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diff --git a/old/snowi10.txt b/old/snowi10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b3e9ad --- /dev/null +++ b/old/snowi10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4014 @@ +***Project Gutenberg Etexts from The Snow Image by Hawthorne*** +#5 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Scanned by Charles Keller with +OmniPage Professional OCR software +donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. +Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com> + + + + + +From THE SNOW IMAGE + + +Contents + +The Snow Image: A Childish Miracle +The Great Stone Face +Ethan Brand +The Canterbury Pilgrims +The Devil in Manuscript +My Kinsman, Major Molineux + + + + + +THE SNOW-IMAGE: + +A CHILDISH MIRACLE + +One afternoon of a cold winter's day, when the sun shone forth +with chilly brightness, after a long storm, two children asked +leave of their mother to run out and play in the new-fallen snow. +The elder child was a little girl, whom, because she was of a +tender and modest disposition, and was thought to be very +beautiful, her parents, and other people who were familiar with +her, used to call Violet. But her brother was known by the style +and title of Peony, on account of the ruddiness of his broad and +round little phiz, which made everybody think of sunshine and +great scarlet flowers. The father of these two children, a +certain Mr. Lindsey, it is important to say, was an excellent but +exceedingly matter-of-fact sort of man, a dealer in hardware, and +was sturdily accustomed to take what is called the common-sense +view of all matters that came under his consideration. With a +heart about as tender as other people's, he had a head as hard +and impenetrable, and therefore, perhaps, as empty, as one of the +iron pots which it was a part of his business to sell. The +mother's character, on the other hand, had a strain of poetry in +it, a trait of unworldly beauty,--a delicate and dewy flower, as +it were, that had survived out of her imaginative youth, and +still kept itself alive amid the dusty realities of matrimony and +motherhood. + +So, Violet and Peony, as I began with saying, besought their +mother to let them run out and play in the new snow; for, though +it had looked so dreary and dismal, drifting downward out of the +gray sky, it had a very cheerful aspect, now that the sun was +shining on it. The children dwelt in a city, and had no wider +play-place than a little garden before the house, divided by a +white fence from the street, and with a pear-tree and two or +three plum-trees overshadowing it, and some rose-bushes just in +front of the parlor-windows. The trees and shrubs, however, were +now leafless, and their twigs were enveloped in the light snow, +which thus made a kind of wintry foliage, with here and there a +pendent icicle for the fruit. + +"Yes, Violet,--yes, my little Peony," said their kind mother, +"you may go out and play in the new snow." + +Accordingly, the good lady bundled up her darlings in woollen +jackets and wadded sacks, and put comforters round their necks, +and a pair of striped gaiters on each little pair of legs, and +worsted mittens on their hands, and gave them a kiss apiece, by +way of a spell to keep away Jack Frost. Forth sallied the two +children, with a hop-skip-and-jump, that carried them at once +into the very heart of a huge snow-drift, whence Violet emerged +like a snow-bunting, while little Peony floundered out with his +round face in full bloom. Then what a merry time had they! To +look at them, frolicking in the wintry garden, you would have +thought that the dark and pitiless storm had been sent for no +other purpose but to provide a new plaything for Violet and +Peony; and that they themselves had beer created, as the +snow-birds were, to take delight only in the tempest, and in the +white mantle which it spread over the earth. + +At last, when they had frosted one another all over with handfuls +of snow, Violet, after laughing heartily at little Peony's +figure, was struck with a new idea. + +"You look exactly like a snow-image, Peony," said she, "if your +cheeks were not so red. And that puts me in mind! Let us make an +image out of snow,--an image of a little girl,--and it shall be +our sister, and shall run about and play with us all winter long. +Won't it be nice?" + +"Oh yes!" cried Peony, as plainly as he could speak, for he was +but a little boy. "That will be nice! And mamma shall see it!" + +"Yes," answered Violet; "mamma shall see the new little girl. But +she must not make her come into the warm parlor; for, you know, +our little snow-sister will not love the warmth." + +And forthwith the children began this great business of making a +snow-image that should run about; while their mother, who was +sitting at the window and overheard some of their talk, could not +help smiling at the gravity with which they set about it. They +really seemed to imagine that there would be no difficulty +whatever in creating a live little girl out of the snow. And, to +say the truth, if miracles are ever to be wrought, it will be by +putting our hands to the work in precisely such a simple and +undoubting frame of mind as that in which Violet and Peony now +undertook to perform one, without so much as knowing that it was +a miracle. So thought the mother; and thought, likewise, that the +new snow, just fallen from heaven, would be excellent material to +make new beings of, if it were not so very cold. She gazed at the +children a moment longer, delighting to watch their little +figures,--the girl, tall for her age, graceful and agile, and so +delicately colored that she looked like a cheerful thought more +than a physical reality; while Peony expanded in breadth rather +than height, and rolled along on his short and sturdy legs as +substantial as an elephant, though not quite so big. Then the +mother resumed her work. What it was I forget; but she was either +trimming a silken bonnet for Violet, or darning a pair of +stockings for little Peony's short legs. Again, however, and +again, and yet other agains, she could not help turning her head +to the window to see how the children got on with their +snow-image. + +Indeed, it was an exceedingly pleasant sight, those bright little +souls at their task! Moreover, it was really wonderful to observe +how knowingly and skilfully they managed the matter. Violet +assumed the chief direction, and told Peony what to do, while, +with her own delicate fingers, she shaped out all the nicer parts +of the snow-figure. It seemed, in fact, not so much to be made by +the children, as to grow up under their hands, while they were +playing and prattling about it. Their mother was quite surprised +at this; and the longer she looked, the more and more surprised +she grew. + +"What remarkable children mine are!" thought she, smiling with a +mother's pride; and, smiling at herself, too, for being so proud +of them. "What other children could have made anything so like a +little girl's figure out of snow at the first trial? Well; but +now I must finish Peony's new frock, for his grandfather is +coming to-morrow, and I want the little fellow to look handsome." + +So she took up the frock, and was soon as busily at work again +with her needle as the two children with their snow-image. But +still, as the needle travelled hither and thither through the +seams of the dress, the mother made her toil light and happy by +listening to the airy voices of Violet and Peony. They kept +talking to one another all the time, their tongues being quite as +active as their feet and hands. Except at intervals, she could +not distinctly hear what was said, but had merely a sweet +impression that they were in a most loving mood, and were +enjoying themselves highly, and that the business of making the +snow-image went prosperously on. Now and then, however, when +Violet and Peony happened to raise their voices, the words were +as audible as if they had been spoken in the very parlor where +the mother sat. Oh how delightfully those words echoed in her +heart, even though they meant nothing so very wise or wonderful, +after all! + +But you must know a mother listens with her heart much more than +with her ears; and thus she is often delighted with the trills of +celestial music, when other people can hear nothing of the kind. + +"Peony, Peony!" cried Violet to her brother, who had gone to +another part of the garden, "bring me some of that fresh snow, +Peony, from the very farthest corner, where we have not been +trampling. I want it to shape our little snow-sister's bosom +with. You know that part must be quite pure, just as it came out +of the sky!" + +"Here it is, Violet!" answered Peony, in his bluff tone,--but a +very sweet tone, too,--as he came floundering through the +half-trodden drifts. "Here is the snow for her little bosom. O +Violet, how beau-ti-ful she begins to look!" + +"Yes," said Violet, thoughtfully and quietly; "our snow-sister +does look very lovely. I did not quite know, Peony, that we could +make such a sweet little girl as this." + +The mother, as she listened, thought how fit and delightful an +incident it would be, if fairies, or still better, if +angel-children were to come from paradise, and play invisibly +with her own darlings, and help them to make their snow-image, +giving it the features of celestial babyhood! Violet and Peony +would not be aware of their immortal playmates,--only they would +see that the image grew very beautiful while they worked at it, +and would think that they themselves had done it all. + +"My little girl and boy deserve such playmates, if mortal +children ever did!" said the mother to herself; and then she +smiled again at her own motherly pride. + +Nevertheless, the idea seized upon her imagination; and, ever and +anon, she took a glimpse out of the window, half dreaming that +she might see the golden-haired children of paradise sporting +with her own golden-haired Violet and bright-cheeked Peony. + +Now, for a few moments, there was a busy and earnest, but +indistinct hum of the two children's voices, as Violet and Peony +wrought together with one happy consent. Violet still seemed to +be the guiding spirit, while Peony acted rather as a laborer, and +brought her the snow from far and near. And yet the little urchin +evidently had a proper understanding of the matter, too! + +"Peony, Peony!" cried Violet; for her brother was again at the +other side of the garden. "Bring me those light wreaths of snow +that have rested on the lower branches of the pear-tree. You can +clamber on the snowdrift, Peony, and reach them easily. I must +have them to make some ringlets for our snow-sister's head!" + +"Here they are, Violet!" answered the little boy. "Take care you +do not break them. Well done! Well done! How pretty!" + +"Does she not look sweetly?" said Violet, with a very satisfied +tone; "and now we must have some little shining bits of ice, to +make the brightness of her eyes. She is not finished yet. Mamma +will see how very beautiful she is; but papa will say, 'Tush! +nonsense!--come in out of the cold!' " + +"Let us call mamma to look out," said Peony; and then he shouted +lustily, "Mamma! mamma!! mamma!!! Look out, and see what a nice +'ittle girl we are making!" + +The mother put down her work for an instant, and looked out of +the window. But it so happened that the sun--for this was one of +the shortest days of the whole year--had sunken so nearly to the +edge of the world that his setting shine came obliquely into the +lady's eyes. So she was dazzled, you must understand, and could +not very distinctly observe what was in the garden. Still, +however, through all that bright, blinding dazzle of the sun and +the new snow, she beheld a small white figure in the garden, that +seemed to have a wonderful deal of human likeness about it. And +she saw Violet and Peony,--indeed, she looked more at them than +at the image,--she saw the two children still at work; Peony +bringing fresh snow, and Violet applying it to the figure as +scientifically as a sculptor adds clay to his model. Indistinctly +as she discerned the snow-child, the mother thought to herself +that never before was there a snow-figure so cunningly made, nor +ever such a dear little girl and boy to make it. + +"They do everything better than other children," said she, very +complacently. "No wonder they make better snow-images!" + +She sat down again to her work, and made as much haste with it as +possible; because twilight would soon come, and Peony's frock was +not yet finished, and grandfather was expected, by railroad, +pretty early in the morning. Faster and faster, therefore, went +her flying fingers. The children, likewise, kept busily at work +in the garden, and still the mother listened, whenever she could +catch a word. She was amused to observe how their little +imaginations had got mixed up with what they were doing, and +carried away by it. They seemed positively to think that the +snow-child would run about and play with them. + +"What a nice playmate she will be for us, all winter long!" said +Violet. "I hope papa will not be afraid of her giving us a cold! +Sha'n't you love her dearly, Peony?" + +"Oh yes!" cried Peony. "And I will hug her, and she shall sit +down close by me and drink some of my warm milk!" + +"Oh no, Peony!" answered Violet, with grave wisdom. "That will +not do at all. Warm milk will not be wholesome for our little +snow-sister. Little snow people, like her, eat nothing but +icicles. No, no, Peony; we must not give her anything warm to +drink!" + +There was a minute or two of silence; for Peony, whose short legs +were never weary, had gone on a pilgrimage again to the other +side of the garden. All of a sudden, Violet cried out, loudly and +joyfully,--"Look here, Peony! Come quickly! A light has been +shining on her cheek out of that rose-colored cloud! and the +color does not go away! Is not that beautiful!" + +"Yes; it is beau-ti-ful," answered Peony, pronouncing the three +syllables with deliberate accuracy. "O Violet, only look at her +hair! It is all like gold!" + +"Oh certainly," said Violet, with tranquillity, as if it were +very much a matter of course. "That color, you know, comes from +the golden clouds, that we see up there in the sky. She is almost +finished now. But her lips must be made very red,--redder than +her cheeks. Perhaps, Peony, it will make them red if we both kiss +them!" + +Accordingly, the mother heard two smart little smacks, as if both +her children were kissing the snow-image on its frozen mouth. +But, as this did not seem to make the lips quite red enough, +Violet next proposed that the snow-child should be invited to +kiss Peony's scarlet cheek. + +"Come, 'ittle snow-sister, kiss me!" cried Peony. + +"There! she has kissed you," added Violet, "and now her lips are +very red. And she blushed a little, too!" + +"Oh, what a cold kiss!" cried Peony. + +Just then, there came a breeze of the pure west-wind, sweeping +through the garden and rattling the parlor-windows. It sounded so +wintry cold, that the mother was about to tap on the window-pane +with her thimbled finger, to summon the two children in, when +they both cried out to her with one voice. The tone was not a +tone of surprise, although they were evidently a good deal +excited; it appeared rather as if they were very much rejoiced at +some event that had now happened, but which they had been looking +for, and had reckoned upon all along. + +"Mamma! mamma! We have finished our little snow-sister, and she +is running about the garden with us!" + +"What imaginative little beings my children are!" thought the +mother, putting the last few stitches into Peony's frock. "And it +is strange, too that they make me almost as much a child as they +themselves are! I can hardly help believing, now, that the +snow-image has really come to life!" + +"Dear mamma!" cried Violet, "pray look out and see what a sweet +playmate we have!" + +The mother, being thus entreated, could no longer delay to look +forth from the window. The sun was now gone out of the sky, +leaving, however, a rich inheritance of his brightness among +those purple and golden clouds which make the sunsets of winter +so magnificent. But there was not the slightest gleam or dazzle, +either on the window or on the snow; so that the good lady could +look all over the garden, and see everything and everybody in it. +And what do you think she saw there? Violet and Peony, of course, +her own two darling children. Ah, but whom or what did she see +besides? Why, if you will believe me, there was a small figure of +a girl, dressed all in white, with rose-tinged cheeks and +ringlets of golden hue, playing about the garden with the two +children! A stranger though she was, the child seemed to be on as +familiar terms with Violet and Peony, and they with her, as if +all the three had been playmates during the whole of their little +lives. The mother thought to herself that it must certainly be +the daughter of one of the neighbors, and that, seeing Violet and +Peony in the garden, the child had run across the street to play +with them. So this kind lady went to the door, intending to +invite the little runaway into her comfortable parlor; for, now +that the sunshine was withdrawn, the atmosphere, out of doors, +was already growing very cold. + +But, after opening the house-door, she stood an instant on the +threshold, hesitating whether she ought to ask the child to come +in, or whether she should even speak to her. Indeed, she almost +doubted whether it were a real child after all, or only a light +wreath of the new-fallen snow, blown hither and thither about the +garden by the intensely cold west-wind. There was certainly +something very singular in the aspect of the little stranger. +Among all the children of the neighborhood, the lady could +remember no such face, with its pure white, and delicate +rose-color, and the golden ringlets tossing about the forehead +and cheeks. And as for her dress, which was entirely of white, +and fluttering in the breeze, it was such as no reasonable woman +would put upon a little girl, when sending her out to play, in +the depth of winter. It made this kind and careful mother shiver +only to look at those small feet, with nothing in the world on +them, except a very thin pair of white slippers. Nevertheless, +airily as she was clad, the child seemed to feel not the +slightest inconvenience from the cold, but danced so lightly over +the snow that the tips of her toes left hardly a print in its +surface; while Violet could but just keep pace with her, and +Peony's short legs compelled him to lag behind. + +Once, in the course of their play, the strange child placed +herself between Violet and Peony, and taking a hand of each, +skipped merrily forward, and they along with her. Almost +immediately, however, Peony pulled away his little fist, and +began to rub it as if the fingers were tingling with cold; while +Violet also released herself, though with less abruptness, +gravely remarking that it was better not to take hold of hands. +The white-robed damsel said not a word, but danced about, just as +merrily as before. If Violet and Peony did not choose to play +with her, she