Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1885-02-01
AT CHRISTMAS TIME.
a Remlnisesnee Of WIN and FLATS.

A Remlniseenee OF Mills and Flats.
RsS.sf BsrEoHe "a n n. MHrr
Az The World about the mill has gone to
deep. his alternating, Ike the bear. The
hills have pulled the sheets Of snow up
10 their ehiRs and over their heads, and
deep 90 soundly that The restless winds
have to do their snoring from them, and
gosighing, aud singing and whisthng, and
sometimes hsEling aud shrieGing, through
the leaRess oaks aud the swaying eedsrs
and through he rocky echoing glens, range
zoe tksough all the varied gamut Of the
Infinite snOre Of slambering nature.
How patiently wait the eedArs for the days
Of spring and the sunshine Of June. All
the other treea have gwen up long ago, and
ceased 70 look for anything save snow and
dses and biipg frost and winter rains. How
Iearfally they moan and vail when the winds
come oneeping down from the northwest.
They have thrown away every brown Leaf,
weeks aud weeks ago. They wiz never wear
leaves again, they know. The ground about
their frozen feet is hard as flint The sap
Is frost in their veins Their limbs are still.
Tas skies are grey, the hills'are white and
the meadows are drifted. There viii never
seanTsrmmer again, so the oaks and the
naples and the hiekories complain. But
the patient eedsrs-bending under the bur
den Of snow thai trims their lark green
cloaks with white as soft as swans down,
they look upon the sleeping fields and down
a. the silent creek, patiently, trustfully wait
ine for May and June. Never Wailng be
ea1ss he SHOWS are deep and the winter IS
Ionv. when the winds are soft and gentle
the eedars whisper, and when the gales are
bowing 6ereely they only sigh and shake
The SNOW from their shoulders as they bend
ard sway. But always they are hopeful.
paf;eat and they stretch their green arms
oar orer the billows OF snow, IS if 10 greet
he coming spring, which they alone Of all
tie trees can see.
And the busy, noisy, prattling, singing
er.ek has rone into a new business. IL has
formed : c~opartuership with the thermome-
- md gooe into the manufacture Of pro-
toxide Of hydrogen on = large scale. Ice
boand as far ss ron can see, and IN the ar
holes here and there, now black and cold
he water runs. The dam ls bearded with
lopa venerable i~cieles, and the shlyerlag
sDssv has coated every branch and t"lg
along the shore with sparkling frOsssork.
Fe:rV work it IS; June can make nothing
loxefer than this silver lace work, with all
hsr roses. Down 5eloW the silent wheel the
F0ie creek does not murmur and laugh. 1t
ebnfsers andfshivers, and Just rs fast as 1t
can Il arms under the ice to get out OF the
b;f,nv wind that comes bowling down the
rreaf ravine and spitefully nips at the mp
olra a II goes sweeping across TO the white
bins and the moaning oaks. How 1t will
twist and bend the knotty old monarehs Ia
"A. Wild rough play. II even catches the
Ola minby the shoulders and shakes 1t until
is very windows rattle and the pigeons up
n he loh COO and murmur sOf, musical,
heightened protests.
The pigeons pass most Of their time IN
he mill loft. these days / wonder if the
Tumbler. in these long, stormy winter days
~ -conenement. practices new featS Of twist
ipQ and tumbhng for his summer fights. l
think he does. know he does, indeed
And the Fantall there, IS telling that pair OF
Nuns about . barn he once lived IN that
was haunted BIZ the restless, cooing ghost
Of an unhappy Pouter, who loved q great
sfrong Carrier, with such = long neck and 8
hcsn6ful sbSpe. He enlisted in the mail
service and went away to war, and carried
dispstches from a beleagured city out over
The Inca
For many q long long sunny day, through
Al that dreadfnl summer, the poor Pouter
waited and pinned away and watched for
him snd called him all day long And so,
m early Noyember-the squirrels had Just
had her harvest home and meadow laTks
and 20 many Other families were packing to
10 south With their children, and they neatly
Al look their dinner az she mill that DAY, an
east wind, that had come all the way over
the seA. swept UP 10 the perch Just outside
the round window where the pretty Pouter
Was pisintiyely calling Cor Messenger, and
laid . soft feather, broken and stained With
blood. At her feet She died that very after
noon. and the leaves buried Der. down BY s
he ere4 rock where the maiden hair fern
anew. bot always sitter that, sll day long aud
someiimes IN The hight. they could hear her,
calling. calling, calling for Messenger, If
lker 20 to that barn, todsy--its q big SIDE
hiEf barn, painted red. with 8 ship for 3
weather vane, Away. away up the creek,
sbsrs hey thresh wheat with the trampling
hots.s and laundering fails yet; hel take
them To- Il VIXEN May CONES; he was born in
that bafn. And the two pretty Nuns-I can
hear them sobbing in soft, tremulO0s coos as
ikat listen With me.
Aou del knew what he said2 Ny boy
II ron WI haunt that old mnll loft as much
IS / did When vas your age and many
rSsrs alder too You VIII understand every
eord ! pigeon caye
WhY tsse. couet 70 TIE ~1eaoE; io2s gP
f',3 .;,f ~ 4 fringe oe0ak aRd maple
kaSs 81 ne skaH do yoa zee that
q ,Is That ss<3 "a 81 fei 3 isle
Si Ioofs fss oa tssAioaat
~, ThHf4 fqat =