Dylks, Joseph C. -- Fiction; Frontier and pioneer life -- Ohio -- Fiction; Impostors and imposture -- Fiction
The wide space on the bolting-cloth floor, before the bins mounded high
with new wheat, and the rows of millstones, motionless under their empty
hoppers, was lighted by candles in tin sconces, but these were so few that
they shone only on the foremost faces and left those behind a gleam of
eyes or teeth. The familiar machinery had put on a grewsome strangeness
which had its final touch from the roll lying on the table like something
dead. A table had been set in front of the barrels under the bolting
cloths, and the muslin funnels, empty of flour, hung down into the barrels
with the effect of colossal legs standing in them. The air of the hot
night was close within; a damp odor from the water flowing under the
motionless mill wheels seemed to cool it, but did not; the perspiration
shone on the faces where the light fell on them.
The miller and his family had places in the front line of the spectators,
and with them was the woman who had given the cloth for the miracle; and
who stood staring at the stuff, which she had known so intimately in every
thread and fiber, with an air of estrangement.
When the stumbling feet of the last arrivals ceased on the stairs, the
miller stood out facing the crowd, and told them that he expected the Good
Old Man, now, any minute, together with the Apostle Paul, whom they all
knew by his earthly name as their neighbor, Mr. Enraghty. He asked them to
be as still as they could, and especially after the Good Old Man came, to
be perfectly silent; not to whisper, and not to move if they could help
it. There was nothing, though, he said, to hinder the believers from
joining in their favorite hymn; and at once the wailing of it began to
fill the place. When it ended, the deep-drawn breath of some wearied
expectant made itself heard with the shifting of tired feet easing
themselves. The minutes grew into an hour, with no sign of Dylks or
Enraghty, and the miller was again forced to ask the patience of his
neighbors. But there began to be murmurs from the unbelievers, and more
articulate protests from the Hounds. Some children, whom the believers had
brought with them to see the divine power manifest itself, whimpered, and
were suffered to lie down at the feet of their fathers and mothers and
forget their disappointment in sleep. A babe, too young to be left at
home, woke and cried, and was suckled to rest again, with ironical
applause from the Hounds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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