Mel

“ Goth. *milwa (gen. *milwis) is by chance not recorded. It is a specifically Teut. derivative of the root mal, ‘to grind,’ of which the form mel is authenticated by Slav. and Ir.; see mahlen. While the vb. mahlen is common to West Aryan, the form of the word Mehl, from the root mel, is peculiar to Teut. ”

“ Melville would remark, in her mincing manner, that the idea of the admission of a tailor into society seemed very unnatural; and Aunt Bel confessed that her experience did not comprehend it.
'As to that,' said Lady Jocelyn, 'phenomena are unnatural. The rules of society are lightened by the exceptions. What I like in this Mel is, that though he was a snob, and an impostor, he could still make himself respected by his betters. He was honest, so far; he acknowledged his tastes, which were those of Franks, Melville, Seymour, and George—the tastes of a gentleman. ”

“ The boys shook hands until their arms were lame, and laughed and cheered uproariously; and Clint got leave of absence for the rest of the day, and they all went back to the island again—all but Mel, who had, he said, to go home with the twins. ”

“ Melville, a ringleted English lady, or of Portuguese with the Countess, who likewise sipped chocolate and fingered dry toast, and was mournfully melodious. The Hon. Melville, as became a tall islander, carved beef, and ate of it, like a ruler of men. Beautiful to see was the compassionate sympathy of the Countess’s face when Rose offered her plate for a portion of the world-subjugating viand, as who should say: “Sweet child! thou knowest not yet of sorrows, thou canst ballast thy stomach with beef!” ”

“ Perhaps, Mell, there is no one in the whole world who understands you—your nature, in its strength and in its weakness—as well as I. You are not a perfect woman, Mell; you have one fault, but even that fault I love because I so love you! ”

“ Mell, Mell, you should have thought of that before you sold yourself!
At daylight she crawled upstairs and into bed. The ball had been a great success and she its reigning belle. Women like her, with such a form, with such a face, with such glory of hair and wealth of high spirits and physical exuberance, work like a spell in a ball-room. There was something bewildering in the gleam of her eye; something intoxicating in the turn of her neck, the flow of her garments.
She had danced, to please Rube, more than once with Jerome. ”

“ Rare as epic song is the man who is thorough in what he does. And happily so; for in life he subjugates us, and makes us bondsmen to his ashes. It was in the order of things that the great Mel should be borne to his final resting-place by a troop of creditors. You have seen (since the occasion demands a pompous simile) clouds that all day cling about the sun, and, in seeking to obscure him, are compelled to blaze in his livery: at fall of night they break from him, illumined, hang mournfully above him, and wear his natural glories long after he is gone. ”

“ For oh, Yillah; were you not the earthly semblance of that sweet vision, that haunted my earliest thoughts?
At first she had wildly believed, that the nameless affinities between us, were owing to our having in times gone by dwelt together in the same ethereal region. But thoughts like these were fast dying out. Yet not without many strange scrutinies. More intently than ever she gazed into my eyes; rested her ear against my heart, and listened to its beatings. ”

“ Winters turned his face away from Mel for a moment as if to avoid some pain beyond endurance. He passed a weary hand across his forehead and eyes and held it there a moment before speaking. Then he faced Mel again. "The woman you brought in here last night—your wife—is completely un-normal in her internal structure. Her internal organs cannot even be identified. She is like a being of some other species. She is not—she is simply not human, Mr. ”

“ And sith these bawds get good provoking lechery,
I trust flattery shall speed as well as bawdry.
Hic exeat PARMENO et intret MELIBAEA.
MEL. I pray you, came this woman here never sin'? [58]
In faith, to enter here I am half adrad;
And yet why so? I may boldly come in:
I am sure from you all I shall not be had.
But, Jesus, Jesus, be these men so mad
On women, as they say? how should it be?
It is but fables and lies, ye may trust me.
Intret CELESTINA.
CEL. God be here!
MEL. Who is there?
CEL. Will ye buy any thread?
MEL. Yea, marry, good mother, I pray you come in. ”

