos Cover, that II
had been like that ever since he was
boy, and that he had heard his father say
that he too had never remembered 1t
otherwise. 1t stood but little back upon
the turf from the white, winding chalk
road leading up to It; and as the huge
sails, whirrlng and roaring through the
air, swept round and round, their ends, In
each succeeding descent, looking as If they
must strike the earth, and only sweeping
clear Of ii by some foot and a.half, one
hesitated almost to pass 1t, so wild, mex
Orable, and menacing did it look. It had
been said more than once that barrier
should be set up 10 prevent the unwary
from going too near, as blow from one
OF those revolving beams would surly be
fatal. But there never had been any &C
cident. Who would ever go too near
None but the deal, or blind, or mad
And 80 1t was still left open to the road
Hard by stood the miller's dwelling,
partaking OF many of the tones and colors
of the mill; thought below the crest Of
the height, it yet commanded fully the
glorious view that made WavingdGan
Down place oil note In the nCighborhoOd.
II is even yeta pretty spot; thirty years
ago, when old Amos Cover owned the
mill. 1t was prettier stiilt Ior then railroads
were only just beginning TO scar the green
slopes OF the FloCkshire Downs, and 10
tunnel through their chalk depths. May
a village among the hills, since disdgured
BY modern brick and stuccO; many o Clus'
ter Of houses on the coast, since grown In
to prosperous and fashionable watering
place, then retain as marked H rustiCity
as II they had been a couple q hundred
instead OF only fifty miles from London.
Conspicuous upon the seaboard was
Wavingdean Down, with its solitary old
mil and miller's cottage, and though II
attracted occasional visitors from the,
neighboring little port and primitive
heslth.resort OF CreWhaven, the enjoy
ment of the view was left in those Days
pretty much 10 Amos Cover and his
family.
Amos Cover himself? Well. he had
inherited the property of the mill from
several generations; had married the
daughter of u well TODD French skipper
plying between o Normandy port and
Cfewhaven; had received q trifling "dOt"
with her, enough 10 make pretty addi-
lion to his simple earnings When, alter
but u few years Of welded lie, he found
himself lett widOwer, with two little
girls, one an infant, and the other between
Tour and five years old, he thought Of little
beyond their welfare. Untaught himself,
he desired to give his children good cdu'
cation, the advantage Of which he hadsecn
in his wife; so the eldes; had been sent TO
Paris, not to a fashionable school, but to
some homely people, distant connections
oil her mother. She had returned 10 the
quiet old life upon tho downs about q year,
when the sorrow Of which we have had
hint bclell the Cover household. Full oil
her foreign experience, she had come like
being from another world upon the pro.
sale existence Of her father and sister.
The latter had emerged into budding wO.
manhood since Naomi had been away,
and listened eagerly 10 All the stories and
events her sister had to relate. jeanette
was wild with the desire to taste for her.
self these pleasures and wonders, and
when her request that she too might be
sent for while TO Paris was refused by
the kind old man, on account Of change
in the family where Naomi had lived, she
rebelled. The fiery spirit Of the French
blood she inherited felt itSelfaggrieved and
altogether, for the last few months, things
had not been as happy as they might have
been OF the old windmill upon the downs
Then, as TO this Reuben Straytor?
We'll, the miller's daughter has given
some account Of his pedigree. His faith
ers's farm stoop in the little hamlet Of
Wavingdean, which lay in the valley al
tho foot Of the downs, therefore, 1t is not
wonderful that he and the little Cover
girls should have been playmates from
their earliest days. AS they grew up the
separations which school iimes brought
about gradually increased, and when Ma
omi, al the age Of fourteen, went abroad
for four years, Reuben, who was . good
deal older. was finishing his education at
certain FloCkshire college, and came
home soon alter; as his iaiher designed,
to drop into the farming lie. But this
did not suit the taste Of the young fellow,
who had acquired notions Of a loltier
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