New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-09-08
MILLER THE MILLER.

Miller the miller was handsome,
but silent and odd, .old bachelor
He looked-from the crown of his
head to the soles Of his boot as if he
had just been rolling in the -four 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
popularity. He would hardly speak
to women. He mad been left an or
phan, and q 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 lonely rut OF
life, and he had fallen under the spell
OF the evil spirit of a false opinion.
As we said, Miller the miller had
had a bittersand violent step-mother
from babyhood. Wemight have add
ed that when his father died he had
been passed over to an uncle whose
wife was perfect shrew, who was
half insane on cleanliness, and chased
her husband and the boy with broom
and mop, warning them about her
white floor! Those were the women
be had first known.
The bad romance of his youth that
had ended so disastrously we will not
repeat, save only to say that in onere.
spect, one only, they made very
sour man of Miller the miller.
Young Miller went the night after
his uncle's funeral to live with old
Jarvis, the miller, whose simple house.
keeping was done by a brother, more
noted for his culinary skill than for
his mental power.
Here Miller found q place of peace,
mot woman within sight," he
said. "It was very restful."
Jarvis died after few years, "Billy''
went off to live with sister, and the
house was sold.
Miller took the mill. He partition
ed off a kitchen and bedroom in the
loft. and made a parlor of one corner,
on the floor with the chopper" put
into itared 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.
So he lived here like an ancherite,
his only vexation being the little girls
who came in on their way from school
tostare down into the hopper, or who
leaned over his rickety fence to see 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"
When Miller the miller was about
thirty years old, his brother died,
leaving an orphan boy of ten year.
Miller brushed the flour off his best
clothes, off his horse, and rode twenty
miles to the funeral. Now Miller the
miller had a sympathetic heart, after
all, and when 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 ''the hired mans house" on a farm,
in full view of the barnyard, and a
level sweep of hard worked fields. We
can imagine his delight at the wonders
OF his new home, with a mountain be-
hind, stream below, a valley, and
fields and forests on every hand! But
the mill, with it's great wheel dashing
and splashing among the waters,
sending crystal arrows and rainbow
wreaths in every direction-that was
to him the glory OF all this picturesque
region.
It was like a dream of fairyland.
And this was his home, and he could
see and hear the mlll-noises always,
and climb the high banks OF the stream,
and catch squirrels, and skip stones
misunderstanding!
But Miller the miller was not as we'll
pleased with his nephew as his nephew
with him. The boy made new con-
dition of affairs necessary. The mil
Ter 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 act
ua1ly bought q carpet for the parlor
corner, which was now 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 scho ol-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
women-an antipathy that he could
not have cherished had he ever known
q mother and q mothers love.
Ike was q haDnv how. and hacan,a a