Will 0' The Mill

The mili where Will lived with hls adopted parents stood in a falling valley between pine woods and great mountains. Above, hül after hill soared upwards until they soared out of the depth of the hardiest timber, and stood naked against the sky. Some way up, a long gray village lay like a seam or a rag of vapor on a wooded hillslde, and when the wind was favorable, the sound of the church bells would drop down, thin and silvery, to WÜL Below, the valley grew ever steeper and steeper, and at the same time widened out on either hand, and from an eminence beside the mili it was possible to see its whole length and away beyond it over a wide plain, where the river turned and shone, and moved on from city to city on us voyage towara tne sea. It chanced that over this valley there lay a pass into a neighboring kingdom, so that, quiet and rural as it was, the road that ran along beside the river was a high thoroughfare between two splendid and powerful societies. AU through the summer, traveling carriages came crawling up, or went plunging briskly downward past the mili; and as it happened that the other side was very much easier of ascent, the path was not much f requented except by people going in one direction; and of all the carriages that Will saw go by, five-sixths were plunging briskly downward and only one-sixth crawling up. Much more was this the case with foot passengers. All the lightfooted tourists, all the peddlers laden with strange wares, were tending downward iike the river that accompanied their path. Nor was this all; for when Will was yet a child a disastrous war arose over a great part of the world. The newspapers were f uil of defeats and victories, the earth rang with cavalry hoofs, and ofteu for days together and for miles around the coil of battle terrified good people from their labors in the field. Of all this, nothing was heard for a long time in the valley; but at last one of the commanders pushed an army over the pass by forced marches, and for three days horse and foot, cannon and tumbril, drum and Standard kept pouring downward past the milL Ali day the child stood and watched them on their passage- the rhythmical stride, the palé, unshaven faces tanned about the eyes,the discolored regimentals and the tattered flags, filled him with a sense of weariness. nifcv und wonder; and all night long, af ter he was in bed, he could hear the cannon pounding and the feet trampling, and the great armament sweeping onward and downward past the mili. Noone in the valleyever heard the fate of the expedition, for they lay out of the way of gossip in those troublous times; but Will saw one thing plainly, that not a man returned. Whither had they all gone? Whither went all the tourists and peddlers with strange wares? whither all the brisk barouches with servante in the dicky! whither the water of the stream, ever eoursing downward and ever renewed f rom above? Even the wind blew oftener down the valley, and carried the dead leaves along with it in the fall. It seemed like a great conspiracy of things animate and inanimate ; they all went downward, fleetly and gayly downward, and only he, it seemed, remained behind, like a stock upon the wayside. It times made Lim glad when he noticed how the fishes kept their heads up stream. They, at least, stood faithfully by him, while all else were posting downward to the uukiiown world. One evening he asked the milier where the river went. "It goes down the valley," answered he, "and tornt a power of milis- six score milis, they say, from here to Unterdeck- and it none the wearier after all. And then it goes out iuto the lowlands, and waters tho great corn country, and runs througu a sight of fine cities (so they say) where kings livo all alone in great palaces, with a sentry walking up and down before the door. And it goes under bridges with stone men upon them, looking down and smiling so curious at the water, and living folks leaning their elbows on the wall and looking over too. And then it goes on and on, and down through marshes and sands, until at last it falls into the sea, where the ships are that briug parrots and tobáceo from the Indios. Ay. it has a long trot before it as it goes ginging over our weir, bless its heart !" "And what is the sea)" asked Will. "The sea!" cried the millcr. "Lord help us all, it is the gre.-Ufst thin; God madel That is where al] the water in tbeworld runs down into a great salt lake. Thero it lies, as flat as my hand and as innocent like as a child; but tlioy do saywhentho wind blows it gets up iuto water mountains bigger than any of ours and swallows down great sliips bigger than our mili, and makes such a roaring that you can hew it milos away upon the land. Thera are great rish in it five times bigger than a buil, and one old serpent as long as our river and as old as all tho world, with whiskers like a man and a crown of silver on her head." Will thought he had never heard anything like thls, and ho kepton asking question af ter questiou about the world that layaway down the river, with all its perils and marvels, until the old miller became quite interested himself, and at last took him by the hand and led him to the hilltop that overlooks the valley and the plain. The sun was near setting dnd hung low down in a eloudless sky. Everything was defined and glorified in golden light. Will had never seen so great an expanse of country in his life ; he stood and gazed with all his eyes. He could see the cities, and the woods and fields, and the bright curves of the river, and far away to where the Hm of the plain trenched along the shining heavens. An overmastering emotion seized upon the boy, soul and body; his heart beat so thickly that he could not breathe; the scène swam bef ore his eyes; the Bun seemed to wheel round and round, and throw off, as it turned, strange shapes which disappeared with the rapidity of thought, and were succeeded by others. Will covered hia face with his hands and burst into a violent fit of tears; and the poor miller, sadly disappointed