could make just as good a playmate of the brisk and +cold west-wind, which kept blowing her all about the garden, and +took such liberties with her, that they seemed to have been +friends for a long time. All this while, the mother stood on the +threshold, wondering how a little girl could look so much like a +flying snow-drift, or how a snow-drift could look so very like a +little girl. + +She called Violet, and whispered to her. + +"Violet my darling, what is this child's name?" asked she. "Does +she live near us?" + +"Why, dearest mamma," answered Violet, laughing to think that her +mother did not comprehend so very plain an affair, "this is our +little snow-sister whom we have just been making!" + +"Yes, dear mamma," cried Peony, running to his mother, and +looking up simply into her face. "This is our snow-image! Is it +not a nice 'ittle child?" + +At this instant a flock of snow-birds came flitting through the +air. As was very natural, they avoided Violet and Peony. But--and +this looked strange--they flew at once to the white-robed child, +fluttered eagerly about her head, alighted on her shoulders, and +seemed to claim her as an old acquaintance. She, on her part, was +evidently as glad to see these little birds, old Winter's +grandchildren, as they were to see her, and welcomed them by +holding out both her hands. Hereupon, they each and all tried to +alight on her two palms and ten small fingers and thumbs, +crowding one another off, with an immense fluttering of their +tiny wings. One dear little bird nestled tenderly in her bosom; +another put its bill to her lips. They were as joyous, all the +while, and seemed as much in their element, as you may have seen +them when sporting with a snow-storm. + +Violet and Peony stood laughing at this pretty sight; for they +enjoyed the merry time which their new playmate was having with +these small-winged visitants, almost as much as if they +themselves took part in it. + +"Violet," said her mother, greatly perplexed, "tell me the truth, +without any jest. Who is this little girl?" + +"My darling mamma," answered Violet, looking seriously into her +mother's face, and apparently surprised that she should need any +further explanation, "I have told you truly who she is. It is our +little snow-image, which Peony and I have been making. Peony will +tell you so, as well as I." + +"Yes, mamma," asseverated Peony, with much gravity in his crimson +little phiz; "this is 'ittle snow-child. Is not she a nice one? +But, mamma, her hand is, oh, so very cold!" + +While mamma still hesitated what to think and what to do, the +street-gate was thrown open, and the father of Violet and Peony +appeared, wrapped in a pilot-cloth sack, with a fur cap drawn +down over his ears, and the thickest of gloves upon his hands. +Mr. Lindsey was a middle-aged man, with a weary and yet a happy +look in his wind-flushed and frost-pinched face, as if he had +been busy all the day long, and was glad to get back to his quiet +home. His eyes brightened at the sight of his wife and children, +although he could not help uttering a word or two of surprise, at +finding the whole family in the open air, on so bleak a day, and +after sunset too. He soon perceived the little white stranger +sporting to and fro in the garden, like a dancing snow-wreath, +and the flock of snow-birds fluttering about her head. + +"Pray, what little girl may that be?" inquired this very sensible +man. "Surely her mother must be crazy to let her go out in such +bitter weather as it has been to-day, with only that flimsy white +gown and those thin slippers!" + +"My dear husband," said his wife, "I know no more about the +little thing than you do. Some neighbor's child, I suppose. Our +Violet and Peony," she added, laughing at herself for repeating +so absurd a story, "insist that she is nothing but a snow-image, +which they have been busy about in the garden, almost all the +afternoon." + +As she said this, the mother glanced her eyes toward the spot +where the children's snow-image had been made. What was her +surprise, on perceiving that there was not the slightest trace of +so much labor!--no image at all!--no piled up heap of +snow!--nothing whatever, save the prints of little footsteps +around a vacant space! + +"This is very strange!" said she. + +"What is strange, dear mother?" asked Violet. "Dear father, do +not you see how it is? This is our snow-image, which Peony and I +have made, because we wanted another playmate. Did not we, +Peony?" + +"Yes, papa," said crimson Peony. "This be our 'ittle snow-sister. +Is she not beau-ti-ful? But she gave me such a cold kiss!" + +"Poh, nonsense, children!" cried their good, honest father, who, +as we have already intimated, had an exceedingly common-sensible +way of looking at matters. "Do not tell me of making live figures +out of snow. Come, wife; this little stranger must not stay out +in the bleak air a moment longer. We will bring her into the +parlor; and you shall give her a supper of warm bread and milk, +and make her as comfortable as you can. Meanwhile, I will inquire +among the neighbors; or, if necessary, send the city-crier about +the streets, to give notice of a lost child." + +So saying, this honest and very kind-hearted man was going toward +the little white damsel, with the best intentions in the world. +But Violet and Peony, each seizing their father by the hand, +earnestly besought him not to make her come in. + +"Dear father," cried Violet, putting herself before him, "it is +true what I have been telling you! This is our little snow-girl, +and she cannot live any longer than while she breathes the cold +west-wind. Do not make her come into the hot room!" + +"Yes, father," shouted Peony, stamping his little foot, so +mightily was he in earnest, "this be nothing but our 'ittle +snow-child! She will not love the hot fire!" + +"Nonsense, children, nonsense, nonsense!" cried the father, half +vexed, half laughing at what he considered their foolish +obstinacy. "Run into the house, this moment! It is too late to +play any longer, now. I must take care of this little girl +immediately, or she will catch her death-a-cold!" + +"Husband! dear husband!" said his wife, in a low voice,--for she +had been looking narrowly at the snow-child, and was more +perplexed than ever,--"there is something very singular in all +this. You will think me foolish,--but--but--may it not be that +some invisible angel has been attracted by the simplicity and +good faith with which our children set about their undertaking? +May he not have spent an hour of his immorttality in playing with +those dear little souls? and so the result is what we call a +miracle. No, no! Do not laugh at me; I see what a foolish thought +it is!" + +"My dear wife," replied the husband, laughing heartily, "you are +as much a child as Violet and Peony." + +And in one sense so she was, for all through life she had kept +her heart full of childlike simplicity and faith, which was as +pure and clear as crystal; and, looking at all matters through +this transparent medium, she sometimes saw truths so profound +that other people laughed at them as nonsense and absurdity. + +But now kind Mr. Lindsey had entered the garden, breaking away +from his two children, who still sent their shrill voices after +him, beseeching him to let the snow-child stay and enjoy herself +in the cold west-wind. As he approached, the snow-birds took to +flight. The little white damsel, also, fled backward, shaking her +head, as if to say, "Pray, do not touch me!" and roguishly, as it +appeared, leading him through the deepest of the snow. Once, the +good man stumbled, and floundered down upon his face, so that, +gathering himself up again, with the snow sticking to his rough +pilot-cloth sack, he looked as white and wintry as a snow-image +of the largest size. Some of the neighbors, meanwhile, seeing him +from their windows, wondered what could possess poor Mr. Lindsey +to be running about his garden in pursuit of a snow-drift, which +the west-wind was driving hither and thither! At length, after a +vast deal of trouble, he chased the little stranger into a +corner, where she could not possibly escape him. His wife had +been looking on, and, it being nearly twilight, was wonder-struck +to observe how the snow-child gleamed and sparkled, and how she +seemed to shed a glow all round about her; and when driven into +the corner, she positively glistened like a star! It was a frosty +kind of brightness, too, like that of an icicle in the moonlight. +The wife thought it strange that good Mr. Lindsey should see +nothing remarkable in the snow-child's appearance. + +"Come, you odd little thing!" cried the honest man, seizing her +by the hand, "I have caught you at last, and will make you +comfortable in spite of yourself. We will put a nice warm pair of +worsted stockings on your frozen little feet, and you shall have +a good thick shawl to wrap yourself in. Your poor white nose, I +am afraid, is actually frost-bitten. But we will make it all +right. Come along in." + +And so, with a most benevolent smile on his sagacious visage, all +purple as it was with the cold, this very well-meaning gentleman +took the snow-child by the hand and led her towards the house. +She followed him, droopingly and reluctant; for all the glow and +sparkle was gone out of her figure; and whereas just before she +had resembled a bright, frosty, star-gemmed evening, with a +crimson gleam on the cold horizon, she now looked as dull and +languid as a thaw. As kind Mr. Lindsey led her up the steps of +the door, Violet and Peony looked into his face,--their eyes full +of tears, which froze before they could run down their +cheeks,--and again entreated him not to bring their snow-image +into the house. + +"Not bring her in!" exclaimed the kind-hearted man. "Why, you are +crazy, my little Violet!--quite crazy, my small Peony! She is so +cold, already, that her hand has almost frozen mine, in spite of +my thick gloves. Would you have her freeze to death?" + +His wife, as he came up the steps, had been taking another long, +earnest, almost awe-stricken gaze at the little white stranger. +She hardly knew whether it was a dream or no; but she could not +help fancying that she saw the delicate print of Violet's fingers +on the child's neck. It looked just as if, while Violet was +shaping out the image, she had given it a gentle pat with her +hand, and had neglected to smooth the impression quite away. + +"After all, husband," said the mother, recurring to her idea that +the angels would be as much delighted to play with Violet and +Peony as she herself was,--"after all, she does look strangely +like a snow-image! I do believe she is made of snow!" + +A puff of the west-wind blew against the snow-child, and again +she sparkled like a star. + +"Snow!" repeated good Mr. Lindsey, drawing the reluctant guest +over his hospitable threshold. "No wonder she looks like snow. +She is half frozen, poor little thing! But a good fire will put +everything to rights!" + +Without further talk, and always with the same best intentions, +this highly benevolent and common-sensible individual led the +little white damsel--drooping, drooping, drooping, more and more +out of the frosty air, and into his comfortable parlor. A +Heidenberg stove, filled to the brim with intensely burning +anthracite, was sending a bright gleam through the isinglass of +its iron door, and causing the vase of water on its top to fume +and bubble with excitement. A warm, sultry smell was diffused +throughout the room. A thermometer on the wall farthest from the +stove stood at eighty degrees. The parlor was hung with red +curtains, and covered with a red carpet, and looked just as warm +as it felt. The difference betwixt the atmosphere here and the +cold, wintry twilight out of doors, was like stepping at once +from Nova Zembla to the hottest part of India, or from the North +Pole into an oven. Oh, this was a fine place for the little white +stranger! + +The common-sensible man placed the snow-child on the hearth-rug, +right in front of the hissing and fuming stove. + +"Now she will be comfortable!" cried Mr. Lindsey, rubbing his +hands and looking about him, with the pleasantest smile you ever +saw. "Make yourself at home, my child." + +Sad, sad and drooping, looked the little white maiden, as she +stood on the hearth-rug, with the hot blast of the stove striking +through her like a pestilence. Once, she threw a glance wistfully +toward the windows, and caught a glimpse, through its red +curtains, of the snow-covered roofs, and the stars glimmering +frostily, and all the delicious intensity of the cold night. The +bleak wind rattled the window-panes, as if it were summoning her +to come forth. But there stood the snow-child, drooping, before +the hot stove! + +But the common-sensible man saw nothing amiss. + +"Come wife," said he, "let her have a pair of thick stockings and +a woollen shawl or blanket directly; and tell Dora to give her +some warm supper as soon as the milk boils. You, Violet and +Peony, amuse your little friend. She is out of spirits, you see, +at finding herself in a strange place. For my part, I will go +around among the neighbors, and find out where she belongs." + +The mother, meanwhile, had gone in search of the shawl and +stockings; for her own view of the matter, however subtle and +delicate, had given way, as it always did, to the stubborn +materialism of her husband. Without heeding the remonstrances of +his two children, who still kept murmuring that their little +snow-sister did not love the warmth, good Mr. Lindsey took his +departure, shutting the parlor-door carefully behind him. Turning +up the collar of his sack over his ears, he emerged from the +house, and had barely reached the street-gate, when he was +recalled by the screams of Violet and Peony, and the rapping of a +thimbled finger against the parlor window. + +"Husband! husband!" cried his wife, showing her horror-stricken +face through the window-panes. "There is no need of going for the +child's parents!" + +"We told you so, father!" screamed Violet and Peony, as he +re-entered the parlor. "You would bring her in; and now our +poor--dear-beau-ti-ful little snow-sister is thawed!" + +And their own sweet little faces were already dissolved in tears; +so that their father, seeing what strange things occasionally +happen in this every-day world, felt not a little anxious lest +his children might be going to thaw too! In the utmost +perplexity, he demanded an explanation of his wife. She could +only reply, that, being summoned to the parlor by the cries of +Violet and Peony, she found no trace of the little white maiden, +unless it were the remains of a heap of snow, which, while she +was gazing at it, melted quite away upon the hearth-rug. + +"And there you see all that is left of it!" added she, pointing +to a pool of water in front of the stove. + +"Yes, father," said Violet looking reproachfully at him, through +her tears, "there is all that is left of our dear little +snow-sister!" + +"Naughty father!" cried Peony, stamping his foot, and--I shudder +to say--shaking his little fist at the common-sensible man. "We +told you how it would be! What for did you bring her in?" + +And the Heidenberg stove, through the isinglass of its door, +seemed to glare at good Mr. Lindsey, like a red-eyed demon, +triumphing in the mischief which it had done! + +This, you will observe, was one of those rare cases, which yet +will occasionally happen, where common-sense finds itself at +fault. The remarkable story of the snow-image, though to that +sagacious class of people to whom good Mr. Lindsey belongs it may +seem but a childish affair, is, nevertheless, capable of being +moralized in various methods, greatly for their edification. One +of its lessons, for instance, might be, that it behooves men, and +especially men of benevolence, to consider well what they are +about, and, before acting on their philanthropic purposes, to be +quite sure that they comprehend the nature and all the relations +of the business in hand. What has been established as an element +of good to one being may prove absolute mischief to another; even +as the warmth of the parlor was proper enough for children of +flesh and blood, like Violet and Peony,--though by no means very +wholesome, even for them,--but involved nothing short of +annihilation to the unfortunate snow-image. + +But, after all, there is no teaching anything to wise men of good +Mr. Lindsey's stamp. They know everything,--oh, to be +sure!