The Laughing Mill and Other Stories

lda. Jael, the old housekeeper, looked at her sharply, and asked what good such a little creature cou

t her with reverence, and tenderly, as you would treat the best and purest aspiration of your heart. If we

other before her. Well, maybe her family will come after her some day, and pay us well for taking care of her. Or who knows but she may

he exclaimed, looking into her blue eyes. "Can't speak English, eh? That's a pity; but live and lea

But I shall not teach her English. Let her speak only the langu

he won't teach her English I will. Devil take me if she isn't a sweet little fairy; and she's quite ench

he won't be a child much longer, David. Why, come th

oo old to marry her," he answere

a lady, and good enoug

ant-I've got that already, thanks to your good looks; what I want and haven't

or all we know. If she was saved off a ship where all the rest were lost, of co

ashore-nothing to

"and so far as I can make out, I

right pretty little thing she is, and no mistake. But I'm not a-going to run any risks, old woman. Supposi

girl fond of you so as she wouldn't marry any but you; then you'd have her safe,

o let him see what we're up to; luckily he never did see what's going on under his nose. By-the-way,

is mother stood listening, pale-faced. His eyes w

med harshly into the listeners' ears. If a fiend had burst into a long fit of malign

mer away. Devil take me if I don't begin to believe it is the soul of that cursed husband of yours, that yo

id the woman, in a shaken voice. "I woul

se," returned the son, angrily. "It's you that wronged him, not I; and as

turned aside and passed out. She loved her son, and would have shed

his lips and muttering to himself. Suddenly he heard

hat noise?"

e old story. Something wrong wi

ke the shriek of an evil spirit. Let it never come again; it frightens Swanh

avid, smiling. "It sounds bad to you because it makes her head ache. As to stopping it, I'd do so, and gladly

and bitterness. Swanhilda was born to hear divine harmonies, a

d the younger man, in a harder tone. Then he smiled again and added, in his mut

idenly reserve and dignity not lightly to be overcome. But the guileless fascination which she unconsciously exercised upon all she met was impossible to resist. She gladdened all eyes and hearts, and the mill became a storehouse of beauty and gladness as well as of grain and meal. People came from all the surrounding neighbourhood to see Scholar Gloam's water-nymph; and at last, when the Laughing Mill was mentioned, they thought of Swanhilda's airy merriment-not of the ill

he was ready to sacrifice anything for her sake, to give her anything-unless it were, perhaps, the freedom to be to another all that she was to him. But apparently she was well content. Gloam was the only one who spoke her language, and the only one, therefore, with whom she could converse unrestrainedly. He would not teach her English, and if others attempted to do so it was without his knowledge or consent. He believed, it may be, that no one but himself could appr

right and beauty. But Gloam's experience had not taught him this. He did not dream that she could ever learn to deceive him, or to give him less than the first place in her heart. But he dreamed that some day, distant perhaps, at least indefinite-they would be married. By all rights they belonged to each other, and when they h

hair was yellow as an evening cloud; her face and bearing full of life and warmth. Her nature was strengthening and expanding; she was beginning to measure herself against her associates. Though so gentle, she was all untamed; no one had ever mastered or controlled