The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1878-07-02
The Mixer HOI.


Iceland lived man all by himself RI
had no family, neither wife nor children
nor servants, and though his house wa
attractive Ill appearance, no visitors, fol
he was universally disliked. He was i'll
natured and quarrelsome, of morose dis
position, and repealed all advances towarc
social intercourse on the part of others
the men Stunned him, and the women
held him in antipathy, though he seldom
gave them opportunity to express thei,
dislike, and the children ran from him
Nothing was known of his history, but
rumor accused him of unknown crimes
one person asserted that he was q thief
another that he was robber, another
said he was a smuggler, and another
that he was pirate, but all agreed that
he was bad man. No one knew his
name, except that his first name was
Bill, and as he was of swarthy com.
plexlon he was commonly called Black
Bill.
One day he wandered up the noun.
tain back of his house, and discovered at
the foot of a beetling clitfan old we'll It
seemed to be of great depth, but his eye
sight could not penetrate it's recess, and
he had no means to ascertain its depth SO
he could not tell whether it contained
water or not. To solve this latter ques-
ton, and approximately to discover its
depth, he threw in a stone, and heard it
vibrate from side to side for while and
then the sound to cease with thud as if
it had reached the bottom; but no
splash indicated the existence of water,
and he concluded that the well was dry !;
and as he again peered into its depths
a sound came up like the soughing of
wind, "Nikker Hol." Slowly he re-
turned to his home and wondered what
was Mixer Hol.
The next day he took walk along
the road that passed his house, and had
proceeded some distance, when he heard
whisper behind him of "Nikker Hol."
He turned, but there was no one near,
nor anything from which the sound
could emanate; and he continued his
walk. Presently a whisper, right in his
ear, said "Nikker Hell" Again he
turned, and again he could discover
nothing, and went on. Soon he came to
wood; the leaves were nesting on his
head, and whispered to each other "Nik-
ker Hol. He passed the wood and came
out on the beach: the sea was smooth
and the waves, reduced in size, rippled
on the beach with pretty prattling noise,
and, as they expanded themselves upon
the stones, muttered with distinctly ar
ticulate sound, "Nikker Hol." He
wondered what these mystic words in
Dictated, and as he wandered along the
beach with the meaningless action of
man whose thoughts were pre-occupied,
he picked up pebble and threw it far
off in the water, which it struck with
splash, and the splash said "Nikker
Hol." Raising is eyes he saw cloud
rising on the horizon, indicating COM
ing storm, and he hurried home. The
storm advanced and the wind swept by
him in moaning gusts, and, as it did so,
uttered the words "Nikker Hol." He
hurried on and reached his dwelling.
In the yard before the house stood sew
eral gigantic trees, and the limbs swayed
to and fro in the increasing gale and
rubbed against the walls of the dwelling,
and as the pedestrian rushed in the door
shrieked "Nikkcr Hel." He threw him
self into chair and wondered what was
"Nikker Hol."
The next day the storm had passed
away, and he went to the window to
look at the weather, and saw little boy
Gas he thought) sitting on his gate Here
was a fine opportunity to vent his i'll
nature, and he rushed out with the de-
sign of knocking the boy off the gate, but
as he approached, he found it was not
boy but little old man about three feet
high, with long hokded nose, ferret
like eyes and skin which in color
and texture resemb!ed tanned leath-
er. cha, ha, hap laughed the old
man, as Bill came up Chow DIDO? You
don't seem to remember me-" "NoW
said Bill 81 never saw you before"
ooh yes!'' said the little old man, eve
are Old acquaintances, you and | have
been together before When and
where?" asked Bill. "When you killed
the peddler, I was standing right beside
you, and showed you where to hide the
body" said the other. "You are
liar" said Bill, and advanced again to
strike him. The little old man still sat
on the gate with his hands on either side
clasping its top rail and did not alter his
position or move in any way, as but Bill
advanced on him laughed again. ." Ha,
ha, ha! Mixer Hol!'' said he as soon
as he said "Nikker Holv' Bill stopped.
"What is Mixer HolY' asked Bill. " A
hundred years ago." said the little old
man, Dutch ship was driven in this
bay in a storm at light, and the name of
the ship was Mixer Hol. She had
great deal of gold on board, thousand
bags, and each bag so heavy that man
could hardly lift it. The tide was up
and the waves were fearfully high and
furious, and the vessel was perfectly
powerless before them. She struck on
the rocks and went to pieces; only the
part where the gold was slowed remained
unbroken; and every soul on board was
drowned except two sailors who managed
to reach the beach alive. In the morn
ing the tide was down, the storm had
passed away and the sea was compare
lively quiet, and they were able. to wade
out to the wreck. They got some pro-
visions, and brought all the gold on
shore, and having placed the bags on the
beach went up in to the mountains to
find some place where they could hide
the treasure until some future day should
enable them to recover it. In the
mountains they found an old well, and
carried the bags up, one by one, and
threw them in, and then returned to the
beach. The next night one of the sail
ors got up and murdered the other, all
for the sake of the gold, and when it was
daylight he thought he would wade of
to the wreck again to see if there was
any more gold there, but the tide had
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