--everything that has been, and everything that is, and +everything that, by any future possibility, can be. And, should +some phenomenon of nature or providence transcend their system, +they will not recognize it, even if it come to pass under their +very noses. + +"Wife," said Mr. Lindsey, after a fit of silence, "see what a +quantity of snow the children have brought in on their feet! It +has made quite a puddle here before the stove. Pray tell Dora to +bring some towels and mop it up!" + + + +THE GREAT STONE FACE + +One afternoon, when the sun was going down, a mother and her +little boy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the +Great Stone Face. They had but to lift their eyes, and there it +was plainly to be seen, though miles away, with the sunshine +brightening all its features. + +And what was the Great Stone Face? + +Embosomed amongst a family of lofty mountains, there was a valley +so spacious that it contained many thousand inhabitants. Some of +these good people dwelt in log-huts, with the black forest all +around them, on the steep and difficult hill-sides. Others had +their homes in comfortable farm-houses, and cultivated the rich +soil on the gentle slopes or level surfaces of the valley. +Others, again, were congregated into populous villages, where +some wild, highland rivulet, tumbling down from its birthplace in +the upper mountain region, had been caught and tamed by human +cunning, and compelled to turn the machinery of cotton-factories. +The inhabitants of this valley, in short, were numerous, and of +many modes of life. But all of them, grown people and children, +had a kind of familiarity with the Great Stone Face, although +some possessed the gift of distinguishing this grand natural +phenomenon more perfectly than many of their neighbors. + +The Great Stone Face, then, was a work of Nature in her mood of +majestic playfulness, formed on the perpendicular side of a +mountain by some immense rocks, which had been thrown together in +such a position as, when viewed at a proper distance, precisely +to resemble the features of the human countenance. It seemed as +if an enormous giant, or a Titan, had sculptured his own likeness +on the precipice. There was the broad arch of the forehead, a +hundred feet in height; the nose, with its long bridge; and the +vast lips, which, if they could have spoken, would have rolled +their thunder accents from one end of the valley to the other. +True it is, that if the spectator approached too near, he lost +the outline of the gigantic visage, and could discern only a heap +of ponderous and gigantic rocks, piled in chaotic ruin one upon +another. Retracing his steps, however, the wondrous features +would again be seen; and the farther he withdrew from them, the +more like a human face, with all its original divinity intact, +did they appear; until, as it grew dim in the distance, with the +clouds and glorified vapor of the mountains clustering about it, +the Great Stone Face seemed positively to be alive. + +It was a happy lot for children to grow up to manhood or +womanhood with the Great Stone Face before their eyes, for all +the features were noble, and the expression was at once grand and +sweet, as if it were the glow of a vast, warm heart, that +embraced all mankind in its affections, and had room for more. It +was an education only to look at it. According to the belief of +many people, the valley owed much of its fertility to this benign +aspect that was continually beaming over it, illuminating the +clouds, and infusing its tenderness into the sunshine. + +As we began with saying, a mother and her little boy sat at their +cottage-door, gazing at the Great Stone Face, and talking about +it. The child's name was Ernest. + +"Mother," said he, while the Titanic visage smiled on him, "I +wish that it could speak, for it looks so very kindly that its +voice must needs be pleasant. If I were to see a man with such a +face, I should love him dearly." + +"If an old prophecy should come to pass," answered his mother, +"we may see a man, some time or other, with exactly such a face +as that." + +"What prophecy do you mean, dear mother?" eagerly inquired +Ernest. "Pray tell me about it!" + +So his mother told him a story that her own mother had told to +her, when she herself was younger than little Ernest; a story, +not of things that were past, but of what was yet to come; a +story, nevertheless, so very old, that even the Indians, who +formerly inhabited this valley, had heard it from their +forefathers, to whom, as they affirmed, it had been murmured by +the mountain streams, and whispered by the wind among the +tree-tops. The purport was, that, at some future day, a child +should be born hereabouts, who was destined to become the +greatest and noblest personage of his time, and whose +countenance, in manhood, should bear an exact resemblance to the +Great Stone Face. Not a few old-fashioned people, and young ones +likewise, in the ardor of their hopes, still cherished an +enduring faith in this old prophecy. But others, who had seen +more of the world, had watched and waited till they were weary, +and had beheld no man with such a face, nor any man that proved +to be much greater or nobler than his neighbors, concluded it to +be nothing but an idle tale. At all events, the great man of the +prophecy had not yet appeared. + +"O mother, dear mother!" cried Ernest, clapping his hands above +his head, "I do hope that I shall live to see him!" + +His mother was an affectionate and thoughtful woman, and felt +that it was wisest not to discourage the generous hopes of her +little boy. So she only said to him, "Perhaps you may." + +And Ernest never forgot the story that his mother told him. It +was always in his mind, whenever he looked upon the Great Stone +Face. He spent his childhood in the log-cottage where he was +born, and was dutiful to his mother, and helpful to her in many +things, assisting her much with his little hands, and more with +his loving heart. In this manner, from a happy yet often pensive +child, he grew up to be a mild, quiet, unobtrusive boy, and +sun-browned with labor in the fields, but with more intelligence +brightening his aspect than is seen in many lads who have been +taught at famous schools. Yet Ernest had had no teacher, save +only that the Great Stone Face became one to him. When the toil +of the day was over, he would gaze at it for hours, until he +began to imagine that those vast features recognized him, and +gave him a smile of kindness and encouragement, responsive to his +own look of veneration. We must not take upon us to affirm that +this was a mistake, although the Face may have looked no more +kindly at Ernest than at all the world besides. But the secret +was that the boy's tender and confiding simplicity discerned what +other people could not see; and thus the love, which was meant +for all, became his peculiar portion. + +About this time there went a rumor throughout the valley, that +the great man, foretold from ages long ago, who was to bear a +resemblance to the Great Stone Face, had appeared at last. It +seems that, many years before, a young man had migrated from the +valley and settled at a distant seaport, where, after getting +together a little money, he had set up as a shopkeeper. His +name--but I could never learn whether it was his real one, or a +nickname that had grown out of his habits and success in +life--was Gathergold. Being shrewd and active, and endowed by +Providence with that inscrutable faculty which develops itself in +what the world calls luck, he became an exceedingly rich +merchant, and owner of a whole fleet of bulky-bottomed ships. All +the countries of the globe appeared to join hands for the mere +purpose of adding heap after heap to the mountainous accumulation +of this one man's wealth. The cold regions of the north, almost +within the gloom and shadow of the Arctic Circle, sent him their +tribute in the shape of furs; hot Africa sifted for him the +golden sands of her rivers, and gathered up the ivory tusks of +her great elephants out of the forests; the East came bringing +him the rich shawls, and spices, and teas, and the effulgence of +diamonds, and the gleaming purity of large pearls. The ocean, not +to be behindhand with the earth, yielded up her mighty whales, +that Mr. Gathergold might sell their oil, and make a profit of +it. Be the original commodity what it might, it was gold within +his grasp. It might be said of him, as of Midas in the fable, +that whatever he touched with his finger immediately glistened, +and grew yellow, and was changed at once into sterling metal, or, +which suited him still better, into piles of coin. And, when Mr. +Gathergold had become so very rich that it would have taken him a +hundred years only to count his wealth, he bethought himself of +his native valley, and resolved to go back thither, and end his +days where he was born. With this purpose in view, he sent a +skilful architect to build him such a palace as should be fit for +a man of his vast wealth to live in. + +As I have said above, it had already been rumored in the valley +that Mr. Gathergold had turned out to be the prophetic personage +so long and vainly looked for, and that his visage was the +perfect and undeniable similitude of the Great Stone Face. People +were the more ready to believe that this must needs be the fact, +when they beheld the splendid edifice that rose, as if by +enchantment, on the site of his father's old weatherbeaten +farm-house. The exterior was of marble, so dazzlingly white that +it seemed as though the whole structure might melt away in the +sunshine, like those humbler ones which Mr. Gathergold, in his +young play-days, before his fingers were gifted with the touch of +transmutation, had been accustomed to build of snow. It had a +richly ornamented portico, supported by tall pillars, beneath +which was a lofty door, studded with silver knobs, and made of a +kind of variegated wood that had been brought from beyond the +sea. The windows, from the floor to the ceiling of each stately +apartment, were composed, respectively, of but one enormous pane +of glass, so transparently pure that it was said to be a finer +medium than even the vacant atmosphere. Hardly anybody had been +permitted to see the interior of this palace; but it was +reported, and with good semblance of truth, to be far more +gorgeous than the outside, insomuch that whatever was iron or +brass in other houses was silver or gold in this; and Mr. +Gathergold's bedchamber, especially, made such a glittering +appearance that no ordinary man would have been able to close his +eyes there. But, on the other hand, Mr. Gathergold was now so +inured to wealth, that perhaps he could not have closed his eyes +unless where the gleam of it was certain to find its way beneath +his eyelids. + +In due time, the mansion was finished; next came the +upholsterers, with magnificent furniture; then, a whole troop of +black and white servants, the harbingers of Mr. Gathergold, who, +in his own majestic person, was expected to arrive at sunset. Our +friend Ernest, meanwhile, had been deeply stirred by the idea +that the great man, the noble man, the man of prophecy, after so +many ages of delay, was at length to be made manifest to his +native valley. He knew, boy as he was, that there were a thousand +ways in which Mr. Gathergold, with his vast wealth, might +transform himself into an angel of beneficence, and assume a +control over human affairs as wide and benignant as the smile of +the Great Stone Face. Full of faith and hope, Ernest doubted not +that what the people said was true, and that now he was to behold +the living likeness of those wondrous features on the +mountain-side. While the boy was still gazing up the valley, and +fancying, as he always did, that the Great Stone Face returned +his gaze and looked kindly at him, the rumbling of wheels was +heard, approaching swiftly along the winding road. + +"Here he comes!" cried a group of people who were assembled to +witness the arrival. "Here comes the great Mr. Gathergold!" + +A carriage, drawn by four horses, dashed round the turn of the +road. Within it, thrust partly out of the window, appeared the +physiognomy of the old man, with a skin as yellow as if his own +Midas-hand had transmuted it. He had a low forehead, small, sharp +eyes, puckered about with innumerable wrinkles, and very thin +lips, which he made still thinner by pressing them forcibly +together. + +"The very image of the Great Stone Face!" shouted the people. +"Sure enough, the old prophecy is true; and here we have the +great man come, at last!" + +And, what greatly perplexed Ernest, they seemed actually to +believe that here was the likeness which they spoke of. By the +roadside there chanced to be an old beggar-woman and two little +beggar-children, stragglers from some far-off region, who, as the +carriage rolled onward, held out their hands and lifted up their +doleful voices, most piteously beseeching charity. A yellow +claw--the very same that had clawed together so much +wealth--poked itself out of the coach-window, and dropt some +copper coins upon the ground; so that, though the great man's +name seems to have been Gathergold, he might just as suitably +have been nicknamed Scattercopper. Still, nevertheless, with an +earnest shout, and evidently with as much good faith as ever, the +people bellowed, "He is the very image of the Great Stone Face!" + +But Ernest turned sadly from the wrinkled shrewdness of that +sordid visage, and gazed up the valley, where, amid a gathering +mist, gilded by the last sunbeams, he could still distinguish +those glorious features which had impressed themselves into his +soul. Their aspect cheered him. What did the benign lips seem to +say? + +"He will come! Fear not, Ernest; the man will come!" + +The years went on, and Ernest ceased to be a boy. He had grown to +be a young man now. He attracted little notice from the other +inhabitants of the valley; for they saw nothing remarkable in his +way of life save that, when the labor of the day was over, he +still loved to go apart and gaze and meditate upon the Great +Stone Face. According to their idea of the matter, it was a +folly, indeed, but pardonable, inasmuch as Ernest was +industrious, kind, and neighborly, and neglected no duty for the +sake of indulging this idle habit. They knew not that the Great +Stone Face had become a teacher to him, and that the sentiment +which was expressed in it would enlarge the young man's heart, +and fill it with wider and deeper sympathies than other hearts. +They knew not that thence would come a better wisdom than could +be learned from books, and a better life than could be moulded on +the defaced example of other human lives. Neither did Ernest know +that the thoughts and affections which came to him so naturally, +in the fields and at the fireside, and wherever he communed with +himself, were of a higher tone than those which all men shared +with him. A simple soul,--simple as when his mother first taught +him the old prophecy,--he beheld the marvellous features beaming +adown the valley, and still wondered that their human counterpart +was so long in making his appearance. + +By this time poor Mr. Gathergold was dead and buried; and the +oddest part of the matter was, that his wealth, which was the +body and spirit of his existence, had disappeared before his +death, leaving nothing of him but a living skeleton, covered over +with a wrinkled yellow skin. Since the melting away of his gold, +it had been very generally conceded that there was no such +striking resemblance, after all, betwixt the ignoble features of +the ruined merchant and that majestic face upon the +mountain-side. So the people ceased to honor him during his +lifetime, and quietly consigned him to forgetfulness after his +decease. Once in a while, it is true, his memory was brought up +in connection with the magnificent palace which he had built, and +which had long ago been turned into a hotel for the accommodation +of strangers, multitudes of whom came, every summer, to visit +that famous natural curiosity, the Great Stone Face. Thus, Mr. +Gathergold being discredited and thrown into the shade, the man +of prophecy was yet to come. + +It so happened that a native-born son of the valley, many years +before, had enlisted as a soldier, and, after a great deal of +hard fighting, had now become an illustrious commander. Whatever +he may be called in history, he was known in camps and on the +battle-field under the nickname of Old Blood-and-Thunder. This +war-worn veteran being now infirm with age and wounds, and weary +of the turmoil of a military life, and of the roll of the drum +and the clangor of the trumpet, that had so long been ringing in +his ears, had lately signified a purpose of returning to his +native valley, hoping to find repose where he remembered to have +left it. The inhabitants, his old neighbors and their grown-up +children, were resolved to welcome the renowned warrior with a +salute of cannon and a public dinner; and all the more +enthusiastically, it being affirmed that now, at last, the +likeness of the Great Stone Face had actually appeared. An +aid-de-camp of Old Blood-and-Thunder, travelling through the +valley, was said to have been struck with the resemblance. +Moreover the schoolmates and early acquaintances of the general +were ready to testify, on oath, that, to the best of their +recollection, the aforesaid general had been exceedingly like the +majestic image, even when a boy, only the idea had never occurred +to them at that period. Great, therefore, was the excitement +throughout the valley; and many people, who had never once +thought of glancing at the Great Stone Face for years before, now +spent their time in gazing at it, for the sake of knowing exactly +how General Blood-and-Thunder looked. + +On the day of the great festival, Ernest, with all the other +people of the valley, left their work, and proceeded to the spot +where the sylvan banquet was prepared. As he approached, the loud +voice of the Rev. Dr. Battleblast was heard, beseeching a +blessing on the good things set before them, and on the +distinguished friend of peace in whose honor they were assembled. +The tables were arranged in a cleared space of the woods, shut in +by the surrounding trees, except where a vista opened eastward, +and afforded a distant view of the Great Stone Face. Over the +general's chair, which was a relic from the home of Washington, +there was an arch of verdant boughs, with the laurel profusely +intermixed, and surmounted by his country's banner, beneath which +he had won his victories. Our friend Ernest raised himself on his +tiptoes, in hopes to get a glimpse of the celebrated guest; but +there was a mighty crowd about the tables anxious to hear the +toasts and speeches, and to catch any word that might fall from +the general in reply; and a volunteer company, doing duty as a +guard, pricked ruthlessly with their bayonets at any particularly +quiet person among the throng. So Ernest, being of an unobtrusive +character, was thrust quite into the background, where he could +see no more of Old Blood-and-Thunder's physiognomy than if it had +been still blazing on the battle-field. To console himself, he +turned towards the Great Stone Face, which, like a faithful and +long remembered friend, looked back and smiled upon him through +the vista of the forest. Meantime, however, he could overhear the +remarks of various individuals, who were comparing the features +of the hero with the face on the distant mountain-side. + +" 'Tis the same face, to a hair!" cried one man, cutting a caper +for joy. + +"Wonderfully like, that's a fact!" responded another. + +"Like! why, I call it Old Blood-and-Thunder himself, in a +monstrous looking-glass!" cried a third. "And why not? He's the +greatest man of this or any other age, beyond a doubt." + +And then all three of the speakers gave a great shout, which +communicated electricity to the crowd, and called forth a roar +from a thousand voices, that went reverberating for miles among +the mountains, until you might have supposed that the Great Stone +Face had poured its thunderbreath into the cry. All these +comments, and this vast enthusiasm, served the more to interest +our friend; nor did he think of questioning that now, at length, +the mountain-visage had found its human counterpart. It is true, +Ernest had imagined that this long-looked-for personage would +appear in the character of a man of peace, uttering wisdom, and +doing good, and making people happy. But, taking an habitual +breadth of view, with all his simplicity, he contended that +Providence should choose its own method of blessing mankind, and +could conceive that this great end might be effected even by a +warrior and a bloody sword, should inscrutable wisdom see fit to +order matters so. + +"The general! the general!" was now the cry. "Hush! silence! Old +Blood-and-Thunder's going to make a speech." + +Even so; for, the cloth being removed, the general's health had +been drunk, amid shouts of applause, and he now stood upon his +feet to thank the company. Ernest saw him. There he was, over the +shoulders of the crowd, from the two glittering epaulets and +embroidered collar upward, beneath the arch of green boughs with +intertwined laurel, and the banner drooping as if to shade his +brow! And there, too, visible in the same glance, through the +vista of the forest, appeared the Great Stone Face! And was +there, indeed, such a resemblance as the crowd had testified? +Alas, Ernest could not recognize it! He beheld a war-worn and +weatherbeaten countenance, full of energy, and expressive of an +iron will; but the gentle wisdom, the deep, broad, tender +sympathies, were altogether wanting in Old Blood-and-Thunder's +visage; and even if the Great Stone Face had assumed his look of +stern command, the milder traits would still have tempered it. + +"This is