Story Hour Readers — Book Three

								

toward home.
His wife was in the hayfield, spreading the hay after the mowers. He
passed her on the way home and told her that he would attend to
breakfast that morning.
"I will call you when all is ready," said he.
When the Rich Brother reached home, he placed the Mill on the table, and
told it to grind porridge and red herrings.
The Mill began at once to grind oatmeal porridge and fat red herrings.
All the dishes and pans were soon filled. Then the porridge and herrings
began to flow over the kitchen floor into the yard.
The Rich Brother tried to stop the Mill. He turned and twisted and
screwed the handle, but he could not stop it, for he did not know the
magic words.
At last he waded through the porridge across the fields to the mowers,
crying, "Help! Help!"
When he told the mowers about the Mill, they said, "Ask your brother to
stop the Mill, or we shall be drowned in porridge."
Then the Rich Brother ran to the Poor Brother's house, crying and
shouting for help.
The Poor Brother laughed when he found out what had happened. They rowed
back to the kitchen in a boat, and the Poor Brother whispered the magic
words. The Mill stopped grinding.
In the course of time, the porridge soaked into the ground, but after
that nothing would grow there excepting oats, and afterwards the brooks
and ponds were always filled with herrings.
The Rich Brother no longer wished to keep the Mill. The Poor Brother
carried it home once more and placed it behind the door.
Years afterwards, a rich merchant sailed from a distant land and
anchored his ship in the harbor. He visited the home of the Poor Brother
and asked about the Mill, for he had heard how wonderful it was.
"Will it grind salt?" the merchant asked.
"Yes, indeed!" said the Poor Brother. "It will grind anything in the
whole world excepting snow and ham."
"Let me borrow the Mill for a short time, and great will be your
reward," said the merchant.
He thought it would be much easier to fill his ship with salt from the
Mill, than to make a long voyage across the ocean to procure his cargo.
The Poor Brother consented gladly. The merchant went away with the Mill.
He did not wait to find out how to stop the grinding.
When the merchant went aboard the ship, he said to the captain, "Here is
a great treasure. Guard it carefully."
The captain thought that the little Mill did not appear very wonderful,
but he placed it upon the deck of the ship. Then he ordered the sailors
to their posts of duty, and the ship sailed away.
When they were out at sea, the merchant said, "Captain, we need not go
any further upon our voyage. The Mill will grind out salt enough to fill
the hold of the ship."
So saying he cried,


"Grind, quickly grind, little Mill,
Grind SALT--with a right good will!"
And the Mill ground salt, and more salt, and still more salt. When the
hold of the ship was full of salt, the merchant cried, "Now you must