The Bad Lands cow boy. [volume] (Little Missouri, Dakota [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-1886, 1886-09-09
MILLER THE MILLER.

He looked from the crown of his
head to; the soles Of his boz ts - the
had just been rolling in the -four he
had ground. His fine old horse, which.
was born black, carried SO much -four
on his coat that he was called Dusty
Miller.
Miller the miller had ono marked
popularity. He would Hardly speak
to women. He had been left an or
phan, and a hard hearted woman
had made his boyhood hard He was
poor in youth, and his early court
ships had not ended as he had hoped.
Thus his heart had been turned away
from womenkind into q lonely rut 8of
life, and he had fallen under the spell
Of the evil spirit Of a false opinio
AS we said, Miller the miller had
I'D a bitter and violent step other
1 from babyhood. We mig have ID.
edithat when his father died he had
i been passed over to an uncle whose
wife was q perfect shreW, who was
half insane on cleanliness, and chased
her husband and the boy with broom
and mop, warning them about her
white aoorl Those were the women
he had first known: VI a 25ss5i,
The bad romance Of his youth thnt
had ended so disastrou sly we will not
repeat, save only to say that in onere-
spect, one only, they made a very
sour man Of Miller the miller.
Young Miller emit the. night after
his unele's fuaeral to live with old
J Jarvis, the miller, whose simple house.
keeping was done by q brother, more
noted for his culinary skill than for
his mental power: & d 81 y Il
Here Miller found a place Of peace,
mot q woman within sight," he
said. twas very restful.n
Jarvis died after 4 few years, Billy"
went off to live with: q sister, and the
house was sold.
5stS5 Miller took the mill. He Partition
ed of 4 kitchen and bedroom in the
loft. and made a parlors Of one corner,
+ on the floor with the chopper" put
intoit AIRED table and for yellow chairs,
and hung up some of those chromos
with which people are punished for
taking papers they do not want, and
never read ,ss
So he lived here like an ancherite,
! his only svexation being the little girls
who came in on their way from school
tostare downinto the hopper, or who
leaned over his rickety fence tosee the
great. black wheel churning the silver
foam. He would sometimes mutter:
They'll get drowned Or ground up
some day, and then it'll be laid on to
my mill or me-. NJ l sf:
NY When Miller the miller was about
thirty-fiYe years old, his; brother died,
leaving an orphan boy of ten year.
Miller brushed the -four off his best
clothes, of his horse, and rode twenty
h miles to the funeral. Now Miller the
miller had asympathetic heart, after
al, and when he returned, he brought
ilttle Ike, Mis- brothers son, and his
small bnnhe totthe old mill with him.
4 Ike was born and had always lived
! in 1.-THE hired mans house, on a farm,
in full view of the BARNARD, and %
+ level sweep Of hard worked fields. We
Z can imagine his delight ~ the wonders
sof his new home, with ountain be.
hind, a stream below, q valley, and
fields and forests on every handl But
the mill, with its great wheel dashing
and splashing amongs the waters,
sending crystal arrows and rainbow
Wreaths in every direction that was
to him the glory Of allthis picturesque
region. i h. $50 81 rs
twas like a dream Of fairyland.
And this was his home, and The could
see and hear the mlll-noises always,
i and climb the high banks Of the stream,
Il and catch squirrels, and skip stones
and--and-ever ything Il.
1. But Miller the miller was not as well
4 pleased with his nephew as his nephew
& with him. The boy made new con-
ditions of affairs necessary. The mil
e ler. now thought the place too rough
h and mean, and set out to finish of his
4 rooms with lathe and plaster and
paint. He put up white curtains in
place OF the green paper ones, and act
( unlly bought q carpet for the parlor
corner, which was now o real room,
4 partitioned off from the. main mill.
I AS his house impro wed J, 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 win
ter, 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
Il wonlen-an antipa thy that he could
H not have cherished had he ever known
4 q mother and 81 me theirs love- rs, II
Ikeswas a happy boy, and became q
II great favorite with his neighbors. AT
; eighteenyears old he could do aman's
Il work in the mill beside going to school
], in winter. A shad low fell across the
Miller spirit; Ike began 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 slady' Is card drop and the purple
might shade for them.
He went sleigh-rides and to par.
ties and vel |, fillerS the miller
had heard Of his walking home one
might evening with little Rnthie
BOVINE, whom he had sent out Of the
mill a. dozen times in as many years
for oking down the hopper, and for
gath ering -FOUR dust ito play baking
With. AZ
He had never once rebnked Ike for
anything, and he felt delicate about
beginning that now-th hey were SO hap
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