not the man of prophecy," sighed Ernest to himself, as +he made his way out of the throng. "And must the world wait +longer yet?" + +The mists had congregated about the distant mountain-side, and +there were seen the grand and awful features of the Great Stone +Face, awful but benignant, as if a mighty angel were sitting +among the hills, and enrobing himself in a cloud-vesture of gold +and purple. As he looked, Ernest could hardly believe but that a +smile beamed over the whole visage, with a radiance still +brightening, although without motion of the lips. It was probably +the effect of the western sunshine, melting through the thinly +diffused vapors that had swept between him and the object that he +gazed at. But--as it always did--the aspect of his marvellous +friend made Ernest as hopeful as if he had never hoped in vain. + +"Fear not, Ernest," said his heart, even as if the Great Face +were whispering him,--fear not, Ernest; he will come." + +More years sped swiftly and tranquilly away. Ernest still dwelt +in his native valley, and was now a man of middle age. By +imperceptible degrees, he had become known among the people. Now, +as heretofore, he labored for his bread, and was the same +simple-hearted man that he had always been. But he had thought +and felt so much, he had given so many of the best hours of his +life to unworldly hopes for some great good to mankind, that it +seemed as though he had been talking with the angels, and had +imbibed a portion of their wisdom unawares. It was visible in the +calm and well-considered beneficence of his daily life, the quiet +stream of which had made a wide green margin all along its +course. Not a day passed by, that the world was not the better +because this man, humble as he was, had lived. He never stepped +aside from his own path, yet would always reach a blessing to his +neighbor. Almost involuntarily too, he had become a preacher. The +pure and high simplicity of his thought, which, as one of its +manifestations, took shape in the good deeds that dropped +silently from his hand, flowed also forth in speech. He uttered +truths that wrought upon and moulded the lives of those who heard +him. His auditors, it may be, never suspected that Ernest, their +own neighbor and familiar friend, was more than an ordinary man; +least of all did Ernest himself suspect it; but, inevitably as +the murmur of a rivulet, came thoughts out of his mouth that no +other human lips had spoken. + +When the people's minds had had a little time to cool, they were +ready enough to acknowledge their mistake in imagining a +similarity between General Blood-and-Thunder's truculent +physiognomy and the benign visage on the mountain-side. But now, +again, there were reports and many paragraphs in the newspapers, +affirming that the likeness of the Great Stone Face had appeared +upon the broad shoulders of a certain eminent statesman. He, like +Mr. Gathergold and Old Blood-and-Thunder, was a native of the +valley, but had left it in his early days, and taken up the +trades of law and politics. Instead of the rich man's wealth and +the warrior's sword, he had but a tongue, and it was mightier +than both together. So wonderfully eloquent was he, that whatever +he might choose to say, his auditors had no choice but to believe +him; wrong looked like right, and right like wrong; for when it +pleased him, he could make a kind of illuminated fog with his +mere breath, and obscure the natural daylight with it. His +tongue, indeed, was a magic instrument: sometimes it rumbled like +the thunder; sometimes it warbled like the sweetest music. It was +the blast of war, the song of peace; and it seemed to have a +heart in it, when there was no such matter. In good truth, he was +a wondrous man; and when his tongue had acquired him all other +imaginable success,--when it had been heard in halls of state, +and in the courts of princes and potentates,--after it had made +him known all over the world, even as a voice crying from shore +to shore,--it finally persuaded his countrymen to select him for +the Presidency. Before this time,--indeed, as soon as he began to +grow celebrated,--his admirers had found out the resemblance +between him and the Great Stone Face; and so much were they +struck by it, that throughout the country this distinguished +gentleman was known by the name of Old Stony Phiz. The phrase was +considered as giving a highly favorable aspect to his political +prospects; for, as is likewise the case with the Popedom, nobody +ever becomes President without taking a name other than his own. + +While his friends were doing their best to make him President, +Old Stony Phiz, as he was called, set out on a visit to the +valley where he was born. Of course, he had no other object than +to shake hands with his fellow-citizens and neither thought nor +cared about any effect which his progress through the country +might have upon the election. Magnificent preparations were made +to receive the illustrious statesman; a cavalcade of horsemen set +forth to meet him at the boundary line of the State, and all the +people left their business and gathered along the wayside to see +him pass. Among these was Ernest. Though more than once +disappointed, as we have seen, he had such a hopeful and +confiding nature, that he was always ready to believe in whatever +seemed beautiful and good. He kept his heart continually open, +and thus was sure to catch the blessing from on high when it +should come. So now again, as buoyantly as ever, he went forth to +behold the likeness of the Great Stone Face. + +The cavalcade came prancing along the road, with a great +clattering of hoofs and a mighty cloud of dust, which rose up so +dense and high that the visage of the mountain-side was +completely hidden from Ernest's eyes. All the great men of the +neighborhood were there on horseback; militia officers, in +uniform; the member of Congress; the sheriff of the county; the +editors of newspapers; and many a farmer, too, had mounted his +patient steed, with his Sunday coat upon his back. It really was +a very brilliant spectacle, especially as there were numerous +banners flaunting over the cavalcade, on some of which were +gorgeous portraits of the illustrious statesman and the Great +Stone Face, smiling familiarly at one another, like two brothers. +If the pictures were to be trusted, the mutual resemblance, it +must be confessed, was marvellous. We must not forget to mention +that there was a band of music, which made the echoes of the +mountains ring and reverberate with the loud triumph of its +strains; so that airy and soul-thrilling melodies broke out among +all the heights and hollows, as if every nook of his native +valley had found a voice, to welcome the distinguished guest. But +the grandest effect was when the far-off mountain precipice flung +back the music; for then the Great Stone Face itself seemed to be +swelling the triumphant chorus, in acknowledgment that, at +length, the man of prophecy was come. + +All this while the people were throwing up their hats and +shouting with enthusiasm so contagious that the heart of Ernest +kindled up, and he likewise threw up his hat, and shouted, as +loudly as the loudest, "Huzza for the great man! Huzza for Old +Stony Phiz!" But as yet he had not seen him. + +"Here he is, now!" cried those who stood near Ernest. "There! +There! Look at Old Stony Phiz and then at the Old Man of the +Mountain, and see if they are not as like as two twin-brothers!" + +In the midst of all this gallant array came an open barouche, +drawn by four white horses; and in the barouche, with his massive +head uncovered, sat the illustrious statesman, Old Stony Phiz +himself. + +"Confess it," said one of Ernest's neighbors to him, "the Great +Stone Face has met its match at last!" + +Now, it must be owned that, at his first glimpse of the +countenance which was bowing and smiling from the barouche, +Ernest did fancy that there was a resemblance between it and the +old familiar face upon the mountain-side. The brow, with its +massive depth and loftiness, and all the other features, indeed, +were boldly and strongly hewn, as if in emulation of a more than +heroic, of a Titanic model. But the sublimity and stateliness, +the grand expression of a divine sympathy, that illuminated the +mountain visage and etherealized its ponderous granite substance +into spirit, might here be sought in vain. Something had been +originally left out, or had departed. And therefore the +marvellously gifted statesman had always a weary gloom in the +deep caverns of his eyes, as of a child that has outgrown its +playthings or a man of mighty faculties and little aims, whose +life, with all its high performances, was vague and empty, +because no high purpose had endowed it with reality. + +Still, Ernest's neighbor was thrusting his elbow into his side, +and pressing him for an answer. + +"Confess! confess! Is not he the very picture of your Old Man of +the Mountain?" + +"No!" said Ernest bluntly, "I see little or no likeness." + +"Then so much the worse for the Great Stone Face!" answered his +neighbor; and again he set up a shout for Old Stony Phiz. + +But Ernest turned away, melancholy, and almost despondent: for +this was the saddest of his disappointments, to behold a man who +might have fulfilled the prophecy, and had not willed to do so. +Meantime, the cavalcade, the banners, the music, and the +barouches swept past him, with the vociferous crowd in the rear, +leaving the dust to settle down, and the Great Stone Face to be +revealed again, with the grandeur that it had worn for untold +centuries. + +"Lo, here I am, Ernest!" the benign lips seemed to say. "I have +waited longer than thou, and am not yet weary. Fear not; the man +will come." + +The years hurried onward, treading in their haste on one +another's heels. And now they began to bring white hairs, and +scatter them over the head of Ernest; they made reverend wrinkles +across his forehead, and furrows in his cheeks. He was an aged +man. But not in vain had he grown old: more than the white hairs +on his head were the sage thoughts in his mind; his wrinkles and +furrows were inscriptions that Time had graved, and in which he +had written legends of wisdom that had been tested by the tenor +of a life. And Ernest had ceased to be obscure. Unsought for, +undesired, had come the fame which so many seek, and made him +known in the great world, beyond the limits of the valley in +which he had dwelt so quietly. College professors, and even the +active men of cities, came from far to see and converse with +Ernest; for the report had gone abroad that this simple +husbandman had ideas unlike those of other men, not gained from +books, but of a higher tone,--a tranquil and familiar majesty, as +if he had been talking with the angels as his daily friends. +Whether it were sage, statesman, or philanthropist, Ernest +received these visitors with the gentle sincerity that had +characterized him from boyhood, and spoke freely with them of +whatever came uppermost, or lay deepest in his heart or their +own. While they talked together, his face would kindle, unawares, +and shine upon them, as with a mild evening light. Pensive with +the fulness of such discourse, his guests took leave and went +their way; and passing up the valley, paused to look at the Great +Stone Face, imagining that they had seen its likeness in a human +countenance, but could not remember where. + +While Ernest had been growing up and growing old, a bountiful +Providence had granted a new poet to this earth. He likewise, was +a native of the valley, but had spent the greater part of his +life at a distance from that romantic region, pouring out his +sweet music amid the bustle and din of cities. Often, however, +did the mountains which had been familiar to him in his childhood +lift their snowy peaks into the clear atmosphere of his poetry. +Neither was the Great Stone Face forgotten, for the poet had +celebrated it in an ode, which was grand enough to have been +uttered by its own majestic lips. This man of genius, we may say, +had come down from heaven with wonderful endowments. If he sang +of a mountain, the eyes of all mankind beheld a mightier grandeur +reposing on its breast, or soaring to its summit, than had before +been seen there. If his theme were a lovely lake, a celestial +smile had now been thrown over it, to gleam forever on its +surface. If it were the vast old sea, even the deep immensity of +its dread bosom seemed to swell the higher, as if moved by the +emotions of the song. Thus the world assumed another and a better +aspect from the hour that the poet blessed it with his happy +eyes. The Creator had bestowed him, as the last best touch to his +own handiwork. Creation was not finished till the poet came to +interpret, and so complete it. + +The effect was no less high and beautiful, when his human +brethren were the subject of his verse. The man or woman, sordid +with the common dust of life, who crossed his daily path, and the +little child who played in it, were glorified if he beheld them +in his mood of poetic faith. He showed the golden links of the +great chain that intertwined them with an angelic kindred; he +brought out the hidden traits of a celestial birth that made them +worthy of such kin. Some, indeed, there were, who thought to show +the soundness of their judgment by affirming that all the beauty +and dignity of the natural world existed only in the poet's +fancy. Let such men speak for themselves, who undoubtedly appear +to have been spawned forth by Nature with a contemptuous +bitterness; she having plastered them up out of her refuse stuff, +after all the swine were made. As respects all things else, the +poet's ideal was the truest truth. + +The songs of this poet found their way to Ernest. He read them +after his customary toil, seated on the bench before his +cottage-door, where for such a length of time he had filled his +repose with thought, by gazing at the Great Stone Face. And now +as he read stanzas that caused the soul to thrill within him, he +lifted his eyes to the vast countenance beaming on him so +benignantly. + +"O majestic friend," he murmured, addressing the Great Stone +Face, "is not this man worthy to resemble thee?" + +The Face seemed to smile, but answered not a word. + +Now it happened that the poet, though he dwelt so far away, had +not only heard of Ernest, but had meditated much upon his +character, until he deemed nothing so desirable as to meet this +man, whose untaught wisdom walked hand in hand with the noble +simplicity of his life. One summer morning, therefore, he took +passage by the railroad, and, in the decline of the afternoon, +alighted from the cars at no great distance from Ernest's +cottage. The great hotel, which had formerly been the palace of +Mr. Gathergold, was close at hand, but the poet, with his +carpet-bag on his arm, inquired at once where Ernest dwelt, and +was resolved to be accepted as his guest. + +Approaching the door, he there found the good old man, holding a +volume in his hand, which alternately he read, and then, with a +finger between the leaves, looked lovingly at the Great Stone +Face. + +"Good evening," said the poet. "Can you give a traveller a +night's lodging?" + +"Willingly," answered Ernest; and then he added, smiling, +"Methinks I never saw the Great Stone Face look so hospitably at +a stranger." + +The poet sat down on the bench beside him, and he and Ernest +talked together. Often had the poet held intercourse with the +wittiest and the wisest, but never before with a man like Ernest, +whose thoughts and feelings gushed up with such a natural +freedom, and who made great truths so familiar by his simple +utterance of them. Angels, as had been so often said, seemed to +have wrought with him at his labor in the fields; angels seemed +to have sat with him by the fireside; and, dwelling with angels +as friend with friends, he had imbibed the sublimity of their +ideas, and imbued it with the sweet and lowly charm of household +words. So thought the poet. And Ernest, on the other hand, was +moved and agitated by the living images which the poet flung out +of his mind, and which peopled all the air about the cottage-door +with shapes of beauty, both gay and pensive. The sympathies of +these two men instructed them with a profounder sense than either +could have attained alone. Their minds accorded into one strain, +and made delightful music which neither of them could have +claimed as all his own, nor distinguished his own share from the +other's. They led one another, as it were, into a high pavilion +of their thoughts, so remote, and hitherto so dim, that they had +never entered it before, and so beautiful that they desired to be +there always. + +As Ernest listened to the poet, he imagined that the Great Stone +Face was bending forward to listen too. He gazed earnestly into +the poet's glowing eyes. + +"Who are you, my strangely gifted guest?" he said. + +The poet laid his finger on the volume that Ernest had been +reading. + +"You have read these poems," said he. "You know me, then,--for I +wrote them." + +Again, and still more earnestly than before, Ernest examined the +poet's features; then turned towards the Great Stone Face; then +back, with an uncertain aspect, to his guest. But his countenance +fell; he shook his head, and sighed. + +"Wherefore are you sad?" inquired the poet. + +"Because," replied Ernest, "all through life I have awaited the +fulfilment of a prophecy; and, when I read these poems, I hoped +that it might be fulfilled in you." + +"You hoped," answered the poet, faintly smiling, "to find in me +the likeness of the Great Stone Face. And you are disappointed, +as formerly with Mr. Gathergold, and Old Blood-and-Thunder, and +Old Stony Phiz. Yes, Ernest, it is my doom. You must add my name +to the illustrious three, and record another failure of your +hopes. For--in shame and sadness do I speak it, Ernest--I am not +worthy to be typified by yonder benign and majestic image." + +"And why?" asked Ernest. He pointed to the volume. "Are not those +thoughts divine?" + +"They have a strain of the Divinity," replied the poet. "You can +hear in them the far-off echo of a heavenly song. But my life, +dear Ernest, has not corresponded with my thought. I have had +grand dreams, but they have been only dreams, because I have +lived--and that, too, by my own choice--among poor and mean +realities. Sometimes even--shall I dare to say it?