The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-08-13
THE MILLER AND THE MILL.
BY b. +. TAYLOR.

The roar came up in misty cloak - - =
Whose skirt was trimmed with tne swan Gown
Beside the mill with its wiadow'd wall
OF rusty red ss il loomed so tall
The wheel was still in its dank, dlm room,
The air ns whist as a wreath ofsmOke,
The tangled light through thecObwebs fell,
The mill was dumb as heather-belll
The dusty miller was leaning Ger
The lower half Of the battered door,
Thinking the things he aipdys thought
TOlling the grists no maH had brought,
Counting The dreams that came 10 nOught.
lie saw four butterfie les winged In white
That futtered over the wayside pool.
They looked like bits of an old love Itote
To Lucy Jones, and the first he wrote
But never sent 90 the flower ofthe school
''What II he had ? +" and ''Perhaps she might -
He saw four butterflies wing'd in gold
And thought of what things the ''perhaps -
might fold
wonnan's foot on the powdered sill
With arch enough for a running rill
To walk his world and-he thought again
How blossoms show in the route of rain
Make summertime till the first snowfall.
Perhaps and Night How they puzzle ALI
logging along q horse came slow
Boy was aloft and bag below
Calliper legs and head of tow.
III.
The miller starts from the faded dream,
A lever creaks and he lifts the gate
The rumhling food in the frothy fume
Is rolling through the twilight room
In whirls and sWirls at a reckless rate
The rustic frength Of headlong stream.
A storm of rain in the chamber dim!
mighty swing OF a giant limb!
The wheel is washing his naked armsl
The mill is alive with the strange aiarmsl
A lazy log has just turned over.
The mill is full Of n ihousand things,
They tramp with feet and they hum with wings
A troop has halted awhile 10 feed,
Old Pan has come with his drOwsy reed
Harki Bees abroad from field Of cloverl
flock of grouse with frightened whlrrl
A Scotch brigade with rweedside buTrl
Two wheels Law hold W tn their iron teeth
And turn a shaft that is hung beneath,
With Jumbling thump of the tumbliRg-holt,
Like the awkward trot Of a barefoot colt.
In swaying glide are the leathern bands;
The hoppers jar with their fpalsied hands,
Forever spilling the grists of grain
In rattling showers like frozen rain.
While face 90 face with Its gritty mate
The milestone whirls with grinding CRATE.
Whai might be laid in castles wall
Is twirled a. light as paraso!
And out of the rock, as once OF old,
A streamlet flows ia its white or goldl
Busy as bees when the buckwheat blows
are the little buckets that run in rows
Upstairs and down with sparrCw's weight,
With tiny drift of the dainty freight.
The place is thrilled with rumbling tread,
The air is filed with ghost Of bread!
Dizzy and busy above. below,
Lydian river and howery flow
Corn in the gold and wheat in the snow.
The old gray mill is vet murmuriEg on,
The brook brawls down through the limestone
street,
The girls that blossomed around the door
And hid and sought till the gTist-snowed floor
Was printed of with their merry feet
Like notes of music-the girls are gOnei
The miller said that he always heard
The slender song of the outside bird
Through the grumhling roll of the whirling mill,
He never heard when the wheels were still.
Perhaps-why not ?-thrOugh the anthem grand
He helps to chant i'm the Better Land,
The mll's old murmuring monotone
May now steal up 10 his ear a'One,
Bringing breath of the SaviOr's Prayer
Drnning the bass 10 the angels air
Hum of the Mill in the golden choir
-Scribner'S 6 for ANntSf