{"product_id":"2940015746723","title":"THE LAUGHING MILL \u0026 OTHER STORIES","description":"CONTENTS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                               PAGE\u003cbr\u003e  THE LAUGHING MILL               3\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  CALBOT'S RIVAL                105\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  MRS. GAINSBOROUGH'S DIAMONDS  177\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  THE CHRISTMAS GUEST. A Myth   295\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE LAUGHING MILL.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmong the pleasantest memories of my earlier days is one of an old\u003cbr\u003egabled farmhouse overlooking the sea. It is a July afternoon, calm and\u003cbr\u003ehot. The sea is pale blue and its surface glassy smooth; but the passage\u003cbr\u003eof a storm somewhere to the eastward causes long slumberous undulations\u003cbr\u003eto lapse shorewards. They break upon the Devil's Ribs--that low black\u003cbr\u003ereef about half a mile out--and the sound is borne to our ears some\u003cbr\u003eseconds after the white-foam line has marked itself against the blue and\u003cbr\u003evanished. There is a fine throb of sun-loving insects in the air, which\u003cbr\u003ewe may hear if we listen for it; but more immediately audible is the\u003cbr\u003eguttural drawing of old Jack Poyntz's meerschaum pipe, and the delicate\u003cbr\u003eclicking of his sweet daughter Agatha's polished knitting-needles. From\u003cbr\u003ewithin doors comes the fillip of water and the clink of chinaware--good\u003cbr\u003eMrs. Poyntz washing up the dinner-things. For we have just dined, and\u003cbr\u003ethe blessing of a good digestion is upon all of us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYes; there we three sit, in my memory, side by side upon the stone\u003cbr\u003ebench outside the farmhouse door. The projecting eaves throw a quiet,\u003cbr\u003etransparent shadow over us. Two or three venerable hens are scratching\u003cbr\u003eand nestling in the hot sandy soil near yonder corner, and conversing\u003cbr\u003etogether in long-drawn comfortable croakings. The fragrant smoke from\u003cbr\u003ePoyntz's pipe-bowl circles upwards on the air, until it takes the\u003cbr\u003esunlight high over head. Truly a pleasant time, whose peacefulness is\u003cbr\u003estill present with me after so many years. I am old, who then was young;\u003cbr\u003ebut that July sunshine is warm in my heart to-day.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePoyntz was an ancient mariner--not lean and uncanny, however; but burly,\u003cbr\u003ejovial, and brown; with a huge grizzled beard spreading over his mighty\u003cbr\u003echest, a voice as deep and mellow as a sea-lion's, and eyes as blue and\u003cbr\u003eclear as the ocean upon which they had looked for more than sixty years.\u003cbr\u003eHe had been a successful sailor, had visited many lands and brought home\u003cbr\u003emany cargoes, and was, in a rough simple way, a thorough cosmopolitan.\u003cbr\u003eAfter his last voyage he had settled down in the ancestral farmhouse,\u003cbr\u003eand applied himself to agriculture. He was as prosperous, contented, and\u003cbr\u003erespected a man as any in the neighbourhood; and during the fortnight\u003cbr\u003eor so that I had lodged beneath his roof, I had grown into a hearty\u003cbr\u003eliking for him. While as to Agatha--ah, it was not liking that I felt\u003cbr\u003efor her! Strange that that fair, finely-moulded, queenly creature was\u003cbr\u003eonly a sailor's daughter! Much as I honoured Poyntz, I could not help\u003cbr\u003esometimes feeling surprised at it. At all events, she was as perfect\u003cbr\u003ea lady as ever stepped on high-arched feet; and I fancied that the\u003cbr\u003eold mariner and his wife treated her in a manner more befitting a\u003cbr\u003edistinguished visitor than a child of their own. There was sturdy little\u003cbr\u003ePeter, now--he whose brown legs were visible beneath the low spreading\u003cbr\u003ebough of a scrub-oak beside the mill-stream yonder--there could be no\u003cbr\u003edoubt as to _him_. But what a brother for Agatha!","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47146411163888,"sku":"2940015746723","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015746723","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}