Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-12-19

on him was wnen the steam mills were
introduced. For 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 dangerous devices.
Don't have anything to do with it.,
he cried. "To use steam for making
bread is an invention of the devil. 1
work with the Mistral and the Ira
montana, which are the breath of the
good God" He was really quite elo-
quent on the subject, but the people
paid no attention 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, girl
of fifteen, who, since the death of her
parents, had only her grandfather to
look to. The poor little thing had to
go out fruit picking or into service at
the farms, and yet he seemed fond Of
her and would walk dozen miles to
one of the farms where she was work
ing, and when he got there would sit
for hours looking at her, often with
the tears in his eyes. In the neigh
borhood people thought that he had
sent her away because he grudged the
cost of keeping her, and that it did
him no credit to let the poor child 60
about from one farm to another, ex-
posed to the bullying of the masters
and all the dangers that beset girl in
her unprotected state. 1t was also
thought very queer that respectable
man like Maitre Cormille should 90
about such an object. He looked such
a scarecrow, almost in rags as he was.
with his battered old hat, that we felt
quite ashamed to have him sit with us
at church, and supposed he must
have guessed it, for after bit he took
to sitting in the free seats. There was
mystery in his life. 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 q donkey
laden with great sacks of -four.
GOOD evening Maitre Cormille, +"
we would say, "How's business with
you? Isee your mill is always going. "
"Yes, children, it is going STILL" he
would answer cheerfully. "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, ooh, I
work for expectation, 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 wretched-looking IN
canny 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:
I had noticed for some time that
little Vivette and my eldest boy were
getting fond of one another; and I
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 a
bright little thing like that about the
house Only 1 thought the thing
ought to be done in proper form, so l
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
conld not get him to open the door. I
said my say as we'll as I could through
the keyhole, and all the while there
was his miserable skeleton of black
cat yelling like demon just over my
head. The old man never gave me a
chance to explain myself. He called
but that I had better take myself of.