American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
The miller altered the appearance of the mill as little as possible.
The big overshot-wheel was left in its place. The young people who came
to the church used to cut their initials in its soft and slowly
decaying wood. The dam was partly destroyed, and the clear mountain
stream rippled unchecked down its rocky bed. Inside the mill the
changes were greater. The shafts and millstones and belts and pulleys
were, of course, all removed. There were two rows of benches with
aisles between, and a little raised platform and pulpit at one end. On
three sides overhead was a gallery containing seats, and reached by a
stairway inside. There was also an organ—a real pipe organ—in the
gallery, that was the pride of the congregation of the Old Mill Church.
Miss Phœbe Summers was the organist. The Lakelands boys proudly took
turns at pumping it for her at each Sunday’s service. The Rev. Mr.
Banbridge was the preacher, and rode down from Squirrel Gap on his old
white horse without ever missing a service. And Abram Strong paid for
everything. He paid the preacher five hundred dollars a year; and Miss
Phœbe two hundred dollars.
Thus, in memory of Aglaia, the old mill was converted into a blessing
for the community in which she had once lived. It seemed that the brief
life of the child had brought about more good than the three score
years and ten of many. But Abram Strong set up yet another monument to
her memory.
Out from his mills in the Northwest came the “Aglaia” flour, made from
the hardest and finest wheat that could be raised. The country soon
found out that the “Aglaia” flour had two prices. One was the highest
market price, and the other was—nothing.
Wherever there happened a calamity that left people destitute—a fire, a
flood, a tornado, a strike, or a famine, there would go hurrying a
generous consignment of the “Aglaia” at its “nothing” price. It was
given away cautiously and judiciously, but it was freely given, and not
a penny could the hungry ones pay for it. There got to be a saying that
whenever there was a disastrous fire in the poor districts of a city
the fire chief’s buggy reached the scene first, next the “Aglaia” flour
wagon, and then the fire engines.
So this was Abram Strong’s other monument to Aglaia. Perhaps to a poet
the theme may seem too utilitarian for beauty; but to some the fancy
will seem sweet and fine that the pure, white, virgin flour, flying on
its mission of love and charity, might be likened to the spirit of the
lost child whose memory it signalized.
There came a year that brought hard times to the Cumberlands. Grain
crops everywhere were light, and there were no local crops at all.
Mountain floods had done much damage to property. Even game in the
woods was so scarce that the hunters brought hardly enough home to keep
their folk alive. Especially about Lakelands was the rigour felt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account