The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1886-09-03
Miscel laueutls.
MILLER THE MILLER.

Youths Companion.
Miller the miller was handsome, but ST.
lent and odd "old bachelor"
He looked-trom the crown of his head to
the soles of his boots-as if he had just been
rolling in the flour he had ground. His fine
old horse, which was born black, carried SO
much flour on his coat that he was called
DUSTY Miller"
Miller the miller had one marked peculiar
ity. He would hardly speak to women. He
had been left an orphan, and hard-hearted
woman had made his boyhood hard. He was
poor in youth, and his early courtships had
not ended as he had hoped. Thus his heart
had been turned away from womankind into
a lonely rut Of life, and he had fallen under
the spell of the evil spirit of Il false opinion.
AS we said, Miller the miller had had bit
ter and violent step-mOther from babyhood.
We might have added that when his father
died he had been passed over to an uncle
whose wife was a perfect shrew, who was
half insane on cleanliness, aud chased her
husband and the boy with broom and mop,
warning them about her white floor! Those
were the women he had first known.
The romances of his youth that had ended
so disastrously we will not repeat, save only
to say that in one respect, one only, they
made very sour man of Miller the miller.
Young Miller went the night after his un-
cles funeral to live with old Jarvis, the mill
er, whose simple housekeeping was done by
brother, more noted for his culinary skill
than for his mental power.
Here Miller found place of peace,-"not
woman within sight" he said ut was
very restful."
Jarvis died after few years, "Billy" went
off to live with a sister, and tie house was
sold
Miller took the mill. He partitioned off a
kitchen and bedroom in the loft, and made a
parlor of one corner, on the floor with the
hopper" put into it a red table and four yell
low chairs, and hung up some of those chro-
mos with which people are punished for TAX
ing papers they do not want, and never read
So he lived here like an anchorite, his only
vexation being the little girls who came in
on their way from school to stare down into
the hopper, or who leaned over his rickety
fence to see the great, black wheel churning
the silver foam. He would sometimes NUT
ter
They'll get drowned or ground up some
day, and then it'll be laid ON to my mill or
me-"
When Miller the miller was about thirty
five years old, his brother died, leaving an
orphan boy of ten years. Miller brushed the
llOuI vi his DCpl ClOtHSS, vi hOloC anu
rode twenty miles to the funeral Now
Miller the miller had sympathetic heart,
after all, and when in few days he returned,
he brought little Ike, his brothers son, and
his small bundle to the old mill with him.
Ike was born and had always lived in 1.-The
hired mans house" on farm, in full view of
the barnyard, and level sweep of hard
worked fields. We can imagine his delight
at the wonders Of his new home, with a
mountain behind, stream below, a valley
and fields and forests on every hand! But
the mill, with its great wheel dashing and
splashing among the waters, sending crystal
arrows and rainbow wreaths in every direc-
tion-that was to him the glory of all this
picturesque region.
1t was like dream of fairyland. And this
was his home, and he could see and hear the
mill-noises always, and climb the high banks
of the stream, and catch squirrels, and skip
nd-and-everything.
But Miller the miller was not as well pleas
ed with his nephew as his nephew with him.
The boy made new condition of affairs ne
cessary. The miller now thought the place
too rough and mean, and set out to finish off
his rooms with lathe and plaster and paint
He put up white curtains in place of the
green paper ones, and actually bought car:
pet for the parlor corner, which was now a
real room, partitioned off from the main mill.
AS his house improved, he began to like the
boy better and to become very indulgent
to him.
There, in this elegant home" the boy had
his school-friends as often as he chose to ask
them. Together they popped corn and made
molasses candy, and whitfield out boats in
winter, and they stuffed birds and pressed
wild flowers in summer
So the years went on, the miller growing
less odd in their flight. But he still kept up
his old antipathy for women-an antipathy
that he could not have cherished had he ever
known q mother and mothers love.
Ike was happy boy, and became great
favorte with his neighbors. At eighteen
years old he could do a mans work in the
mill, beside going to school in winter A
shadow fell across the millers spirit; Ike be-
gan to look at the girls. He carried their
skates and their books, he risked his life on
the precipice over the stream to gather the
gladys ear-drop" and the purple might
shade" for them.
He went on sleigh rides and to parties
and--and-well, Miller the miller had heard
of his walking home one moonlight evening
with little Ruthie Bovine, whom he had
sent out of the mill dozen times in as many
years for looking down the hopper, and for