, 1886-11-11
PETER FAME.


repair, especially upon the hillside, where
the rains had washed bare many stones
and left ruts and hollows, and the bridge
was dilapidated and shook ominously
under each passing vehicle or pedes-
trian. But there were few travellers
over either road or bridge, and the town
was pool so the selectmen left it both
for time and the elements to prey upon
unchecked.
AT the side of this road, Just before
it came to the bridge stood the grist
mill and cottage of Peter Fame, joined
one to the other by an inclosed shed and
implanted and unadorned, except by
clambering vines and the weather stains
of past years.
1t wa the evening of the day before
Thanksgiving, in the year is. Peter
Fame, the miller, stood in the doorway
of the cottage smoking his big-bowled
pipe and looking out over the dusty road
AS it wound down the hill. He was an
old man of some 10 years, but
he looked fresh and hearty, as if
likely to weather many another
winter storm and to TASK under
many another summer sun. His long
white hair and white beard harmonized
with the flour-dusted jean overalls which
he wore, and his black eyes came the
scene about him with a wistful, eager
expression, rs if hoping to see some
a%nxiously expected traveller. But there
was no moving thing nor sign of life
within Peter Fane's sight, save only a
belated crow swiftly winging his way to
his home among the l~eailess trees upon
the hill.
The sun Wa setting behind n bank OF
cloud which the wind was swiftly driv-
ing up from the northwest, and rs its
beams were withdrawn the air grew
gray and became colder. 1t was very
still; the only sounds We're the murmur
Of the brook near by, flowing over the
stones and pebbles Of its bed, or the
cav, cav Of the distant rows. SO
still was it, indeed, that the silence
seemed to force itself upon Peter Fane's
unwilling attention, and the expression
Of expectation on his face faded and w.s
replaced by a look Of grave disappoint
mont.
Seventy years had Peter Fane-as boy
and man-lived by that old mill. lie
was but ~ when his father dying left
him TO run the old mill; and for fifty
years lac had remained ut his post, sta
tionary amid all the changes and events
about him. And how many changes
there had been; how many friends had
come or gone, died or moved away.
during the lapse of those many years!
Business had been brisk and he had
worked hard, and laid aside for a rainy
day; business had been dull, and he had
smoked his pipe and waited for better
times.
There was no lack of life about the
old mill in those early years, for the
road was then n highway over which
stages and numerous teams passed each
day. There was then almost invariably
II group around the mill door, while
within the air was alwayAJuisT " iittn
hyins hSur dust, and the machinery
.,pt up al almost continuous %clatter.
Now months sometimes passed before
the mill was set in motion, and the
grass around the door was seldom
pressed 10y other feet than Peter Fane's,
and the passers-by were few and far be-
tween.
The contrast between the old times
and the new forced itself upon Peter
tanc's mind rs he TODD Mt his cottage
door in the cleaning OF that Thanks
giving eve; and with a sigh of regret for
those vanished years, he Knocked the
ashes from his pipe, and turning back
into the cottage busted himself in pre-
pairing his evening meal-for Peter Fame
lived all alone, unless n faithful dog can
hc called a companion.
All the day Peter Fame had been OPP
pressed with that peculiar intuition
which every one feels sometimes during
his life, that some one, he knew not
whom, was about to arrive. This feel
my had haunted Peter Fame. IT had
brought him more than once Ia the
door, and now as he sat by the iireside,
with his dog curled up at his feet, it
continued 10 haunt him. Vet his reason
told him that lie expectation WaS onl.
idle folly, for who was there in the wide
world who would care to seek the old
miller out, now that wife, children and
friends were dead
lie sat by the lire, smoking and think
ing, until bed time came aud then he
carefully laid his pipe upon the shelf,
and going onrc more 10 the door opened
1t and looked out. The clouds covered
the whole Of the sky and the snowhakes
were falling thick and fast, and all the
earth wa hid beneath their flee,y crys-
tails. Though the moon and NE stars
wcr. hidden there was n dim, Iioht in
TN, air that udieti,cuy and ,-,o,,efy IL
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