Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-03-01

turesque build it prim IN l straight as
we will. The very rudeness IN Structure
OF Sagnauck mill addel 10 It's beauty.
Anything else than unpldned planks
CT riven boards for the roof wou have
been out OF place among the trees which
grew up to lis very walls, and the leaves
which beat O tattoo mon the roof wi
every wind thlt blew. A dam had been
thrown across the creek just below the
curve to the westward; banking up
deem pool. around which the willows
grew. swee ping their long limbs over the
Surface and under which the boys passed
hours with hook and line. The waler,
held back by the dam of logs, rushed
down tumultuousIy through the sluice-
gates, turned the great wheel which set
the machine in motion, escaped ard went
on its way though the woods, little
angry with dam and wheel, but rather
merry withal over its regained freedom.
All night long te woods had re-echoed
the trill of the night ngale, and all day
long the sound of the woodman's ak made
sweet music for the wives at Sagnauck.
Down deeper in the forest and farthest
from the settlement-so far, in fact, that
the sound of his ak could but family be
heard at the edge OF the wood-the msn
WHO had blazed the way and led the co'o-
nists TO thor new home was prep ring
his winter fuel on this autumn morning.
But no woman's heart would have quick
enc its beat for a moment with
thoughts of the chopper, had one heard
the ring Of his ak. or known it
WAS his. For Mark Hillary was the
black sheep of Sagnauck, and up to date
ha Il succeeded in acquiring for himself
reputation for roughness and, if not for
crime, the lear approach 10 it, which
caused his IespC ctable neighbors to look
upon him as little better than heather
if OF worse The minister said worse,
and in trnth his con luct, and open Iidi-
cule of those institutions which oul
Puritan fol efathers held most DEAR gave
ample reason for his low repute among
them. With strong will-power, aided
by great physical strength he had all his
life spurned coGtrol and resented any.
thing which sa avored of compulsion OF
restriction upon his nights or freedom of
thought and action. Thus he hed come
at once in contact with hurch and sta Q.
Early in life Mark Hillary had crossed
the oce IN and lent his strength in build
ipg up the New England, hop NJ in het
10 ind the freedom lie had not secured IN
old England, 80 when he encountered
the rigid laws of the Puritan govern
ment, which prescribed not only VIII 1t he
must believe and do, but what he must
believe and think, his nature rebeled,
and. being called to account once ortwice
for some careless remark concerning tn
Puritan faith, he abjured relig on aud
took the position Of open antagoaism to
the church Then, be ng badg by
both church and state, both of which had
been founded to allow freedom of belief,
lie became cynical AMI TOOK Gaze to spare
10 one, not even he Rev Henry Gran
Vile, if opportunity afforded o sharp
repartee.
And vet close observer must have
beea able TO detect some good in the man.
If he abjured his fellows, he at luasi
found friends among the lower animal
and he was thoroughly at home in The
forsst. HIS place was in the front, he
was wont to say, and, in time, hs grew
accustomed to add, as far from the
white man as possible" So, after year
in the settlement, he had blilt him
cabin in tbs woods. ba'f n mile west, and
rarely entered the village except on Sun
day and lecture days.
No doubt this seclusion had much to
co with the low I, ,pute he fell into, for
the man who despises the smallness of
his companions is rarely loved by those
he eseems so poorly, especially If he
takes no pains to conceal his opinion.
Blt out there by himself he communed
with nature in his rough way, was happy,
and would We been a tolerabiy decent
MN had be been left alone. He knew
every b I'd around his cabin, and watched
over their nests as though they were his
own property.
NV village" he sometimes said to
himself, what mora need nave 1 Of
friends?"
He took genuine pleasure also in sit
ting at evening in his cabin door ard
watching the tall trees, straight and stiff
in the calm summer, or bowing lefore
the storm which nov and then passed
ovelh Once he WAS heard to speak
to them as if they had been endowed
with life, which speech, being carried to
i1e N mister, fused no little concern in
the society, and was carefully filed away
to be brought out at some later day, when
chance snord be given to forcO this
heather into conversion, or whom his
offeuses had accumullt.d sufficient y to
give pretext for driving him away.
On this same morn ng at nine O'Clock
the minist. I left his sermon unfinished
upon his desk, and, with very severe
look upon his lonr, slim ce, walked
with quick. nervous step down the one
street of Sagn .uck.
The Rev. Henry Granville was tall
and we'll built man, but his EN- cated
body. sunken, sallow cheeks, and the
nervous twitch of his muscles as he
rested, stood or walked. showed that his
once strong constitution had been broken
either by too lengthy sittings by the study
lamp or by some secret trouble, which,
commencing with the mind, had gradu.
ally spread through his body until the
whole man had become its prey. The tall
frame was now little more than a skeleton
and he habitually bowed his head-not in
elf-deprecia' ion, but through weakness
and nervousness. The reverend gentle
man would have found it difficult tasi
to have hidden from justice had lie eveI
committed crime. He was at all times
aud in all places Henry Granville, and
could no more have changed his charac-
teristics or concealed his peculiarities
than the typical leopard could change his
vari-colored skin. The minister was al
ways recognized as far as he could be
seen. His long black coat, which no one
ever saw him without, unless it might be
his wife, and iumor said that he even
slept in it; the nervous twitching of his
body, raising his shoulders and lowering
his head his long strides in walking-all
these were familiar to each person, great
or small, in the settlement, and never yet
had he been able to appear at one end of
the street but that Dame Prouty. who
lived at the opposite extreme and Was
near SIGHTED. had not recognized him, II