“ Beyond Melons, of whom all this is purely introductory, there was little to interest the most sanguine and hopeful nature. In common with all such localities, a great deal of washing was done, in comparison with the visible results. There was always something whisking on the line, and always something whisking through the court, that looked as if it ought to be there. A fish-geranium—of all plants kept for the recreation of mankind, certainly the greatest illusion—straggled under the window. Through its dusty leaves I caught the first glance of Melons. ”

“ Melville had played the piano, and Ellen and she had sung half through the Student's Song Book, and they had had several glasses of Stone's Ginger Ale, and there really had been a glow of firelight and holly berry brightness, for Mrs. Melville, birdlike in everything, had a wonderful faculty for bursts of gaiety, pure in tone like a blackbird's song, which brought out whatever gladness might be latent in any person or occasion. ”

“ Mell, preoccupied in thoughts of her own, hears, at length, his voice dreamily, as a sound from afar, and looks up irritably to see, for the hundredth time, how coarse of fibre Rube is compared to Jerome.
She resents the unpalatable fact. She resents something else, and makes a very vigorous but unavailing effort to gain her freedom. ”

“ What strange visions of outlandish things does the very name spirit up!” exclaims Melville in excited prospect. “Naked houris—cannibal banquets—groves of cocoa-nut—coral reefs—tattooed chiefs—and bamboo temples; sunny valleys planted with bread-fruit-trees—carved canoes dancing on the flashing blue waters—savage woodlands guarded by horrible idols—heathenish rites and human sacrifices.” ”

“ Besides, there was so much else to talk about, and the more they talked the deeper Mell found himself in that the current which catches every man at some stage of his life's journey. World-old dreams surrounded him like fleecy clouds around a moon. World-old wonders filled him with fears and doubts. ”

“ Madame Merle liked almost everything, including the English rain. “There’s always a little of it and never too much at once,” she said; “and it never wets you and it always smells good.” ”

“ The things unknown, which loom up so temptingly into sight upon the brink of the Untried, look far more desirable, infinitely more tempting, than all the known blessings of the past. And so Mell sighed—but lifted not a finger to save herself.
She went back into the little parlor to finish packing some favorite trifles in a box to be sent to the Bigge House ere she returned—school friend’s mementoes and some of Rube’s presents. ”

“ She drew a long breath, however, when once the wood was passed and the road began to climb the opposing hill, behind which, and across the creek, lay Springville. She thought of William of Deloraine and his ride to Melrose, and smiled at the remembrance of that matter-of-fact hero.
“It’s a good thing, Phœbe, dear, that you and I have no deadly feud with any one,” she said; and then she patted the mare and praised her, and Phœbe, quickening her pace, broke into a gallop, and took the hill road with long, sweeping strides that soon brought them to the summit. ”

“ We cannot close our Jar better than with a taste of “the modern Theocritus,” Giovanni Meli, who deserves his title, and whose very name, as we said before, signifies honey. Meli is honey, both in modern Sicilian and in ancient Greek; and the poet [Pg 222] may be a descendant of the Greek possessors of the island ”

“ You'l see out of every knot come forth Arms or Branches like to the first, spoken of before; and it is at those Arms, that the Melon will be produced. And they will be good, if the foot or root be well nonurish't in good earth, and cherish't by a good hot-bed and the Sun. But let the foot of the Melon never pass into the dung, nor the earth be water'd but moderately, when you see it grows too dry, so as the shoot might thereby suffer ”

“ While you are imagining Poetry and me cutting across the south pasture to the east side of our melon patch, I’ll mention just a few that we get to hear a hundred times a year, such as the wind roaring in a winter blizzard, Dragonfly’s Pop’s bulls bellowing, Circus’s Pop’s hounds baying or bawling or snarling or growling ”

“ Jerome, tell me your difficulties.”
“And by so doing increase them? No. My hands are full enough as it is, and to have you incessantly fretting and fuming about little crooked things which all the fretting in creation won’t straighten out, would be more than I could stand. Melville, you must really consent to be guided blindly by my judgment in this matter. I have studied the subject carefully, and it is only for a little while, sweet. We are young, we can afford to take things easy.”
“Men of pluck,” exclaimed Mell, with spirit, “don’t take things easy! ”