--I lack faith +in the grandeur, the beauty, and the goodness, which my own words +are said to have made more evident in nature and in human life. +Why, then, pure seeker of the good and true, shouldst thou hope +to find me, in yonder image of the divine?" + +The poet spoke sadly, and his eyes were dim with tears. So, +likewise, were those of Ernest. + +At the hour of sunset, as had long been his frequent custom, +Ernest was to discourse to an assemblage of the neighboring +inhabitants in the open air. He and the poet, arm in arm, still +talking together as they went along, proceeded to the spot. It +was a small nook among the hills, with a gray precipice behind, +the stern front of which was relieved by the pleasant foliage of +many creeping plants that made a tapestry for the naked rock, by +hanging their festoons from all its rugged angles. At a small +elevation above the ground, set in a rich framework of verdure, +there appeared a niche, spacious enough to admit a human figure, +with freedom for such gestures as spontaneously accompany earnest +thought and genuine emotion. Into this natural pulpit Ernest +ascended, and threw a look of familiar kindness around upon his +audience. They stood, or sat, or reclined upon the grass, as +seemed good to each, with the departing sunshine falling +obliquely over them, and mingling its subdued cheerfulness with +the solemnity of a grove of ancient trees, beneath and amid the +boughs of which the golden rays were constrained to pass. In +another direction was seen the Great Stone Face, with the same +cheer, combined with the same solemnity, in its benignant aspect. + +Ernest began to speak, giving to the people of what was in his +heart and mind. His words had power, because they accorded with +his thoughts; and his thoughts had reality and depth, because +they harmonized with the life which he had always lived. It was +not mere breath that this preacher uttered; they were the words +of life, because a life of good deeds and holy love was melted +into them. Pearls, pure and rich, had been dissolved into this +precious draught. The poet, as he listened, felt that the being +and character of Ernest were a nobler strain of poetry than he +had ever written. His eyes glistening with tears, he gazed +reverentially at the venerable man, and said within himself that +never was there an aspect so worthy of a prophet and a sage as +that mild, sweet, thoughtful countenance, with the glory of white +hair diffused about it. At a distance, but distinctly to be seen, +high up in the golden light of the setting sun, appeared the +Great Stone Face, with hoary mists around it, like the white +hairs around the brow of Ernest. Its look of grand beneficence +seemed to embrace the world. + +At that moment, in sympathy with a thought which he was about to +utter, the face of Ernest assumed a grandeur of expression, so +imbued with benevolence, that the poet, by an irresistible +impulse, threw his arms aloft and shouted,"Behold! Behold! Ernest +is himself the likeness of the Great Stone Face!" + +Then all the people looked, and saw that what the deep-sighted +poet said was true. The prophecy was fulfilled. But Ernest, +having finished what he had to say, took the poet's arm, and +walked slowly homeward, still hoping that some wiser and better +man than himself would by and by appear, bearing a resemblance to +the GREAT STONE FACE. + + + +ETHAN BRAND + +A CHAPTER FROM AN ABORTIVE ROMANCE + +Bartram the lime-burner, a rough, heavy-looking man, begrimed +with charcoal, sat watching his kiln at nightfall, while his +little son played at building houses with the scattered fragments +of marble, when, on the hill-side below them, they heard a roar +of laughter, not mirthful, but slow, and even solemn, like a wind +shaking the boughs of the forest. + +"Father, what is that?" asked the little boy, leaving his play, +and pressing betwixt his father's knees. + +"Oh, some drunken man, I suppose," answered the lime-burner; +"some merry fellow from the bar-room in the village, who dared +not laugh loud enough within doors lest he should blow the roof +of the house off. So here he is, shaking his jolly sides at the +foot of Graylock." + +"But, father," said the child, more sensitive than the obtuse, +middle-aged clown, "he does not laugh like a man that is glad. So +the noise frightens me!" + +"Don't be a fool, child!" cried his father, gruffly. "You will +never make a man, I do believe; there is too much of your mother +in you. I have known the rustling of a leaf startle you. Hark! +Here comes the merry fellow now. You shall see that there is no +harm in him." + +Bartram and his little son, while they were talking thus, sat +watching the same lime-kiln that had been the scene of Ethan +Brand's solitary and meditative life, before he began his search +for the Unpardonable Sin. Many years, as we have seen, had now +elapsed, since that portentous night when the IDEA was first +developed. The kiln, however, on the mountain-side, stood +unimpaired, and was in nothing changed since he had thrown his +dark thoughts into the intense glow of its furnace, and melted +them, as it were, into the one thought that took possession of +his life. It was a rude, round, tower-like structure about twenty +feet high, heavily built of rough stones, and with a hillock of +earth heaped about the larger part of its circumference; so that +the blocks and fragments of marble might be drawn by cart-loads, +and thrown in at the top. There was an opening at the bottom of +the tower, like an over-mouth, but large enough to admit a man in +a stooping posture, and provided with a massive iron door. With +the smoke and jets of flame issuing from the chinks and crevices +of this door, which seemed to give admittance into the hill-side, +it resembled nothing so much as the private entrance to the +infernal regions, which the shepherds of the Delectable Mountains +were accustomed to show to pilgrims. + +There are many such lime-kilns in that tract of country, for the +purpose of burning the white marble which composes a large part +of the substance of the hills. Some of them, built years ago, and +long deserted, with weeds growing in the vacant round of the +interior, which is open to the sky, and grass and wild-flowers +rooting themselves into the chinks of the stones, look already +like relics of antiquity, and may yet be overspread with the +lichens of centuries to come. Others, where the limeburner still +feeds his daily and night-long fire, afford points of interest to +the wanderer among the hills, who seats himself on a log of wood +or a fragment of marble, to hold a chat with the solitary man. It +is a lonesome, and, when the character is inclined to thought, +may be an intensely thoughtful occupation; as it proved in the +case of Ethan Brand, who had mused to such strange purpose, in +days gone by, while the fire in this very kiln was burning. + +The man who now watched the fire was of a different order, and +troubled himself with no thoughts save the very few that were +requisite to his business. At frequent intervals, he flung back +the clashing weight of the iron door, and, turning his face from +the insufferable glare, thrust in huge logs of oak, or stirred +the immense brands with a long pole. Within the furnace were seen +the curling and riotous flames, and the burning marble, almost +molten with the intensity of heat; while without, the reflection +of the fire quivered on the dark intricacy of the surrounding +forest, and showed in the foreground a bright and ruddy little +picture of the hut, the spring beside its door, the athletic and +coal-begrimed figure of the lime-burner, and the half-frightened +child, shrinking into the protection of his father's shadow. And +when, again, the iron door was closed, then reappeared the tender +light of the half-full moon, which vainly strove to trace out the +indistinct shapes of the neighboring mountains; and, in the upper +sky, there was a flitting congregation of clouds, still faintly +tinged with the rosy sunset, though thus far down into the valley +the sunshine had vanished long and long ago + +The little boy now crept still closer to his father, as footsteps +were heard ascending the hill-side, and a human form thrust aside +the bushes that clustered beneath the trees. + +"Halloo! who is it?" cried the lime-burner, vexed at his son's +timidity, yet half infected by it. "Come forward, and show +yourself, like a man, or I'll fling this chunk of marble at your +head!" + +"You offer me a rough welcome," said a gloomy voice, as the +unknown man drew nigh. "Yet I neither claim nor desire a kinder +one, even at my own fireside." + +To obtain a distincter view, Bartram threw open the iron door of +the kiln, whence immediately issued a gush of fierce light, that +smote full upon the stranger's face and figure. To a careless eye +there appeared nothing very remarkable in his aspect, which was +that of a man in a coarse brown, country-made suit of clothes, +tall and thin, with the staff and heavy shoes of a wayfarer. As +he advanced, he fixed his eyes--which were very bright--intently +upon the brightness of the furnace, as if he beheld, or expected +to behold, some object worthy of note within it. + +"Good evening, stranger," said the lime-burner; "whence come you, +so late in the day?" + +"I come from my search," answered the wayfarer; "for, at last, it +is finished." + +"Drunk!--or crazy!" muttered Bartram to himself. "I shall have +trouble with the fellow. The sooner I drive him away, the +better." + +The little boy, all in a tremble, whispered to his father, and +begged him to shut the door of the kiln, so that there might not +be so much light; for that there was something in the man's face +which he was afraid to look at, yet could not look away from. +And, indeed, even the lime-burner's dull and torpid sense began +to be impressed by an indescribable something in that thin, +rugged, thoughtful visage, with the grizzled hair hanging wildly +about it, and those deeply sunken eyes, which gleamed like fires +within the entrance of a mysterious cavern. But, as he closed the +door, the stranger turned towards him, and spoke in a quiet, +familiar way, that made Bartram feel as if he were a sane and +sensible man, after all. + +"Your task draws to an end, I see," said he. "This marble has +already been burning three days. A few hours more will convert +the stone to lime." + +"Why, who are you?" exclaimed the lime-burner. "You seem as well +acquainted with my business as I am myself." + +"And well I may be," said the stranger; "for I followed the same +craft many a long year, and here, too, on this very spot. But you +are a newcomer in these parts. Did you never hear of Ethan +Brand?" + +"The man that went in search of the Unpardonable Sin?" asked +Bartram, with a laugh. + +"The same," answered the stranger. "He has found what he sought, +and therefore he comes back again." + +"What! then you are Ethan Brand himself?" cried the lime-burner, +in amazement. "I am a new-comer here, as you say, and they call +it eighteen years since you left the foot of Graylock. But, I can +tell you, the good folks still talk about Ethan Brand, in the +village yonder, and what a strange errand took him away from his +lime-kiln. Well, and so you have found the Unpardonable Sin?" + +"Even so!" said the stranger, calmly. + +"If the question is a fair one," proceeded Bartram, "where might +it be?" + +Ethan Brand laid his finger on his own heart. + +"Here!" replied he. + +And then, without mirth in his countenance, but as if moved by an +involuntary recognition of the infinite absurdity of seeking +throughout the world for what was the closest of all things to +himself, and looking into every heart, save his own, for what was +hidden in no other breast, he broke into a laugh of scorn. It was +the same slow, heavy laugh, that had almost appalled the +lime-burner when it heralded the wayfarer's approach. + +The solitary mountain-side was made dismal by it. Laughter, when +out of place, mistimed, or bursting forth from a disordered state +of feeling, may be the most terrible modulation of the human +voice. The laughter of one asleep, even if it be a little +child,--the madman's laugh,--the wild, screaming laugh of a born +idiot,--are sounds that we sometimes tremble to hear, and would +always willingly forget. Poets have imagined no utterance of +fiends or hobgoblins so fearfully appropriate as a laugh. And +even the obtuse lime-burner felt his nerves shaken, as this +strange man looked inward at his own heart, and burst into +laughter that rolled away into the night, and was indistinctly +reverberated among the hills. + +"Joe," said he to his little son, "scamper down to the tavern in +the village, and tell the jolly fellows there that Ethan Brand +has come back, and that he has found the Unpardonable Sin!" + +The boy darted away on his errand, to which Ethan Brand made no +objection, nor seemed hardly to notice it. He sat on a log of +wood, looking steadfastly at the iron door of the kiln. When the +child was out of sight, and his swift and light footsteps ceased +to be heard treading first on the fallen leaves and then on the +rocky mountain-path, the lime-burner began to regret his +departure. He felt that the little fellow's presence had been a +barrier between his guest and himself, and that he must now deal, +heart to heart, with a man who, on his own confession, had +committed the one only crime for which Heaven could afford no +mercy. That crime, in its indistinct blackness, seemed to +overshadow him, and made his memory riotous with a throng of evil +shapes that asserted their kindred with the Master Sin, whatever +it might be, which it was within the scope of man's corrupted +nature to conceive and cherish. They were all of one family; they +went to and fro between his breast and Ethan Brand's, and carried +dark greetings from one to the other. + +Then Bartram remembered the stories which had grown traditionary +in reference to this strange man, who had come upon him like a +shadow of the night, and was making himself at home in his old +place, after so long absence, that the dead people, dead and +buried for years, would have had more right to be at home, in any +familiar spot, than he. Ethan Brand, it was said, had conversed +with Satan himself in the lurid blaze of this very kiln. The +legend had been matter of mirth heretofore, but looked grisly +now. According to this tale, before Ethan Brand departed on his +search, he had been accustomed to evoke a fiend from the hot +furnace of the lime-kiln, night after night, in order to confer +with him about the Unpardonable Sin; the man and the fiend each +laboring to frame the image of some mode of guilt which could +neither be atoned for nor forgiven. And, with the first gleam of +light upon the mountain-top, the fiend crept in at the iron door, +there to abide the intensest element of fire until again summoned +forth to share in the dreadful task of extending man's possible +guilt beyond the scope of Heaven's else infinite mercy. + +While the lime-burner was struggling with the horror of these +thoughts, Ethan Brand rose from the log, and flung open the door +of the kiln. The action was in such accordance with the idea in +Bartram's mind, that he almost expected to see the Evil One issue +forth, red-hot, from the raging furnace. + +"Hold! hold!" cried he, with a tremulous attempt to laugh; for he +was ashamed of his fears, although they overmastered him. "Don't, +for mercy's sake, bring out your Devil now!" + +"Man!" sternly replied Ethan Brand, "what need have I of the +Devil? I have left him behind me, on my track. It is with such +half-way sinners as you that he busies himself. Fear not, because +I open the door. I do but act by old custom, and am going to trim +your fire, like a lime-burner, as I was once." + +He stirred the vast coals, thrust in more wood, and bent forward +to gaze into the hollow prison-house of the fire, regardless of +the fierce glow that reddened upon his face. The lime-burner sat +watching him, and half suspected this strange guest of a purpose, +if not to evoke a fiend, at least to plunge into the flames, and +thus vanish from the sight of man. Ethan Brand, however, drew +quietly back, and closed the door of the kiln. + +"I have looked," said he, "into many a human heart that was seven +times hotter with sinful passions than yonder furnace is with +fire. But I found not there what I sought. No, not the +Unpardonable Sin!" + +"What is the Unpardonable Sin?" asked the lime-burner; and then +he shrank farther from his companion, trembling lest his question +should be answered. + +"It is a sin that grew within my own breast," replied Ethan +Brand, standing erect with a pride that distinguishes all +enthusiasts of his stamp. "A sin that grew nowhere else! The sin +of an intellect that triumphed over the sense of brotherhood with +man and reverence for God, and sacrificed everything to its own +mighty claims! The only sin that deserves a recompense of +immortal agony! Freely, were it to do again, would I incur the +guilt. Unshrinkingly I accept the retribution!" + +"The man's head is turned," muttered the lime-burner to himself. +"He may be a sinner like the rest of us,--nothing more +likely,--but, I'll be sworn, he is a madman too." + +Nevertheless, he felt uncomfortable at his situation, alone with +Ethan Brand on the wild mountain-side, and was right glad to hear +the rough murmur of tongues, and the footsteps of what seemed a +pretty numerous party, stumbling over the stones and rustling +through the underbrush. Soon appeared the whole lazy regiment +that was wont to infest the village tavern, comprehending three +or four individuals who had drunk flip beside the bar-room fire +through all the winters, and smoked their pipes beneath the stoop +through all the summers, since Ethan Brand's departure. Laughing +boisterously, and mingling all their voices together in +unceremonious talk, they now burst into the moonshine and narrow +streaks of firelight that illuminated the open space before the +lime-kiln. Bartram set the door ajar again, flooding the spot +with light, that the whole company might get a fair view of Ethan +Brand, and he of them. + +There, among other old acquaintances, was a once ubiquitous man, +now almost extinct, but whom we were formerly sure to encounter +at the hotel of every thriving village throughout the country. It +was the stage-agent. The present specimen of the genus was a +wilted and smoke-dried man, wrinkled and red-nosed, in a smartly +cut, brown, bobtailed coat, with brass buttons, who, for a length +of time unknown, had kept his desk and corner in the bar-room, +and was still puffing what seemed to be the same cigar that he +had lighted twenty years before. He had great fame as a dry +joker, though, perhaps, less on account of any intrinsic humor +than from a certain flavor of brandy-toddy and tobacco-smoke, +which impregnated all his ideas and expressions, as well as his +person. Another well-remembered, though strangely altered, face +was that of Lawyer Giles, as people still called him in courtesy; +an elderly ragamuffin, in his soiled shirtsleeves and tow-cloth +trousers. This poor fellow had been an attorney, in what he +called his better days, a sharp practitioner, and in great vogue +among the village litigants; but flip, and sling, and toddy, and +cocktails, imbibed at all hours, morning, noon, and night, had +caused him to slide from intellectual to various kinds and +degrees of bodily labor, till at last, to adopt his own phrase, +he slid into a soap-vat. In other words, Giles was now a +soap-boiler, in a small way. He had come to be but the fragment +of a human being, a part of one foot having been chopped off by +an axe, and an entire hand torn away by the devilish grip of a +steam-engine. Yet, though the corporeal hand was gone, a +spiritual member remained; for, stretching forth the stump, Giles +steadfastly averred that he felt an invisible thumb and fingers +with as vivid a