The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-08-16
A MILLER'S SECRET.

U W u
/ imagine what the effect on him was when
/ the steam -four mills were introduced.
/ For a week he ran about the village trying
/ to stir up the people and warning them
/ against the folks who were coming to
/ poison Provence with their new and dan
| gerous devices. Don't have anything to
| do with it. - he cried. ITO use steam for
making bread is an invention of the devil.
/ I work with the mistral and the tramon-
/ tana, which are the breath Of the good
| God" He was really quite eloquent on
/ the subject, but the people paid no atten-
! ton whatever and went on getting their
/ -four at the new mills.
Then the old fellow shut himself up in
his mill and lived all alone like a wild
beast. He would not even keep with him
his grandchild Vivette, a girl of 10, who,
since the death of her parents, had only
her grandfather TO look to. The poor lit
tie thing had to 90 out fruit picking or in
to service at the farms, and yet he seemed
fond of her and would walk a dozen miles
to one of the farms where she was work
1 ing and when he got there would sit for
hours looking at her, often with the tears
in his eyes. For long time no one in the
village had taken any corn to him to grind,
and yet his mill was always going, and in
the evening we used to meet the old man
coming home, driving before him donkey
laden with great sacks of -four.
Good evening, Maitre Cormille, " we
would say. "How's business with you? 7
see your mill is always going"
Eyes, children, it is going still, " he
would answer cheerfuIly. "Thank God,
we don't want for work. >"
Then if you asked him where on earth
the work came from he would purse up
his lips and answer, "Oh, I work for ex-
portation - and there was no more to be
got out of him.
AS to putting ones foot inside his mill,
no one ever dreamed of doing that The
door was always shut when one passed
and the great sails always turning, the old
donkey grazing in the field and wretohed
looking, uncanny black cat taking the air
on the wall and looking unamiably at you
Well, the secret was discovered at Last,
and this was how it happened.
had noticed for some time that little
Viyette and my Oldest boy were getting
fond Of one another, and had nothing
against it, because, after all, the name of
Cormille had always been held in honor
among US, and then it would be rather
nice to have bright little thing like that
about the house. Only thought the thing
ought to be done in proper form, so went
up to the mill one day to talk it over with
the grandfather.
All, the old sorcererl You should have
seen how he received me. I could not get
him to open the door. said my say as
well as I could through the keyhole, and
all the while there was his miserable skel-
eton of a black cat yelling like a demon
just over my head. The old man never
gave me chance to explain myself. He
called out that I had better take myself
of, and that if I were in a hurry to have
my boy married I could get hold of a girl
at the steam mills. You can imagine how
angry I was, but I thought I had better
leave the old fellow to himself, and SO
went back and told the poor children the
result of my visit. They could hardly be-
ieve it and asked me as favor to let
them go and see what they could do.
had not the courage to refuse them, and
of the couple went.
When they arrived, ATaitre Cormille had
just gone out. The door was double
locked, but the old fellow before starting
had left his ladder outside, and suddenly
it occurred to them that they would get
in at the window, which they did.
Strange to say, the large room was
empty, not a sack of grain to be seen nor
a speck Of flour on the floor or the cobweb
covered walls. Up stairs in the old man g
room everything had the same look of pow
erty and desolatiOn-a wretched bed, a
few rags lying about, piece of bread on
the stairs and then in the corner a sack or
two from which escaped some pieces Of
chalk and plaster.
This was his secret. 1t was this that he
brought home in the evening to save the
honor of the mill and to make believe that
it still had work
The two poor young things came back
crying and told me what they had seen.
1t wrung my heart to hear them. Without
losing a moment I went to the neighbors
and told them the whole tale in half a
dozen words We agreed on the instant to
carry to the mill all the grain we could
serape together No sooner said than
done. All the village turned out, and we
off f1-i1 If
keys laden with hour-real -four this time.
As we drew near we saw the door wide
open and Maitre Cormille sitting before it
on a sack of plaster, weeping, with his face
in his hands. He had just learned that
his secret had been discovered. Now I
have only to die; the mill is dishonoredP'
He was sobbing fit to break your heart and
calling the mill by all sorts of pet names,
speaking Of it as If it were living thing.
The donkeys pulled up on the green be-
fore the mill, and we all called out: 8 Hell
10, Miller Hello, Maitre Cormillel'' Just
as the customers always did in the old
days.
Maitre Cormille started, and we'll he
might. He saw the sacks with the beau
tiful red wheat burst out of them He
took some in his hand and said, laughing
and crying at once: sit is wheat. Good
heavens, it is really wheat Let me look
at it. Then, turning to US, II knew you
WOuIu come Dack TO me, ne said. All
those steam mills are frauds We want
ed to carry him through the village in tri-
umph, but he would not have it. mo,
no, children 1 must go and give my mill
something to eat. 1t is long enough, poor
thing, since she has had anything between
her teeth. -
1t was really touching to see the poor
old fellow running here and there, empty
ing the sacks, working the mill, while the
corn was being crushed betvyeen the Grind
stones and the fine -four dust few up to
the ceiling.
Let me do myself and my friends the
justice to say that from that time we new