The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-16
BACK TO THE OLD MILL.

The Grown Up Boy was going to
take her to see the old mill. 1t was
the first time he had been within
twenty miles of the mill in twenty
years, but all that time it had filed
green and pleasant spot in his memory.
Often he let his mind drift about in a
fiat bottomed scow on the smooth wa
tiers Of the mill pond above the dam.
That was an enormous mill pond. AS
he remembered it one could hardly see
from the fringing willows on one bank
to the green pasture lands which slOped
quickly down to the other. Lake Mich
igan spread out before his older eyes
has never doomed so large as that mill
pond. lying behind the mists OF twenty
years.
And the dam, Possibly somewhere has
been built a more tremendous engineer
ing work. but certainly the Grown UP
Boy had never seen it. He knew just
how the great head of water gathered
behind the dam came sweeping down
on to the apron in a sheet of green and
white water that was almost overpow-
ering in it's magnificence. Below the
dam, where the big powders lay in the
path of the stream, lay bass and pick
erel-better and bigger fish than the
wild lakes of Wisconsin or the rivers of
Canada had ever yielded to a more So
phisticated spoon hook.
The mill itself was a huge building
as he looked back at it. The Masonic
Temple might have been a trihe taller
and more bulky, but one could not be
too certain ever about that.
He remembered that the road to the
old mill was billy almost mountain
Gus. a sort of an Illinois Switzerland. 1t
took hours to climb one of those hills,
particularly when you had a stun
bruise" on your right big toe and you
were Juggling a sack full of hSh ana
other trophies.
Considering the length of the road and
the terrifying size of those hills as they
doomed up against the horizon OF ms
memory, the Grown Up Boy considered
that il would be wise to make an all day
trip of it, Possibly if they started early
in the morning and drove a couple or
good horses they might get back to din
ner. but it was no light undertaking.
The Grown UP Boy had told Her what
to expect. Of course he could not nope
TO do Justice to the grandeur OF the
scenery. but he had done his best. For
instance. when they had stood looking
at Niagara Falls he had said. only half
in Joke: But wait till you see old man
Atkinson's mill DAM"
And now they were on their way. me
two white horses went over the sprinSy
dirt road at a swinging trot- They
crossed the river and that stream which
poured wide and tumultuous flood
through the level plains of memory
looked strangely shrunken and quiet
Up Boy-and then he was reminded
that, on the contrary. it had been an
extremely wet season.
on either side of the road stood the
corn, towering up eight and ten feet
with its yellow Dlumes. There was no
shrinkage about that, at least. Only
in that fat lowlands along the river
banks where two or three times the
young corn had been washed out OF the
ground, was there any break in the
/ L p
where else the files were sold, elbow 10
elbow and plume to plume.
But where were the hills? Pleasant,
generous rolls and swells of land there
were in abundance, but those towering
mountainous crags and peaks OF mem
orv had vanished. The horses scarcely
stopped to breathe on the steepest of the
slopes. An old German farmer, rldlng
with his hausfrau, two daughters, ana
a small son in a green farm wagon came
along the road, driving a pair OF big
gray Normans In the pleasant country
fashion greetings we're passed as the
Grown Up Boy pulled up beside him.
Must have been cutting down the
hills hereabouts," said the perplexed
Mem" said the old farmer. with n
slow grin. "Dey bin yust te same dey
always was"
pond was left. They, at least, wound
measure up to the standard of the old
days.
The white mares swung around cor
ner out of the main road down into a
narrow lane, bordered with hazel and
sumac bushes and tangle of young
underbrush.
Keep your eyes open now said the
Grown UP Boy. land in a minute you'll
/ get your first glimpse of the old mill"
Presently the trees fell away on either
side and the road sloped steepiy down.
/ ward.
There" he said, pointing ahead as
the flash of something big and red