sensation as before the real ones were amputated. +A maimed and miserable wretch he was; but one, nevertheless, whom +the world could not trample on, and had no right to scorn, either +in this or any previous stage of his misfortunes, since he had +still kept up the courage and spirit of a man, asked nothing in +charity, and with his one hand--and that the left one--fought a +stern battle against want and hostile circumstances. + +Among the throng, too, came another personage, who, with certain +points of similarity to Lawyer Giles, had many more of +difference. It was the village doctor; a man of some fifty years, +whom, at an earlier period of his life, we introduced as paying a +professional visit to Ethan Brand during the latter's supposed +insanity. He was now a purple-visaged, rude, and brutal, yet +half-gentlemanly figure, with something wild, ruined, and +desperate in his talk, and in all the details of his gesture and +manners. Brandy possessed this man like an evil spirit, and made +him as surly and savage as a wild beast, and as miserable as a +lost soul; but there was supposed to be in him such wonderful +skill, such native gifts of healing, beyond any which medical +science could impart, that society caught hold of him, and would +not let him sink out of its reach. So, swaying to and fro upon +his horse, and grumbling thick accents at the bedside, he visited +all the sick-chambers for miles about among the mountain towns, +and sometimes raised a dying man, as it were, by miracle, or +quite as often, no doubt, sent his patient to a grave that was +dug many a year too soon. The doctor had an everlasting pipe in +his mouth, and, as somebody said, in allusion to his habit of +swearing, it was always alight with hell-fire. + +These three worthies pressed forward, and greeted Ethan Brand +each after his own fashion, earnestly inviting him to partake of +the contents of a certain black bottle, in which, as they +averred, he would find something far better worth seeking than +the Unpardonable Sin. No mind, which has wrought itself by +intense and solitary meditation into a high state of enthusiasm, +can endure the kind of contact with low and vulgar modes of +thought and feeling to which Ethan Brand was now subjected. It +made him doubt--and, strange to say, it was a painful +doubt--whether he had indeed found the Unpardonable Sin, and +found it within himself. The whole question on which he had +exhausted life, and more than life, looked like a delusion. + +"Leave me," he said bitterly, "ye brute beasts, that have made +yourselves so, shrivelling up your souls with fiery liquors! I +have done with you. Years and years ago, I groped into your +hearts and found nothing there for my purpose. Get ye gone!" + +"Why, you uncivil scoundrel," cried the fierce doctor, "is that +the way you respond to the kindness of your best friends? Then +let me tell you the truth. You have no more found the +Unpardonable Sin than yonder boy Joe has. You are but a crazy +fellow,--I told you so twenty years ago,-neither better nor worse +than a crazy fellow, and the fit companion of old Humphrey, +here!" + +He pointed to an old man, shabbily dressed, with long white hair, +thin visage, and unsteady eyes. For some years past this aged +person had been wandering about among the hills, inquiring of all +travellers whom he met for his daughter. The girl, it seemed, had +gone off with a company of circus-performers, and occasionally +tidings of her came to the village, and fine stories were told of +her glittering appearance as she rode on horseback in the ring, +or performed marvellous feats on the tight-rope. + +The white-haired father now approached Ethan Brand, and gazed +unsteadily into his face. + +"They tell me you have been all over the earth," said he, +wringing his hands with earnestness. "You must have seen my +daughter, for she makes a grand figure in the world, and +everybody goes to see her. Did she send any word to her old +father, or say when she was coming back?" + +Ethan Brand's eye quailed beneath the old man's. That daughter, +from whom he so earnestly desired a word of greeting, was the +Esther of our tale, the very girl whom, with such cold and +remorseless purpose, Ethan Brand had made the subject of a +psychological experiment, and wasted, absorbed, and perhaps +annihilated her soul, in the process. + +"Yes," he murmured, turning away from the hoary wanderer, "it is +no delusion. There is an Unpardonable Sin!" + +While these things were passing, a merry scene was going forward +in the area of cheerful light, beside the spring and before the +door of the hut. A number of the youth of the village, young men +and girls, had hurried up the hill-side, impelled by curiosity to +see Ethan Brand, the hero of so many a legend familiar to their +childhood. Finding nothing, however, very remarkable in his +aspect,--nothing but a sunburnt wayfarer, in plain garb and dusty +shoes, who sat looking into the fire as if he fancied pictures +among the coals,--these young people speedily grew tired of +observing him. As it happened, there was other amusement at hand. +An old German Jew travelling with a diorama on his back, was +passing down the mountain-road towards the village just as the +party turned aside from it, and, in hopes of eking out the +profits of the day, the showman had kept them company to the +lime-kiln. + +"Come, old Dutchman," cried one of the young men, "let us see +your pictures, if you can swear they are worth looking at!" + +"Oh yes, Captain," answered the Jew,--whether as a matter of +courtesy or craft, he styled everybody Captain,--"I shall show +you, indeed, some very superb pictures!" + +So, placing his box in a proper position, he invited the young +men and girls to look through the glass orifices of the machine, +and proceeded to exhibit a series of the most outrageous +scratchings and daubings, as specimens of the fine arts, that +ever an itinerant showman had the face to impose upon his circle +of spectators. The pictures were worn out, moreover, tattered, +full of cracks and wrinkles, dingy with tobacco-smoke, and +otherwise in a most pitiable condition. Some purported to be +cities, public edifices, and ruined castles in Europe; others +represented Napoleon's battles and Nelson's sea-fights; and in +the midst of these would be seen a gigantic, brown, hairy +hand,--which might have been mistaken for the Hand of Destiny, +though, in truth, it was only the showman's,--pointing its +forefinger to various scenes of the conflict, while its owner +gave historical illustrations. When, with much merriment at its +abominable deficiency of merit, the exhibition was concluded, the +German bade little Joe put his head into the box. Viewed through +the magnifying-glasses, the boy's round, rosy visage assumed the +strangest imaginable aspect of an immense Titanic child, the +mouth grinning broadly, and the eyes and every other feature +overflowing with fun at the joke. Suddenly, however, that merry +face turned pale, and its expression changed to horror, for this +easily impressed and excitable child had become sensible that the +eye of Ethan Brand was fixed upon him through the glass. + +"You make the little man to be afraid, Captain," said the German +Jew, turning up the dark and strong outline of his visage from +his stooping posture. "But look again, and, by chance, I shall +cause you to see somewhat that is very fine, upon my word!" + +Ethan Brand gazed into the box for an instant, and then starting +back, looked fixedly at the German. What had he seen? Nothing, +apparently; for a curious youth, who had peeped in almost at the +same moment, beheld only a vacant space of canvas. + +"I remember you now," muttered Ethan Brand to the showman. + +"Ah, Captain," whispered the Jew of Nuremberg, with a dark smile, +"I find it to be a heavy matter in my show-box,--this +Unpardonable Sin! By my faith, Captain, it has wearied my +shoulders, this long day, to carry it over the mountain." + +"Peace," answered Ethan Brand, sternly, "or get thee into the +furnace yonder!" + +The Jew's exhibition had scarcely concluded, when a great, +elderly dog --who seemed to be his own master, as no person in +the company laid claim to him--saw fit to render himself the +object of public notice. Hitherto, he had shown himself a very +quiet, well-disposed old dog, going round from one to another, +and, by way of being sociable, offering his rough head to be +patted by any kindly hand that would take so much trouble. But +now, all of a sudden, this grave and venerable quadruped, of his +own mere motion, and without the slightest suggestion from +anybody else, began to run round after his tail, which, to +heighten the absurdity of the proceeding, was a great deal +shorter than it should have been. Never was seen such headlong +eagerness in pursuit of an object that could not possibly be +attained; never was heard such a tremendous outbreak of growling, +snarling, barking, and snapping,--as if one end of the ridiculous +brute's body were at deadly and most unforgivable enmity with the +other. Faster and faster, round about went the cur; and faster +and still faster fled the unapproachable brevity of his tail; and +louder and fiercer grew his yells of rage and animosity; until, +utterly exhausted, and as far from the goal as ever, the foolish +old dog ceased his performance as suddenly as he had begun it. +The next moment he was as mild, quiet, sensible, and respectable +in his deportment, as when he first scraped acquaintance with the +company. + +As may be supposed, the exhibition was greeted with universal +laughter, clapping of hands, and shouts of encore, to which the +canine performer responded by wagging all that there was to wag +of his tail, but appeared totally unable to repeat his very +successful effort to amuse the spectators. + +Meanwhile, Ethan Brand had resumed his seat upon the log, and +moved, as it might be, by a perception of some remote analogy +between his own case and that of this self-pursuing cur, he broke +into the awful laugh, which, more than any other token, expressed +the condition of his inward being. From that moment, the +merriment of the party was at an end; they stood aghast, dreading +lest the inauspicious sound should be reverberated around the +horizon, and that mountain would thunder it to mountain, and so +the horror be prolonged upon their ears. Then, whispering one to +another that it was late,--that the moon was almost down,-that +the August night was growing chill,--they hurried homewards, +leaving the lime-burner and little Joe to deal as they might with +their unwelcome guest. Save for these three human beings, the +open space on the hill-side was a solitude, set in a vast gloom +of forest. Beyond that darksome verge, the firelight glimmered on +the stately trunks and almost black foliage of pines, intermixed +with the lighter verdure of sapling oaks, maples, and poplars, +while here and there lay the gigantic corpses of dead trees, +decaying on the leaf-strewn soil. And it seemed to little Joe --a +timorous and imaginative child--that the silent forest was +holding its breath until some fearful thing should happen. + +Ethan Brand thrust more wood into the fire, and closed the door +of the kiln; then looking over his shoulder at the lime-burner +and his son, he bade, rather than advised, them to retire to +rest. + +"For myself, I cannot sleep," said he. "I have matters that it +concerns me to meditate upon. I will watch the fire, as I used to +do in the old time." + +"And call the Devil out of the furnace to keep you company, I +suppose," muttered Bartram, who had been making intimate +acquaintance with the black bottle above mentioned. "But watch, +if you like, and call as many devils as you like! For my part, I +shall be all the better for a snooze. Come, Joe!" + +As the boy followed his father into the hut, he looked back at +the wayfarer, and the tears came into his eyes, for his tender +spirit had an intuition of the bleak and terrible loneliness in +which this man had enveloped himself. + +When they had gone, Ethan Brand sat listening to the crackling of +the kindled wood, and looking at the little spirts of fire that +issued through the chinks of the door. These trifles, however, +once so familiar, had but the slightest hold of his attention, +while deep within his mind he was reviewing the gradual but +marvellous change that had been wrought upon him by the search to +which he had devoted himself. He remembered how the night dew had +fallen upon him,--how the dark forest had whispered to him,--how +the stars had gleamed upon him,--a simple and loving man, +watching his fire in the years gone by, and ever musing as it +burned. He remembered with what tenderness, with what love and +sympathy for mankind and what pity for human guilt and woe, he +had first begun to contemplate those ideas which afterwards +became the inspiration of his life; with what reverence he had +then looked into the heart of man, viewing it as a temple +originally divine, and, however desecrated, still to be held +sacred by a brother; with what awful fear he had deprecated the +success of his pursuit, and prayed that the Unpardonable Sin +might never be revealed to him. Then ensued that vast +intellectual development, which, in its progress, disturbed the +counterpoise between his mind and heart. The Idea that possessed +his life had operated as a means of education; it had gone on +cultivating his powers to the highest point of which they were +susceptible; it had raised him from the level of an unlettered +laborer to stand on a star-lit eminence, whither the philosophers +of the earth, laden with the lore of universities, might vainly +strive to clamber after him. So much for the intellect! But where +was the heart? That, indeed, had withered,--had contracted,--had +hardened,--had perished! It had ceased to partake of the +universal throb. He had lost his hold of the magnetic chain of +humanity. He was no longer a brother-man, opening the chambers or +the dungeons of our common nature by the key of holy sympathy, +which gave him a right to share in all its secrets; he was now a +cold observer, looking on mankind as the subject of his +experiment, and, at length, converting man and woman to be his +puppets, and pulling the wires that moved them to such degrees of +crime as were demanded for his study. + +Thus Ethan Brand became a fiend. He began to be so from the +moment that his moral nature had ceased to keep the pace of +improvement with his intellect. And now, as his highest effort +and inevitable development,--as the bright and gorgeous flower, +and rich, delicious fruit of his life's labor,--he had produced +the Unpardonable Sin! + +"What more have I to seek? what more to achieve?" said Ethan +Brand to himself. "My task is done, and well done!" + +Starting from the log with a certain alacrity in his gait and +ascending the hillock of earth that was raised against the stone +circumference of the lime-kiln, he thus reached the top of the +structure. It was a space of perhaps ten feet across, from edge +to edge, presenting a view of the upper surface of the immense +mass of broken marble with which the kiln was heaped. All these +innumerable blocks and fragments of marble were redhot and +vividly on fire, sending up great spouts of blue flame, which +quivered aloft and danced madly, as within a magic circle, and +sank and rose again, with continual and multitudinous activity. +As the lonely man bent forward over this terrible body of fire, +the blasting heat smote up against his person with a breath that, +it might be supposed, would have scorched and shrivelled him up +in a moment. + +Ethan Brand stood erect, and raised his arms on high. The blue +flames played upon his face, and imparted the wild and ghastly +light which alone could have suited its expression; it was that +of a fiend on the verge of plunging into his gulf of intensest +torment. + +"O Mother Earth," cried he, "who art no more my Mother, and into +whose bosom this frame shall never be resolved! O mankind, whose +brotherhood I have cast off, and trampled thy great heart beneath +my feet! O stars of heaven, that shone on me of old, as if to +light me onward and upward!--farewell all, and forever. Come, +deadly element of Fire,-henceforth my familiar friend! Embrace +me, as I do thee! " + +That night the sound of a fearful peal of laughter rolled heavily +through the sleep of the lime-burner and his little son; dim +shapes of horror and anguish haunted their dreams, and seemed +still present in the rude hovel, when they opened their eyes to +the daylight. + +"Up, boy, up!" cried the lime-burner, staring about him. "Thank +Heaven, the night is gone, at last; and rather than pass such +another, I would watch my lime-kiln, wide awake, for a +twelvemonth. This Ethan Brand, with his humbug of an Unpardonable +Sin, has done me no such mighty favor, in taking my place!" + +He issued from the hut, followed by little Joe, who kept fast +hold of his father's hand. The early sunshine was already pouring +its gold upon the mountain-tops, and though the valleys were +still in shadow, they smiled cheerfully in the promise of the +bright day that was hastening onward. The village, completely +shut in by hills, which swelled away gently about it, looked as +if it had rested peacefully in the hollow of the great hand of +Providence. Every dwelling was distinctly visible; the little +spires of the two churches pointed upwards, and caught a +fore-glimmering of brightness from the sun-gilt skies upon their +gilded weather-cocks. The tavern was astir, and the figure of the +old, smoke-dried stage-agent, cigar in mouth, was seen beneath +the stoop. Old Graylock was glorified with a golden cloud upon +his head. Scattered likewise over the breasts of the surrounding +mountains, there were heaps of hoary mist, in fantastic shapes, +some of them far down into the valley, others high up towards the +summits, and still others, of the same family of mist or cloud, +hovering in the gold radiance of the upper atmosphere. Stepping +from one to another of the clouds that rested on the hills, and +thence to the loftier brotherhood that sailed in air, it seemed +almost as if a mortal man might thus ascend into the heavenly +regions. Earth was so mingled with sky that it was a day-dream to +look at it. + +To supply that charm of the familiar and homely, which Nature so +readily adopts into a scene like this, the stage-coach was +rattling down the mountain-road, and the driver sounded his horn, +while Echo caught up the notes, and intertwined them into a rich +and varied and elaborate harmony, of which the original performer +could lay claim to little share. The great hills played a concert +among themselves, each contributing a strain of airy sweetness. + +Little Joe's face brightened at once. + +"Dear father," cried he, skipping cheerily to and fro, "that +strange man is gone, and the sky and the mountains all seem glad +of it!" + +"Yes," growled the lime-burner, with an oath, "but he has let the +fire go down, and no thanks to him if five hundred bushels of +lime are not spoiled. If I catch the fellow hereabouts again, I +shall feel like tossing him into the furnace!" + +With his long pole in his