and perplexed, saw nothing better for.it thanto take him up in his arms and carry him home in silence. From that day forward Will was full of new hopes and longings. Something kept tugging at his heart strings; the running water carried his desires along with it as he dreamed over its fleeting surf ace; the wind, as it ran over innumerable tree tops, hailed him with encouraging words; branches beekoned downward; the open roatl, as it shouldered round the angles and went turning and vanishing fast and faster down the valley, tortured him with its solicitations. He spent long whiles on the eminence, looking down the rivershed and abroad on the flat lowlands, and watched the clouds that traveled f orth upon the sluggish wind and trailed their purple shadows on the plain; or he would linger by the wayside, and follow the carriages with his eyes as they rattled downward by the river. It did not matter what it was; everything that went that way, were it cloud or carriage, bird or brown water in the stream, ha feit his heart flow out after it in an ecstasy of loncins-. We are told by men of science that all the ventures of marinera on the sea, all that countermarchine of tribes and races that eonf ounds old history with its dust and rumor, prang rrom notning more abstruse t nan xt laws of supply and demand, and a certain natural instinct for cheap rations. Toany one thinking deeply, this will seem a dull and pitiful explanation. The tribes that came swarming out of the north and east, if they were indeed pressed onward from behind by others, were drawn at the same time by the magnetio influence of the south and west. The fame of other lands had reached them; the name of the eternal city rang in theirears; they were not colonists, but pilgrims; they tra veled towards wine and gold and sunslüne, but their hearts were set on soinething higher. That divine unrest, that old stinging trouble of humanity that makes all high aehievements and all miserable failure, the same that spread wings with Icarus, the same that sent Columbus into the desolate Atlantic, inspired and supported these barbarians on their perilous march. There is one legend which v luprewjnis meir spint, of how a flying party of these wanderere encountered a very old man shod with iron. The old man asked them whithor they were going; and they answered with one voice: "To the Eternal Cityl" He looked upon them gravely. "I have sought it," he said, "over the most part of the world. Three Buch pairs as I now carry on my feet have I worn out upon this pilgrimago, and now the fourth is growing slender underneath my steps. And all thia while I have not found the city." And he turned and went his own way alone, leaving them astonished. And yet this would scarcely parallel the intensityof Will's feeling for theplain. If he could only go far enough out there, he feit as if his eyesight would be purged and clarifled, as if his hearing would grow more delicate and his very breath would come and go with luxury. He was transplanted and withering where he was; he lay in a strange country and was sick for home. Bit by bit he pieced together broken notions of the world below; of the river, ever moving and growing until it sailed forth into the majestic ocean; of the cities, f uil of brisk and beautiful people, playing fountains, bands of music and marble palaces, and lighted up at night from end to end with artificial stars of gold; of thegreat churches, wise universities, bravo armies and untold money lying stored in vaults; of the high flying vice that moved in the sunshine and the stealth and swiftness of midnight murder. I have said he was sick as if for home: the figure halts. He was like some one lvine in twilit. less pre-existence, and stretching out his hands lovingly toward many colored, many sounding life. It was no wonder he was unhappy, he would go and teil the fish: they were made f or their life, wished f or no more than worms and running water and a hole below a f 3 Hing bank; but he was differently designed, full of desires and aspiratious, itching at the fingers, lusting with the eyes, whom the whole variegated world could not satisfy with aspects. The true life, the true bright sunshine, lay far out upon the plain. And Oí to see this sunlight once bef ore he died! to move with a jocund spirit in a golden land! to hear the trained singers and sweet church bells and seo the holiday gardens! "And O fish!" ha would cry, "if you would only turn your noees down stream, you could swim so easily into the fabled waters and see the vast ships passing over your head like clouds, and hear the" great water in lis making musie over you all day long!" But the flsh kept looking patiently in their own direction, until Will hardly knew whether to laugh or cry. Hitherto the traffie on the road had passed by Will, like something seen in a picture; he had perhaps exchanged salutatious with a tourist, or caught sight of an old gentleman in a travüling cap at a carriage window; but for the most part it had been a mere symbol, which he contemplated from apart and with something oí a superstitious feeling. A time carne at last when this was to bo changed. The miller, who was a greedy man in bis way, and never forewent an opportunity of honest profit, turned the mili house Into a little wayside inn, and, soveral pieces of good fortune falling in opportunely, built stables and got the position of postinaster on tha road. It now became Wül's duty to wait upon people, as they sat to break their f asts In the little arbor at the top of the mili garden ; and you may be sure that he kept his ears open, and learned many new things about the outside world as he brought the omelet or the wine. Nay, he would often get into conversation with single guests, and by adroit questions and polite attention, not only gratify bis own curiosity, biit wij the goodwill of tba travelers. Many oomplimcntod tlio oM cotple on their serving boy, and a professor was eager to take him away with him and hav5 bim proerly educated in tbo plain. Tho mffln and bis ivife