From the Valley of the Missing
By Grace Miller White
One afternoon in late October four lean mules, with stringy muscles dragging over their bones, stretched long legs at the whirring of their master’s whip. The canalman was a short, ill-favored brute, with coarse red hair and freckled skin. His nose, thickened by drink, threatened the short upper lip with obliteration. Straight from ear to ear, deep under his chin, was a zigzag scar made by a razor in his boyhood days, and under emotion the injured throat became convulsed at times, causing his words to be unintelligible. The red flannel shirt, patched with colors of lighter shades, lay open to the shoulders, showing the dark, rough skin.
“Git—git up!” he stuttered; and for some minutes the boat moved silently, save for the swish of the water and the patter of the mules’ feet on the narrow path by the river.
From the small living room at one end of the boat came the crooning of a woman’s voice, a girlish voice, which rose and fell without tune or rhythm. Suddenly the mules came to a standstill with a “Whoa thar!”
“Pole me out a drink, Scraggy,” bawled the man, “and put a big snack of whisky in it—see?”
The boulder-shaped head shot forward in command as he spoke. And he held the reins in his left hand, turning squarely toward the scow. Pushing out a dark, rusty, steel hook over which swung a ragged coat sleeve, he displayed the stump of a short arm.
As the woman appeared at the bow of the boat with a long stick on the end of which hung a bucket, Lem Crabbe wound the reins about the steel hook and took the proffered pail in the fingers of his left hand.
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Grace Miller White
Grace Miller White (1868–1957) was an American writer. She began her writing career novelizing plays, before turning her hand to novels in 1909. Several of her books were adapted for the big screen, most notably Tess of the Storm Country, which was filmed on four occasions between 1914 and 1960. She adopted the name Grace around 1897, in memory of a younger sister who had died before reaching her first birthday.
Biography
Mary Esther Miller was born in 1868, in Ithaca, New York.
As a child, White was lame and walked with crutches, so she could not be sent to school. Although she was later cured, she was married at the age of 15 and never had any regular schooling. By the age of 23, she had given birth to five children. At 23, she became a widow in Butte, Montana, with four children. Although one of her children was blind and died later, she brought up her three other children and eventually sent her oldest child through college. She married twice, first to Homer White, and then to Friend H. Miller.
At some point in her life, White began traveling for a drug firm. She took her sample case through the Midwest, Virginias, and Carolinas, receiving US$100 a month and her expenses. Although she made enough money, White gave up her job as she wanted to find something else that would allow her to be at home with her children. With this idea, White came to New York City in 1899 and received employment in secretarial work with the Paris Exposition Commission. However, in less than a year, the Paris Exposition ended, and White was left without a job. At this time, White had also been studying by attending a private evening school. After two years of night study, she took the regents’ exam which qualified her to enter college. However, she declined to pursue further education.
One day, White went to lunch with a stenographer she knew who was working on a paper called The American Commerce and Industry. The paper was run by George Casey and was published in the interests of the McKinley political campaign. The stenographer was able to introduce her to Mr. Casey, and eventually, after writing a sample letter, White was hired by the publication to write a matter that would appeal to the women of the United States promoting the election of McKinley. After some time, White was also hired to make public political speeches supporting McKinley. For several years afterward, White regularly participated in the republican campaign committee of New York to speak in every campaign both within the city and the surrounding country.
In 1902, she was matron of honor at the wedding of the writer Zoe Anderson Norris and the illustrator J. K. “Jack” Bryans.
Although White first began her writing career by novelizing plays, she eventually began working on novels and wrote her first big seller, Tess of the Storm Country in 1909. This book received many favorable reviews and was made into four different film adaptations.
Grace Miller White
