The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920, 1913-09-05

must do the rest. Nature has provided
a mineral spring, grapevine swings
and croquet-even the wickets are
wooden. You have Art to thank only
for the fiddle and guitar music twice
a week at the hop in the rustic pa
vilion.
The patrons of the Eagle House are
those who seek recreation rs a neces-
sity as well as a pleasure. They are
busy people. who may he likened to
clocks that need IL fortnight's winding
to insure a years running Of their
wheels. You will find students there
from the lower towns. now and then
an artist or a geoloCist absorbed in
constituting the ancient strata Of the
hills. 4. few quiet families spend the
summers there, and often or two
tired members Of that patient sister
hood known to Lakelands as school
marms."
House was what would have been de-
scribed to its guests as IAN object Of
interest," in the catalogue. had the
Eagle House issued a catalogue. This
was an old, old mil that was 10 long
er a mill. In the words of Josiah Ran
kin. it was the only church in the
United States, sab. with an overshot
wheel. and the only mill in the world.
sab. with pews and a pipe organ"
The guests Of the Eagle House attend
ed the old mill church each Sabbath
and heard the preacher liken the pu-
rified Christian to holted flour ground
to usefulness between the millstones
OF experience and suffering.
Every year about the beginning Of
autumn there came to the Eagle House
one Abram Strong. who remained for
4 time an hOnored and beloved guest.
In Lakelands he was called Father
Abram." because his hair vas so
white. his face so strong and kind and
forid. his laugh 50 merry. and his
black clothes and broad hat so priestly
IN appearance. Even new guests aft
er three or four days acquaintance
gave him this familiar title.
Father Abram came a long way to
Lakelands. He lived in a big. roaring
town in the northwest. where he own
ed mills, not little mills with rews and
an organ in them. but great. ugly,
mountain-like mills that the freight
trains crawled around all day like
ants around an ant heap. And now
you must be told about Father Abram
and the mill that was a church, for
their stories run together.
In the days when the church was a
mill Mr.. Strong was the miller. There
was no %jollier. dustier. buster. happier
miller in all the land than he. He
lived in a little cottage across the road
from the mill. His hand was heavy,
but his toll was light. and the noun
~taineers brought their grain to him
across many weary miles Of rocky
roads.
The delight of the miller's life was
his little daughter. Aglaia. That was
a brave name truly for a f1axen haired
toddler, but the mountaineers love
sonorous and stately names. The
mother had encountered it somewhere
In a book, and the deed was done. In
her babyhood Aglaia herself repudi-
ated the name, as far as common use
went, and persisted in calling herself
"Dums." The miller and his wife
often tried to coax from Aglaia the
source of this mysterious name, but
without results. At last they arrived
at a theory. In the little garden be-
hind the cottage was q bed Of rhodo-
dendrons in which the child took a
peculiar delight and interest. 1t may
have been that she perceived In
"Dums' a kinship to the formidable
name of her ~favorite flowers.
When Aglaia was four years old she
and her father used to go through a
little performance in the mill every
afternoon that never failed to come
off, the weather permitting. When
supper was ready her mother would
brush her hair and put on a clean
apron and send her across to the mill
to bring her father home. When the
miller saw her coming in the mill door
he would come forward, all white with
the -four and dust, and a his hand
and sing an old miller's song that was
familiar in those parts and ran some
thing like this:
The wheel goes round;
The srist Is ground;
The dusty miller's merry.
He sings all day;
His work is play
- 49,. yI-. s lt~ -Hna- a.