hand, he ascended to the top of the +kiln. After a moment's pause, he called to his son. + +"Come up here, Joe!" said he. + +So little Joe ran up the hillock, and stood by his father's side. +The marble was all burnt into perfect, snow-white lime. But on +its surface, in the midst of the circle,--snow-white too, and +thoroughly converted into lime,--lay a human skeleton, in the +attitude of a person who, after long toil, lies down to long +repose. Within the ribs--strange to say--was the shape of a human +heart. + +"Was the fellow's heart made of marble?" cried Bartram, in some +perplexity at this phenomenon. "At any rate, it is burnt into +what looks like special good lime; and, taking all the bones +together, my kiln is half a bushel the richer for him." + +So saying, the rude lime-burner lifted his pole, and, letting it +fall upon the skeleton, the relics of Ethan Brand were crumbled +into fragments. + + + +THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS + +The summer moon, which shines in so many a tale, was beaming over +a broad extent of uneven country. Some of its brightest rays were +flung into a spring of water, where no traveller, toiling, as the +writer has, up the hilly road beside which it gushes, ever failed +to quench his thirst. The work of neat hands and considerate art +was visible about this blessed fountain. An open cistern, hewn +and hollowed out of solid stone, was placed above the waters, +which filled it to the brim, but by some invisible outlet were +conveyed away without dripping down its sides. Though the basin +had not room for another drop, and the continual gush of water +made a tremor on the surface, there was a secret charm that +forbade it to overflow. I remember, that when I had slaked my +summer thirst, and sat panting by the cistern, it was my fanciful +theory that Nature could not afford to lavish so pure a liquid, +as she does the waters of all meaner fountains. + +While the moon was hanging almost perpendicularly over this spot, +two figures appeared on the summit of the hill, and came with +noiseless footsteps down towards the spring. They were then in +the first freshness of youth; nor is there a wrinkle now on +either of their brows, and yet they wore a strange, old-fashioned +garb. One, a young man with ruddy cheeks, walked beneath the +canopy of a broad-brimmed gray hat; he seemed to have inherited +his great-grandsire's square-skirted coat, and a waistcoat that +extended its immense flaps to his knees; his brown locks, also, +hung down behind, in a mode unknown to our times. By his side was +a sweet young damsel, her fair features sheltered by a prim +little bonnet, within which appeared the vestal muslin of a cap; +her close, long-waisted gown, and indeed her whole attire, might +have been worn by some rustic beauty who had faded half a century +before. But that there was something too warm and life-like in +them, I would here have compared this couple to the ghosts of two +young lovers who had died long since in the glow of passion, and +now were straying out of their graves, to renew the old vows, and +shadow forth the unforgotten kiss of their earthly lips, beside +the moonlit spring. + +"Thee and I will rest here a moment, Miriam," said the young man, +as they drew near the stone cistern, "for there is no fear that +the elders know what we have done; and this may be the last time +we shall ever taste this water." + +Thus speaking, with a little sadness in his face, which was also +visible in that of his companion, he made her sit down on a +stone, and was about to place himself very close to her side; +she, however, repelled him, though not unkindly. + +"Nay, Josiah," said she, giving him a timid push with her maiden +hand, "thee must sit farther off, on that other stone, with the +spring between us. What would the sisters say, if thee were to +sit so close to me?" + +"But we are of the world's people now, Miriam," answered Josiah. + +The girl persisted in her prudery, nor did the youth, in fact, +seem altogether free from a similar sort of shyness; so they sat +apart from each other, gazing up the hill, where the moonlight +discovered the tops of a group of buildings. While their +attention was thus occupied, a party of travellers, who had come +wearily up the long ascent, made a halt to refresh themselves at +the spring. There were three men, a woman, and a little girl and +boy. Their attire was mean, covered with the dust of the summer's +day, and damp with the night-dew; they all looked woebegone, as +if the cares and sorrows of the world had made their steps +heavier as they climbed the hill; even the two little children +appeared older in evil days than the young man and maiden who had +first approached the spring. + +"Good evening to you, young folks," was the salutation of the +travellers; and "Good evening, friends," replied the youth and +damsel. + +"Is that white building the Shaker meeting-house?" asked one of +the strangers. "And are those the red roofs of the Shaker +village?" + +"Friend, it is the Shaker village," answered Josiah, after some +hesitation. + +The travellers, who, from the first, had looked suspiciously at +the garb of these young people, now taxed them with an intention +which all the circumstances, indeed, rendered too obvious to be +mistaken. + +"It is true, friends," replied the young man, summoning up his +courage. "Miriam and I have a gift to love each other, and we are +going among the world's people, to live after their fashion. And +ye know that we do not transgress the law of the land; and +neither ye, nor the elders themselves, have a right to hinder +us." + +"Yet you think it expedient to depart without leave-taking," +remarked one of the travellers. + +"Yea, ye-a," said Josiah, reluctantly, "because father Job is a +very awful man to speak with; and being aged himself, he has but +little charity for what he calls the iniquities of the flesh." + +"Well," said the stranger, "we will neither use force to bring +you back to the village, nor will we betray you to the elders. +But sit you here awhile, and when you have heard what we shall +tell you of the world which we have left, and into which you are +going, perhaps you will turn back with us of your own accord. +What say you?" added he, turning to his companions. "We have +travelled thus far without becoming known to each other. Shall we +tell our stories, here by this pleasant spring, for our own +pastime, and the benefit of these misguided young lovers?" + +In accordance with this proposal, the whole party stationed +themselves round the stone cistern; the two children, being very +weary, fell asleep upon the damp earth, and the pretty Shaker +girl, whose feelings were those of a nun or a Turkish lady, crept +as close as possible to the female traveller, and as far as she +well could from the unknown men. The same person who had hitherto +been the chief spokesman now stood up, waving his hat in his +hand, and suffered the moonlight to fall full upon his front. + +"In me," said he, with a certain majesty of utterance,--"in me, +you behold a poet." + +Though a lithographic print of this gentleman is extant, it may +be well to notice that he was now nearly forty, a thin and +stooping figure, in a black coat, out at elbows; notwithstanding +the ill condition of his attire, there were about him several +tokens of a peculiar sort of foppery, unworthy of a mature man, +particularly in the arrangement of his hair which was so disposed +as to give all possible loftiness and breadth to his forehead. +However, he had an intelligent eye, and, on the whole, a marked +countenance. + +"A poet!" repeated the young Shaker, a little puzzled how to +understand such a designation, seldom heard in the utilitarian +community where he had spent his life. "Oh, ay, Miriam, he means +a varse-maker, thee must know." + +This remark jarred upon the susceptible nerves of the poet; nor +could he help wondering what strange fatality had put into this +young man's mouth an epithet, which ill-natured people had +affirmed to be more proper to his merit than the one assumed by +himself. + +"True, I am a verse-maker," he resumed, "but my verse is no more +than the material body into which I breathe the celestial soul of +thought. Alas! how many a pang has it cost me, this same +insensibility to the ethereal essence of poetry, with which you +have here tortured me again, at the moment when I am to +relinquish my profession forever! O Fate! why hast thou warred +with Nature, turning all her higher and more perfect gifts to the +ruin of me, their possessor? What is the voice of song, when the +world lacks the ear of taste? How can I rejoice in my strength +and delicacy of feeling, when they have but made great sorrows +out of little ones? Have I dreaded scorn like death, and yearned +for fame as others pant for vital air, only to find myself in a +middle state between obscurity and infamy? But I have my revenge! +I could have given existence to a thousand bright creations. I +crush them into my heart, and there let them putrefy! I shake off +the dust of my feet against my countrymen! But posterity, tracing +my footsteps up this weary hill, will cry shame upon the unworthy +age that drove one of the fathers of American song to end his +days in a Shaker village! " + +During this harangue, the speaker gesticulated with great energy, +and, as poetry is the natural language of passion, there appeared +reason to apprehend his final explosion into an ode extempore. +The reader must understand that, for all these bitter words, he +was a kind, gentle, harmless, poor fellow enough, whom Nature, +tossing her ingredients together without looking at her recipe, +had sent into the world with too much of one sort of brain, and +hardly any of another. + +"Friend," said the young Shaker, in some perplexity, "thee +seemest to have met with great troubles; and, doubtless, I should +pity them, if--if I could but understand what they were." + +"Happy in your ignorance!" replied the poet, with an air of +sublime superiority. "To your coarser mind, perhaps, I may seem +to speak of more important griefs when I add, what I had well- +nigh forgotten, that I am out at elbows, and almost starved to +death. At any rate, you have the advice and example of one +individual to warn you back; for I am come hither, a disappointed +man, flinging aside the fragments of my hopes, and seeking +shelter in the calm retreat which you are so anxious to leave." + +"I thank thee, friend," rejoined the youth, "but I do not mean to +be a poet, nor, Heaven be praised! do I think Miriam ever made a +varse in her life. So we need not fear thy disappointments. But, +Miriam," he added, with real concern, "thee knowest that the +elders admit nobody that has not a gift to be useful. Now, what +under the sun can they do with this poor varse-maker?" + +"Nay, Josiah, do not thee discourage the poor man," said the +girl, in all simplicity and kindness. "Our hymns are very rough, +and perhaps they may trust him to smooth them." + +Without noticing this hint of professional employment, the poet +turned away, and gave himself up to a sort of vague reverie, +which he called thought. Sometimes he watched the moon, pouring a +silvery liquid on the clouds, through which it slowly melted till +they became all bright; then he saw the same sweet radiance +dancing on the leafy trees which rustled as if to shake it off, +or sleeping on the high tops of hills, or hovering down in +distant valleys, like the material of unshaped dreams; lastly, he +looked into the spring, and there the light was mingling with the +water. In its crystal bosom, too, beholding all heaven reflected +there, he found an emblem of a pure and tranquil breast. He +listened to that most ethereal of all sounds, the song of +crickets, coming in full choir upon the wind, and fancied that, +if moonlight could be heard, it would sound just like that. +Finally, he took a draught at the Shaker spring, and, as if it +were the true Castalia, was forthwith moved to compose a lyric, a +Farewell to his Harp, which he swore should be its closing +strain, the last verse that an ungrateful world should have from +him. This effusion, with two or three other little pieces, +subsequently written, he took the first opportunity to send, by +one of the Shaker brethren, to Concord, where they were published +in the New Hampshire Patriot. + +Meantime, another of the Canterbury pilgrims, one so different +from the poet that the delicate fancy of the latter could hardly +have conceived of him, began to relate his sad experience. He was +a small man, of quick and unquiet gestures, about fifty years +old, with a narrow forehead, all wrinkled and drawn together. He +held in his hand a pencil, and a card of some commission-merchant +in foreign parts, on the back of which, for there was light +enough to read or write by, he seemed ready to figure out a +calculation. + +"Young man," said he, abruptly, "what quantity of land do the +Shakers own here, in Canterbury?" + +"That is more than I can tell thee, friend," answered Josiah, +"but it is a very rich establishment, and for a long way by the +roadside thee may guess the land to be ours, by the neatness of +the fences." + +"And what may be the value of the whole," continued the stranger, +"with all the buildings and improvements, pretty nearly, in round +numbers?" + +"Oh, a monstrous sum,--more than I can reckon," replied the young +Shaker. + +"Well, sir," said the pilgrim, "there was a day, and not very +long ago, neither, when I stood at my counting-room window, and +watched the signal flags of three of my own ships entering the +harbor, from the East Indies, from Liverpool, and from up the +Straits, and I would not have given the invoice of the least of +them for the title-deeds of this whole Shaker settlement. You +stare. Perhaps, now, you won't believe that I could have put more +value on a little piece of paper, no bigger than the palm of your +hand, than all these solid acres of grain, grass, and +pasture-land would sell for?" + +"I won't dispute it, friend," answered Josiah, "but I know I had +rather have fifty acres of this good land than a whole sheet of +thy paper." + +"You may say so now," said the ruined merchant, bitterly, "for my +name would not be worth the paper I should write it on. Of +course, you must have heard of my failure?" + +And the stranger mentioned his name, which, however mighty it +might have been in the commercial world, the young Shaker had +never heard of among the Canterbury hills. + +"Not heard of my failure!" exclaimed the merchant, considerably +piqued. "Why, it was spoken of on 'Change in London, and from +Boston to New Orleans men trembled in their shoes. At all events, +I did fail, and you see me here on my road to the Shaker village, +where, doubtless (for the Shakers are a shrewd sect), they will +have a due respect for my experience, and give me the management +of the trading part of the concern, in which case I think I can +pledge myself to double their capital in four or five years. Turn +back with me, young man; for though you will never meet with my +good luck, you can hardly escape my bad." + +"I will not turn back for this," replied Josiah. calmly, "any +more than for the advice of the varse-maker, between whom and +thee, friend, I see a sort of likeness, though I can't justly say +where it lies. But Miriam and I can earn our daily bread among +the world's people as well as in the Shaker village. And do we +want anything more, Miriam?" + +"Nothing more, Josiah," said the girl, quietly. + +"Yea, Miriam, and daily bread for some other little mouths, if +God send them," observed the simple Shaker lad. + +Miriam did not reply, but looked down into the spring, where she +encountered the image of her own pretty face, blushing within the +prim little bonnet. The third pilgrim now took up the +conversation. He was a sunburnt countryman, of tall frame and +bony strength, on whose rude and manly face there appeared a +darker, more sullen and obstinate despondency, than on those of +either the poet or the merchant. + +"Well, now, youngster," he began, "these folks have had their +say, so I'll take my turn. My story will cut but a poor figure by +the side of theirs; for I never supposed that I could have a +right to meat and drink, and great praise besides, only for +tagging rhymes together, as it seems this man does; nor ever +tried to get the substance of hundreds into my own hands, like +the trader there. When I was about of your years, I married me a +wife,--just such a neat and pretty young woman as Miriam, if +that's her name,--and all I asked of Providence was an ordinary +blessing on the sweat of my brow, so that we might be decent and +comfortable, and have daily bread for ourselves, and for some +other little mouths that we soon had to feed. We had no very +great prospects before us; but I never wanted to be idle; and I +thought it a matter of course that the Lord would help me, +because I was willing to help myself." + +"And didn't He help thee, friend?" demanded Josiah, with some +eagerness. + +"No," said the yeoman, sullenly; "for then you would not have +seen me here. I have labored hard for years; and my means have +been growing narrower, and my living poorer, and my heart colder +and heavier, all the time; till at last I could bear it no +longer. I set myself down to calculate whether I had best go on +the Oregon expedition, or come here to the Shaker village; but I +had not hope enough left in me to begin the world over again; +and, to make my story short, here I am. And now, youngster, take +my advice, and turn back; or else, some few years hence, you'll +have to climb this hill, with as heavy a heart as mine." + +This simple story had a strong effect on the young fugitives. The +misfortunes of the poet and merchant had won little sympathy from +their plain good sense and unworldly feelings, qualities which +made them such unprejudiced and inflexible judges, that few men +would have chosen to take the opinion of this youth and maiden as +to the wisdom or folly of their pursuits. But here was one whose +simple wishes had resembled their own, and who, after efforts +which almost gave him a right to claim success from fate, had +failed in accomplishing them. + +"But thy wife, friend?" exclaimed the younger man. "What became +of the pretty girl, like Miriam? Oh, I am afraid she is dead!" + +"Yea, poor man, she must be dead,--she and the children, too," +sobbed Miriam. + +The female pilgrim had been leaning over the spring, wherein +latterly a tear or two might have been seen to fall, and form its +little circle on the surface of the water. She now looked up, +disclosing features still comely, but which had acquired an +expression of fretfulness, in the same long course of evil +fortune that had thrown a sullen gloom over the temper of the +unprosperous yeoman. + +"I am his wife," said she, a shade of irritability just +perceptible in the sadness of her tone. "These poor little +things, asleep on the ground, are two of our children. We had two +more, but God has provided better for them than we could, by +taking them to Himself." + +"And what would thee advise Josiah and me to do?" asked Miriam, +this being the first question which she had put