wcre mightily astonished and even more pleased. Tbcy thought it a vcry good thing that they sbould havo opened their inn. "You see," the oíd man would remark, "he has a kind of talent for a publican ; be never would have mado anything else !" And so life wagged on in the valley, with high satisfaction to al! concerned but Will. Every carriagethat left the inn door seemed to take a part of Min away with it, and when people jestingly offored hini a lift he could with difflculty command his emotion. Night after night he would dream that ho was awakened by flustered servante, and that a splendid equipago waited at the door to carry him down into the plain; night after nijht; until tho dream, which had seemed all jollity to him at first, began to take on a color of gravity, and the nocturnal summons and waiting equipage occupied a place in his mind as something to be both feared and hoped for. One day, when Will was about 16, a fat young man arrived at sunset to pass the night. He was a contente:! looking fellow, with a jolly eye, and earried a knapsack. While dimier was preparing he sat in the arbor to read a book; but as soon as he had begun to observe Will the book was laid aside; he was plainly one of those who prefer living people to people made of ink and paper. Will, on his part, although he had not been much interested in the stranger at first sight, sooa began to take a great deal of pleasure in his talk, which was iull of good nature and good sense, and at last conceived a great respect for his character and wisdom. They sat far into the night, and about 2 in the morning Will opened his heart to the young man and told hún how he longed to leave the valley, and what bright hopes he had connected with the cities of tho plain. The young man whistled and then broke into a smile. "My young friend," he remarked, "you are a very curious little fellow to be sure, and wish a great many things whieh you will never get. Why, you would feel quite ashamed if you knew how the little fellows in these fairy cities of yours are all after the same sort of nonsense and keep breaking their hearts to get up into the mountains. And let mo teil you, those who go down into the plains are a very short while there before they wish themselves heartily back again. The air is not so light nor so pure, nor is the sun any brighter. As for the beautiful men and women, you would see many of them in rags and many of them deformed with horrible disorders; and a city is so hard a place for people who are poor and sensitiva that many choose to die by their own hand." "You must think me very simple," answered Witi. "Although I have never been out of this valley, believe me, I have used my eyes. I know how one thing Uves on another; for instanee, how the fish hangs in the eddy to catch his f ellows ; and the shepherd, who malees so pretty a picture carrying home the lamb, is only carrying it home for dinner. Ido not expect to find all things right in your cife. That is not what troubles me. It might have been that once upon a time; but although I live here always, I haveasked many questions and learned a great deal in these last years, and certainly enough tocure me of my old fancies. But you would not have me die lika a dog and not see all that is to be seen, and do all that a man can do, let it be good or evil? you would not have me spend all my days between this road here and the river, and not so much as make a motion to be up and live my life- I would rather die out of hand," he cried, "than linger on as I am doing." 'Thousands of people," said the young man, "live and die like you and are none the less happy." "Ah!"said Wil], "if there are thousands who would like, why should not one of them have my place?" It was quite dark; there was a hanging lamp in the arbor which lit up the table and the faces of the speakers, and along the arch the leaves upon the trellis stood outilluminated against the night sky, a nattern of transparent green upon a dusky purple. The fat young inan rose and taking Will by the arm led him out under the open heavens. "Did you ever look at the stars?" he asked, pointing upwards. "Oftenand often," answered VVifl. "And do you know what they are?" 'I fancied many things." "They are worlds like ours," said the young man. "Some of them less; many of them a million times greater; andsome of the least sparkles that you see are not only worlds, but whole clusters of worlds turning about each other in the midst of space. We do not know what there mav h in nnv nt tham. perhaps the answer to all our difficulties or the cure of all our sufferings: and yet we can never reach them; not all the skül of the craftiest of men can fit out a ship for the nearest of these our neighbors, nor would the Ufe of the most aged sufflce for such a journey. When a great battle has been lost or a dear friend is dead, when we are hipped or in high spirits, there they are unweariedly shining overhead. We may stand down here, a whole army of us together, and shout until we break our hearts, and not a whisper reaches them. We may climb the highest mountains and we are no uearer them. All we can do is to stand down nere in ine garden and tako oír our hats; the starshine lights upon our heads, and where mine is a little bald, I daro say you can seo it glisten in the darkness. The mountain and the mouse. That is like to lie all we shall ever havo to do with Arcturus or Aldebaran. Can you apply a parable?" he added, laying his hand upon WilI's shoulder. "It is not the samo thing as a reason, but usually vastly more convincing." VVill hung his head a little, and tuen raised it once more to heaven. The stars seemed to expand and emit a sharper brillianey ; and as he kept turning his eyes higlier and higher they seemed to increase In multitude under his gaze. "I see," he said, turning to the young man, "we are in a rat trap." "Something of that size. Did you ever see a squirrel turning in a cage, and another squirrel sitting philosophically over his nuts I needn't ask you which of them looked more of a fooi."