, 1889-01-24
WILL @ THE MILL.
BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

way up, Z long gray village lay like Z seam
or . raa; Of vaUor on u wooded hillside, and
when the wind was favorable. the sound U[
the church bells would drop down, thin and
sI!ycry, 70 Win. Below, the yaIley grew
ever sleeper and sleeper, and at the sane
time wIdeuc,i out on either hand and from
an cmnencc beside the mil II was possible
to see its whole length and away beyond It
over wide plain, where the river turned
and shonc, and moved uH from city to city
on Its voyage toward the sea Il Chancei
that over this valley there lay II pass into q
neIghhoriug kingdom, 50 that, quiet and
rural Us Ii was, the road that ran along
beside the river was :. high thorough
fare between two splendid and powerful
societies. All through the summer,
travelling carriages came crawling up or
went plungins briskIy down. ward past the
mill; and rs it happened that the other side
was very much easier OF ascent, the path was
not much frcqueuted except by people going
III one direction; and Of all the carriages that
VIII saw 90 10y, tivC-SiXths were plunging
briskly downward and only one-siHth crawl
ing up. Much more was this the case with
foot passengers. All the Iightfooted tour
lists, all the peIdlers laden with strange
wares, were tending downward like the river
that accompanied their path. Nor was this
all; for when VIII was yet q child q disas-
trOus war arose over a great part of the
world. The newspapers were full of defeats
and victories, the earth rang with cavalry
hOOfs, and often for days together and for
miles around the coil Of battle terrified good
people from their laborS in the field. OF al
this, nothing was heard for long time in
the valley; but at last one Of the command
ers pushed an army over the pass by forced
ms md f,r- .7or-a anil
cannon and tumbril, drum and standard,
kept pouring downward past the mill. All
day the child stood and watched them on
their pRssage-the rhythmical stride, the
pale, unShaven faces tanned q bout the eyes, the
discolored TegimeutalS and the tattered flags,
filled him with a sense of wearinesS, pity and
wonder; and all night long, after he was in
bed, he could hear the cannon pounding and
the feet trampiing, and the great armament
sweeping onward and downward past the
mill. No one in the valley ever heard the
fate OF the expedition, for they lay out Of the
way of gossip in those trOublOus times; but
VIII saw one thing plainly, that not 4 man
returned. Whittier had they all gone:
Whittier went ali the tourists and
peddlers with strange wares: whittier all the
brisk barouches with servants in the dicky!
whittier the water of the stream, ever cours-
Even the wind blow oftener down the valley,
and carried the dead leaves along with it in
the fall 1t seemed like great conspiracy
of things animate and inanimRte; they all
went downward, tieotly and gayly down.
ward, and only lie, it seemed, remained be
hind, like a stock upon the waysidc. 1t some
times made him glad when he noticed how
the fishes kept their heads up stream. They,
at least. stood faithfully by him, while eli
else were posting downward to the unknown
world.
One evening he asked tie miller where the
river went.
ut goes down tho valley" answered he,
"and turns p power Of ulills-six score mills,
they say, from here 10 Untcrdccl-and il
none the wearier after all. And then 1t goes
out into the lowlands, and waters the great
corn country, and runs through n sight Of
fine cities $50 they say where kings live all
alone il great palaces, with sentry walking
up and down before the door. And it goes
under bridges with stone men upon them,
looking down and smiling 50 curious at the
water, and living folks leaning their elbows
on the wall and looking over too. And then
it goes on and on, ana down through marshes
and sands, until at last it falls into the sea,
where the ships are that bring parrots and
tobacco from the Indies Ay, il has a long
trot before it rs 1t goes singing over our Won,
bless its heart"
''And what Is tho seain asked VIII.
''The scar cried the miller Lord help
us all. it is the greatest thing God madel
That is where all the water in the world runs
down into great salt lake. There it lies, as
fat as my hand and as innocent like as
child; but they do say when the wind blows il
gets up into water mountains bigger than
any of ours and swallows down great ships
bigger than our mill, and makes such roar
ing that you can hear 1t miles away upon the
land. There are great fish in 1t five times
bigger than a bull, and one old serpent as
long as our river and as old as all the world,
with whisllers like man and a crown OF sill
yer on her head"
VIII thought he had never heard anything
like this, and he kept on asking question after
question about the world that lay away down
the river, with all its perils and marvels, un-
til the old miller became quite interested
himself, aud at last took him by the hand
and led him to the hilltop TINT over
looks the valley and the plain. The sun
was near setting and hung low down
in q clOudiess sky. Everything was defined
and glorified in golden light. VIII had never
seen so great an expanSe of country in his life;
he stood and gazed with all his eyes. He could
see the cities, end the woods and fields, and
the bright curves of the river, and far away
20 where the rim of the plain trenched along
the shining heavens. An oYermastering
emotion seized upon the boy, soul and body;
his heart beat SO thicllly that he could not
breathe; the scene swan before his eyes; the
sun seemed to wheel round and round, and
throw off, rs it turned, strange shapes which
disappeared with the rapitlity of thought, and
We're succeeded by others. VIII covered his
face with his hands and burst into a violent
fit Of tears; and the poor miller, sadly disap-
pointed and perplexed, saw nothing better
for il than to take him up in his arms and
carry him home in silence.
From that day forward VIII was full Of
new hopes and longings. Something kept
tuSGinS mt his heart strings; the running
water carried his desires along with it as he
dreamed over its fleeting surface; the wind,
as 1t ran over inuunerable tree tops, hailed
him with encouraging words; branches beck
oned downward; the open road, as it
saouldercd round the angles and went turn
ing and vanishing fast and faster down the
valley, tortured him with its solicitations
lie spent long whiles on the eIninence, look
ing down tho riycrshed and abroad on the
fiat lowlands, and watched the clouds that
Travelled forth upon the sluggish wind and
I4ti4tttl lIleiI PIE SIH4tioHS on the plln, OF
he would lingcr by the wayside, and follow
the carriages with his eyes as they ratified
downward by ihe river. 1t did not matter
what it wcs; everything that went that way,
were it cloud or carriage, bird or brown
water in the streaIa, Ee felt his heart flow
out after it in an ecstasy Of longing.
We ere totd by men Of science that all the
ventures Of nlari-ers on tie sea, eli that
countermHrching OF tribes and races that
confounds old history with its dust and rumor,
sprang from nothing more abstruse than the
laws Of supply and demand, and q certain
natural instinct for cheap rations. To any
one thinking deeply, this will seem dull
and pitiful explanation The tribes that
came swarming out Of the north and east, if
they were indeed pressed onward from be
hind by Others, were drawn at the same time
by the magnetic influence of the south and
west The famo OF other lands had reached
them; the name of the eternal city rang in
their ears; they ware not coIonists, but Pill
grims; they t-aYeled towards wine and gold
and sunSaLzinc, but their hearts were Sc: on
something higher. That divine unrest. thai