Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1904-12-24
village by Offering his farm for sale

or rent-and the prophet at the corner
grocery declared that Marcus Miller
was going to the bad-certain 1t was
that he was going somewhere. To all
questions on the matter, he answered,
I'm going to see the world" in the
tone OF one who announced the In
evitable. And wise heads shook sad
ly over his folly, and only one pair
of kindly eyes held CLEAN OF SYM
pathy-they belonged to old man Per-
kins, who had in his youth taken in
a ten days excursion to the metrop-
oils, the memory of which had fol-
lowed him through the years, and
been the one bit of color in his mo-
notonous life.
Obediah Perkins was sometimes re-
minded of that trip when he saw a
crimson poppy waving in his potato
patch. 81 don't know as l blame you,
Marcus" he said, when you get as
old as me you won't regret anything
so much as the good times you
missed"
And 1t was he who helped Marcus
find good man to rent the farm for
two years. And one day Marcus
packed his new Gladstone bag, and,
amid the solemn farewells of his
friends, the Ulysses of Martinsville
departed on his wanderings.
Henceforth society at the corner
grocery was never dull. The interest
in the probable doings of Marcus
Miller never waned, and after many
months letter with a foreign stamp
came to Obediah Perkins, who hur-
ried proudly over to the grocery store
with it, determined that his friends
MOULD take part in the important GER
emony of opening the interesting
epistle.
The letter came from England, and
in few sentences Marcus Miller ex-
planned that he was just beginning to
realize what life meant. The letter
was carefully read over by all pres
ent, then with the aid of some strips
of court plaster they pasted it to the
inside of the glass candy case, where
for many days it received more at
tention than is paid to many of the
old masterpieces in the gallery Of the
Louvre. Two years passed, and one
spring morning when the blue mists
lowered over the greening fields, and
the woods were sweet with arbutus,
Marcus Miller came home.
He got off at the flag station and
walked through the wood lot in the
direction of his farm. Just before he
reached the clearing he sat down on
a log and rested his head on his hand.
Obediah Perkins, searching for
stray member of his chicken coop.
came slowly through the woods and
halted in establishment a few feet
from Marcus.
The sunlight sitting through the
branches shone on the wanderers
face and the old man studied it in
silence, held speeches. by great
peace that shone there, peace too
profound to be disturbed by petty
cares and little worries. Marcus
Miller had learned the measurements
of human life, and Obediah Perkins
understood.
The two men greeted each other
quietly. you've got what no one can
take from you," said the old man, and
Marcus grasped his hand and smiled
the smile of one who has compile
ton in his soul.
That summer he took up the farm
again and the same monotonous round
began. But never again was it monot-
onous to Marcus Miller. He blended
what was with what had been and
glowed with the fullness of life. He
had seen so much Of the world that
he was contented to sit in his little
corner and let the memory of it all
pass before him like an eternal pano-
rama, for Marcus Miller had the see-
ing eye and had become a part of all
that he had seen-he had built his
soul lordly pleasure house whereon
no man could attach a mortgage
The Four-Track News.