“ You are as 302 white as a sheet, you are quivering like a leaf, your hands are icy cold, and what is it all about?”
“I told you never, never to do that!” cried out Mell, in an agony of passionate protest.
Even the most cold-blooded among mortals finds the caress of a person not dear to them offensive; but take the woman of emotional nature, exquisitely sensitive in all matters of feeling, and to such the touch of unloved lips is worse than a plague spot. ”

“ This interesting little ceremony seemed to dissipate all the underlying displeasure at Rube’s choice in his mother’s mind.
She watched the girl closely during the interview which followed. Many girls are pretty and lady-like, not many are to be found as well educated as Mell Creecy, or as thoroughly equipped by both nature and education to entertain, to amuse, to fascinate. This was that part of Mell which “tuck arter her ole daddy,” as old Jacob was wont to say. ”

“ Who but a blundering man, like dear honest Rube, would have so completely let the domestic cat out of the bag?
No need for Mell to be the most wide-awake creature in existence to understand on the spot, the real status of affairs, as concerned herself, at the Bigge House. ”

“ Pap got out and stopped at folkses houses to ask if they did n't want to buy any melons, and I was to drive along slow. The farther I went the madder I got, but I was trying to look unconscious, when the end-gate came loose and one of the melons fell out and squashed. Just then a swell girl, all dressed up, comes out of one of the big houses and calls out, 'Hello, boy, you 're losing your melons!' Some dudes on the other side of the street took their hats off to her and began to laugh. ”

“ Then why didn’t you tell us?”
“Wife!” remonstrated the old farmer, “you is sartingly loss yo’ senses! Don’t ye know, when Mell’s fine friends comes er long, we’s expected ter run inter er rat-hole or some udder hole? All the use chillun has fer parients these days is ter keep ’em er going. Onst Mrs. Rullan’, Mell aint gwine ter know us by site! She aint no chile er mine, no how, Mell aint!”
“Wall, now, she is yourn, I kin tell ye,” cried Mrs. Creecy, flaring up, very much to the enjoyment of her liege lord. ”

“ Melville brought to the task a sound knowledge of actual whaling, much curious learning in the literature of the subject, and, above all, an imagination which worked with great power upon the facts of his own experience. ”

“ Sir, I observed that the stems of the melons were freshly cut, and must have been gathered this morning. Those who bring melons to the town embark early, as soon as their load is ready. Had the owner of these lived up the river he would have arrived with his merchandise before noon, being carried by the current. ”

“ These temporary apprehensions, so vague but so awful, derived a wondrous potency from the contrasting serenity of the weather, in which, beneath all its blue blandness, some thought there lurked a devilish charm, as for days and days we voyaged along, through seas so wearily, lonesomely mild, that all space, in repugnance to our vengeful errand, seemed vacating itself of life before our urn-like prow. ”

“ Here Melville remained for thirteen years, occupied with his writing, and managing his farm. An article in Putnam’s Monthly entitled ‘I and My Chimney,’ another called ‘October Mountain,’ and the introduction to the ‘Piazza Tales,’ present faithful pictures of Arrow Head and its surroundings. In a letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, given in ‘Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife,’ his daily life is set forth. ”

“ And besides, I take an interest in entomology, and have my own opinion on the meloe question.
—You don't mean to say you have studied insects as well as solar systems and the order of things generally?
—He looked pleased. All philosophers look pleased when people say to them virtually, “Ye are gods.” ”

“ The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute and calm; everything gray. The sea, though undulated into long roods of swells, seemed fixed, and was sleeked at the surface like waved lead that has cooled and set in the smelter’s mould. The sky seemed a gray surtout. Flights of troubled gray fowl, kith and kin with flights of troubled gray vapors among which they were mixed, skimmed low and fitfully over the waters, as swallows over meadows before storms. Shadows present, foreshadowing deeper shadows to come. ”