Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1911-07-12
Nv EDWARD GILLETTE

, copyr.ght BY American Press Asso- &
ciatiou. 1st-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There Is no more dainty bit Of seen
.rv 10 my thinking. than one Of those
mile patched up, tumbledown, moss
.oxered water mills Of the olden time.
They are always situated at the lower
and of a pond. nesting under trees
and half buried in shrubbery. They
snask Of n past when farmers were
rsed TO carrying sack or two Of
.-a,n TO mill on horseback before them
20 have It ground. Now the grain Il
erown on bigger farms in bigger bulk.
and the individual farmers product Is
lost In a great cereal river that nows
n mills driven BY steam and with
stacks towering hundreds Of feet high.
progress Is there, but the little water
mill OF the past Is only useful to fur
pish themes for the artist
am one Of these knights of the
brush myself. One day. coming upon
such simple scene a. ! have man
toned. opened my three legged stool.
act I'D my easel and began to work In
nv colors. I have the picture I made
Of the mill. and no money would In
,duce me to part with It. There b .
s,ory connected with It, told me while
was painting. which, appealing to
nv fancy, rendered my work especial
" successful. The picture and the
story go together.
While | was at work man under
faded straw hat and suspendcrs un-
covered by coat or waistcoat came mp
behind me and looked at my work.
Re was a middle aged countryman.
with those burrows In his face that
seem to be transferred there from his
eyes being constantly fixed on burrows
made by his pillow. He seemed to take
a deep interest In my picture.
There's somep'n wanted on that
little space beside the wheel" he said
whats thaty' asked.
"a boy and girl"
what boy and giriY'
"somep'n happened there onct- I
kin tell y about II u y want to hear
IT,"
go ahead
"Its about myself and the girl. I
was nigh on to seventeen. and Janey
was fifteen. Children haven't got any
sense. and Janey wasn't much past
bein' a child. We had been playin'
together when we was at an age to
play. and now we was little older
We kept on playin' together. Anyway.
Janey was wild little thing and up
to all sorts OF pranks. What 1 was
dom about this time I'm speakin' OF
was tryin' to keep her from tumblin'
of the peak Of the barn roof, or fallin'
down through n hole In the haymow
floor. or gittin' drowned In the pond.
'one day we was over there where
dirt road led down to the mill. It's
all grown over with grass now. but
you can see where II was. At that
time the mill was run whenever there
was any grain to grind, and when
there wasn't the water was turned
Of the sluice. That day It was turned
OF.
The first thing / knew fancy she
climbed out on to the wheel. Her
weight was just enough TO turn 1t and
let her down slow. While she was
sinkin' she looked at me and laughed.
1t was purity enough laugh. but
somehow l didn't like to see her goin'
down into that hole. Cause there
wasn't any way for her 20 git out. 1t
was walled in. except near the top.
where an opening had been left to let
the water out. OF course when Janey
got to the bottom the wheel stopped
turnin'.
Then asked Janey to stand on It
and let me turn 1t and her back ag'in,
but she got OF and dared me to come
DOWN. l can see her eyes now just
a they looked then with lot Of dew
utry In 'em.
There was two simpletons instead
OF one. l got on to the wheel, and II
turned quicker with my weight than
with hers. i Joined Der At the bottom.
and she was amusin' herself In all
sorts Of ways dancin' and runnin'
around the wheel and hollerin' to hear
now queer II sounded down there.
Two or three times tried to gtt her
20 let me take her out. II wouldn't
De an easy matter In any event. The
oaly way It could be done was for N
% balance each other BY climbin' ON
opposite sidea of the wheel, But II
me water should b turned on We
couldn't do that.
First thing knew heard somep'n
moved student above, and down como
ne water. looked At Janey, scared
eut OF my boots. but Janey seemed to
consider It good Joke. the little fool,
ana began to dance about in the va.
ur on the stone door. But gradually
NE water rose. From the bottom to