to either of the +strangers. + +" 'Tis a thing almost against nature for a woman to try to part +true lovers," answered the yeoman's wife, after a pause; "but +I'll speak as truly to you as if these were my dying words. +Though my husband told you some of our troubles, he didn't +mention the greatest, and that which makes all the rest so hard +to bear. If you and your sweetheart marry, you'll be kind and +pleasant to each other for a year or two, and while that's the +case, you never will repent; but, by and by, he'll grow gloomy, +rough, and hard to please, and you'll be peevish, and full of +little angry fits, and apt to be complaining by the fireside, +when he comes to rest himself from his troubles out of doors; so +your love will wear away by little and little, and leave you +miserable at last. It has been so with us; and yet my husband and +I were true lovers once, if ever two young folks were ." + +As she ceased, the yeoman and his wife exchanged a glance, in +which there was more and warmer affection than they had supposed +to have escaped the frost of a wintry fate, in either of their +breasts. At that moment, when they stood on the utmost verge of +married life, one word fitly spoken, or perhaps one peculiar +look, had they had mutual confidence enough to reciprocate it, +might have renewed all their old feelings, and sent them back, +resolved to sustain each other amid the struggles of the world. +But the crisis passed and never came again. Just then, also, the +children, roused by their mother's voice, looked up, and added +their wailing accents to the testimony borne by all the +Canterbury pilgrims against the world from which they fled. + +"We are tired and hungry!" cried they. "Is it far to the Shaker +village?" + +The Shaker youth and maiden looked mournfully into each other's +eyes. They had but stepped across the threshold of their homes, +when lo! the dark array of cares and sorrows that rose up to warn +them back. The varied narratives of the strangers had arranged +themselves into a parable; they seemed not merely instances of +woful fate that had befallen others, but shadowy omens of +disappointed hope and unavailing toil, domestic grief and +estranged affection, that would cloud the onward path of these +poor fugitives. But after one instant's hesitation, they opened +their arms, and sealed their resolve with as pure and fond an +embrace as ever youthful love had hallowed. + +"We will not go back," said they. "The world never can be dark to +us, for we will always love one another." + +Then the Canterbury pilgrims went up the hill, while the poet +chanted a drear and desperate stanza of the Farewell to his Harp, +fitting music for that melancholy band. They sought a home where +all former ties of nature or society would be sundered, and all +old distinctions levelled, and a cold and passionless security be +substituted for mortal hope and fear, as in that other refuge of +the world's weary outcasts, the grave. The lovers drank at the +Shaker spring, and then, with chastened hopes, but more confiding +affections, went on to mingle in an untried life. + + + +THE DEVIL IN MANUSCRIPT + +On a bitter evening of December, I arrived by mail in a large +town, which was then the residence of an intimate friend, one of +those gifted youths who cultivate poetry and the belles-lettres, +and call themselves students at law. My first business, after +supper, was to visit him at the office of his distinguished +instructor. As I have said, it was a bitter night, clear +starlight, but cold as Nova Zembla,--the shop-windows along the +street being frosted, so as almost to hide the lights, while the +wheels of coaches thundered equally loud over frozen earth and +pavements of stone. There was no snow, either on the ground or +the roofs of the houses. The wind blew so violently, that I had +but to spread my cloak like a main-sail, and scud along the +street at the rate of ten knots, greatly envied by other +navigators, who were beating slowly up, with the gale right in +their teeth. One of these I capsized, but was gone on the wings +of the wind before he could even vociferate an oath. + +After this picture of an inclement night, behold us seated by a +great blazing fire, which looked so comfortable and delicious +that I felt inclined to lie down and roll among the hot coals. +The usual furniture of a lawyer's office was around us,--rows of +volumes in sheepskin, and a multitude of writs, summonses, and +other legal papers, scattered over the desks and tables. But +there were certain objects which seemed to intimate that we had +little dread of the intrusion of clients, or of the learned +counsellor himself, who, indeed, was attending court in a distant +town. A tall, decanter-shaped bottle stood on the table, between +two tumblers, and beside a pile of blotted manuscripts, +altogether dissimilar to any law documents recognized in our +courts. My friend, whom I shall call Oberon,--it was a name of +fancy and friendship between him and me,--my friend Oberon looked +at these papers with a peculiar expression of disquietude. + +"I do believe," said he, soberly, "or, at least, I could believe, +if I chose, that there is a devil in this pile of blotted papers. +You have read them, and know what I mean,--that conception in +which I endeavored to embody the character of a fiend, as +represented in our traditions and the written records of +witchcraft. Oh, I have a horror of what was created in my own +brain, and shudder at the manuscripts in which I gave that dark +idea a sort of material existence! Would they were out of my +sight!" + +"And of mine, too," thought I. + +"You remember," continued Oberon, "how the hellish thing used to +suck away the happiness of those who, by a simple concession that +seemed almost innocent, subjected themselves to his power. Just +so my peace is gone, and all by these accursed manuscripts. Have +you felt nothing of the same influence?" + +"Nothing," replied I, "unless the spell be hid in a desire to +turn novelist, after reading your delightful tales." + +"Novelist!" exclaimed Oberon, half seriously. "Then, indeed, my +devil has his claw on you! You are gone! You cannot even pray for +deliverance! But we will be the last and only victims; for this +night I mean to burn the manuscripts, and commit the fiend to his +retribution in the flames." + +"Burn your tales!" repeated I, startled at the desperation of the +idea. + +"Even so," said the author, despondingly. "You cannot conceive +what an effect the composition of these tales has had on me. I +have become ambitious of a bubble, and careless of solid +reputation. I am surrounding myself with shadows, which bewilder +me, by aping the realities of life. They have drawn me aside from +the beaten path of the world, and led me into a strange sort of +solitude,--a solitude in the midst of men,-where nobody wishes +for what I do, nor thinks nor feels as I do. The tales have done +all this. When they are ashes, perhaps I shall be as I was before +they had existence. Moreover, the sacrifice is less than you may +suppose, since nobody will publish them." + +"That does make a difference, indeed," said I. + +"They have been offered, by letter," continued Oberon, reddening +with vexation, "to some seventeen booksellers. It would make you +stare to read their answers; and read them you should, only that +I burnt them as fast as they arrived. One man publishes nothing +but school-books; another has five novels already under +examination." + +"What a voluminous mass the unpublished literature of America +must be!" cried I. + +"Oh, the Alexandrian manuscripts were nothing to it!" said my +friend. "Well, another gentleman is just giving up business, on +purpose, I verily believe, to escape publishing my book. Several, +however, would not absolutely decline the agency, on my advancing +half the cost of an edition, and giving bonds for the remainder, +besides a high percentage to themselves, whether the book sells +or not. Another advises a subscription." + +"The villain!" exclaimed I. + +"A fact!" said Oberon. "In short, of all the seventeen +booksellers, only one has vouchsafed even to read my tales; and +he--a literary dabbler himself, I should judge--has the +impertinence to criticise them, proposing what he calls vast +improvements, and concluding, after a general sentence of +condemnation, with the definitive assurance that he will not be +concerned on any terms." + +"It might not be amiss to pull that fellow's nose," remarked I. + +"If the whole 'trade' had one common nose, there would be some +satisfaction in pulling it," answered the author. "But, there +does seem to be one honest man among these seventeen unrighteous +ones; and he tells me fairly, that no American publisher will +meddle with an American work,--seldom if by a known writer, and +never if by a new one,--unless at the writer's risk." + +"The paltry rogues!" cried I. "Will they live by literature, and +yet risk nothing for its sake? But, after all, you might publish +on your own account." + +"And so I might," replied Oberon. "But the devil of the business +is this. These people have put me so out of conceit with the +tales, that I loathe the very thought of them, and actually +experience a physical sickness of the stomach, whenever I glance +at them on the table. I tell you there is a demon in them! I +anticipate a wild enjoyment in seeing them in the blaze; such as +I should feel in taking vengeance on an enemy, or destroying +something noxious." + +I did not very strenuously oppose this determination, being +privately of opinion, in spite of my partiality for the author, +that his tales would make a more brilliant appearance in the fire +than anywhere else. Before proceeding to execution, we broached +the bottle of champagne, which Oberon had provided for keeping up +his spirits in this doleful business. We swallowed each a +tumblerful, in sparkling commotion; it went bubbling down our +throats, and brightened my eyes at once, but left my friend sad +and heavy as before. He drew the tales towards him, with a +mixture of natural affection and natural disgust, like a father +taking a deformed infant into his arms. + +"Pooh! Pish! Pshaw!" exclaimed he, holding them at arm's-length. +"It was Gray's idea of heaven, to lounge on a sofa and read new +novels. Now, what more appropriate torture would Dante himself +have contrived, for the sinner who perpetrates a bad book, than +to be continually turning over the manuscript?" + +"It would fail of effect," said I, "because a bad author is +always his own great admirer." + +"I lack that one characteristic of my tribe,--the only desirable +one," observed Oberon. "But how many recollections throng upon +me, as I turn over these leaves! This scene came into my fancy as +I walked along a hilly road, on a starlight October evening; in +the pure and bracing air, I became all soul, and felt as if I +could climb the sky, and run a race along the Milky Way. Here is +another tale, in which I wrapt myself during a dark and dreary +night-ride in the month of March, till the rattling of the wheels +and the voices of my companions seemed like faint sounds of a +dream, and my visions a bright reality. That scribbled page +describes shadows which I summoned to my bedside at midnight: +they would not depart when I bade them; the gray dawn came, and +found me wide awake and feverish, the victim of my own +enchantments!" + +"There must have been a sort of happiness in all this," said I, +smitten with a strange longing to make proof of it. + +"There may be happiness in a fever fit," replied the author. "And +then the various moods in which I wrote! Sometimes my ideas were +like precious stones under the earth, requiring toil to dig them +up, and care to polish and brighten them; but often a delicious +stream of thought would gush out upon the page at once, like +water sparkling up suddenly in the desert; and when it had +passed, I gnawed my pen hopelessly, or blundered on with cold and +miserable toil, as if there were a wall of ice between me and my +subject." + +"Do you now perceive a corresponding difference," inquired I, +"between the passages which you wrote so coldly, and those fervid +flashes of the mind?" + +"No," said Oberon, tossing the manuscripts on the table. "I find +no traces of the golden pen with which I wrote in characters of +fire. My treasure of fairy coin is changed to worthless dross. My +picture, painted in what seemed the loveliest hues, presents +nothing but a faded and indistinguishable surface. I have been +eloquent and poetical and humorous in a dream,--and behold! it is +all nonsense, now that I am awake." + +My friend now threw sticks of wood and dry chips upon the fire, +and seeing it blaze like Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, seized the +champagne bottle, and drank two or three brimming bumpers, +successively. The heady liquor combined with his agitation to +throw him into a species of rage. He laid violent hands on the +tales. In one instant more, their faults and beauties would alike +have vanished in a glowing purgatory. But, all at once, I +remembered passages of high imagination, deep pathos, original +thoughts, and points of such varied excellence, that the vastness +of the sacrifice struck me most forcibly. I caught his arm. + +"Surely, you do not mean to burn them!" I exclaimed. + +"Let me alone!" cried Oberon, his eyes flashing fire. "I will +burn them! Not a scorched syllable shall escape! Would you have +me a damned author?--To undergo sneers, taunts, abuse, and cold +neglect, and faint praise, bestowed, for pity's sake, against the +giver's conscience! A hissing and a laughing-stock to my own +traitorous thoughts! An outlaw from the protection of the +grave,--one whose ashes every careless foot might spurn, +unhonored in life, and remembered scornfully in death! Am I to +bear all this, when yonder fire will insure me from the whole? +No! There go the tales! May my hand wither when it would write +another!" + +The deed was done. He had thrown the manuscripts into the hottest +of the fire, which at first seemed to shrink away, but soon +curled around them, and made them a part of its own fervent +brightness. Oberon stood gazing at the conflagration, and shortly +began to soliloquize, in the wildest strain, as if Fancy resisted +and became riotous, at the moment when he would have compelled +her to ascend that funeral pile. His words described objects +which he appeared to discern in the fire, fed by his own precious +thoughts; perhaps the thousand visions which the writer's magic +had incorporated with these pages became visible to him in the +dissolving heat, brightening forth ere they vanished forever; +while the smoke, the vivid sheets of flame, the ruddy and +whitening coals, caught the aspect of a varied scenery. + +"They blaze," said he, "as if I had steeped them in the intensest +spirit of genius. There I see my lovers clasped in each other's +arms. How pure the flame that bursts from their glowing hearts! +And yonder the features of a villain writhing in the fire that +shall torment him to eternity. My holy men, my pious and angelic +women, stand like martyrs amid the flames, their mild eyes lifted +heavenward. Ring out the bells! A city is on fire. +See!--destruction roars through my dark forests, while the lakes +boil up in steaming billows, and the mountains are volcanoes, and +the sky kindles with a lurid brightness! All elements are but one +pervading flame! Ha! The fiend!" + +I was somewhat startled by this latter exclamation. The tales +were almost consumed, but just then threw forth a broad sheet of +fire, which flickered as with laughter, making the whole room +dance in its brightness, and then roared portentously up the +chimney. + +"You saw him? You must have seen him!" cried Oberon. "How he +glared at me and laughed, in that last sheet of flame, with just +the features that I imagined for him! Well! The tales are gone." + +The papers were indeed reduced to a heap of black cinders, with a +multitude of sparks hurrying confusedly among them, the traces of +the pen being now represented by white lines, and the whole mass +fluttering to and fro in the draughts of air. The destroyer knelt +down to look at them. + +"What is more potent than fire!" said he, in his gloomiest tone. +"Even thought, invisible and incorporeal as it is, cannot escape +it. In this little time, it has annihilated the creations of long +nights and days, which I could no more reproduce, in their first +glow and freshness, than cause ashes and whitened bones to rise +up and live. There, too, I sacrificed the unborn children of my +mind. All that I had accomplished--all that I planned for future +years--has perished by one common ruin, and left only this heap +of embers! The deed has been my fate. And what remains? A weary +and aimless life,--a long repentance of this hour,--and at last +an obscure grave, where they will bury and forget me!" + +As the author concluded his dolorous moan, the extinguished +embers arose and settled down and arose again, and finally flew +up the chimney, like a demon with sable wings. Just as they +disappeared, there was a loud and solitary cry in the street +below us. "Fire!" Fire! Other voices caught up that terrible +word, and it speedily became the shout of a multitude. Oberon +started to his feet, in fresh excitement. + +"A fire on such a night!" cried he. "The wind blows a gale, and +wherever it whirls the flames, the roofs will flash up like +gunpowder. Every pump is frozen up, and boiling water would turn +to ice the moment it was flung from the engine. In an hour, this +wooden town will be one great bonfire! What a glorious scene for +my next--Pshaw!" + +The street was now all alive with footsteps, and the air full of +voices. We heard one engine thundering round a corner, and +another rattling from a distance over the pavements. The bells of +three steeples clanged out at once, spreading the alarm to many a +neighboring town, and expressing hurry, confusion, and terror, so +inimitably that I could almost distinguish in their peal the +burden of the universal cry,--"Fire! Fire! Fire!" + +"What is so eloquent as their iron tongues!" exclaimed Oberon. +"My heart leaps and trembles, but not with fear. And that other +sound, too, -deep and awful as a mighty organ,--the roar and +thunder of the multitude on the pavement below! Come! We are +losing time. I will cry out in the loudest of the uproar, and +mingle my spirit with the wildest of the confusion, and be a +bubble on the top of the ferment!" + +From the first outcry, my forebodings had warned me of the true +object and centre of alarm. There was nothing now but uproar, +above, beneath, and around us; footsteps stumbling pell-mell up +the public staircase, eager shouts and heavy thumps at the door, +the whiz and dash of water from the engines, and the crash of +furniture thrown upon the pavement. At once, the truth flashed +upon my friend. His frenzy took the hue of joy, and, with a wild +gesture of exultation, he leaped almost to the ceiling of the +chamber. + +"My tales!" cried Oberon. "The chimney! The roof! The Fiend has +gone forth by night, and startled thousands in fear and wonder +from their beds! Here I stand,--a triumphant author! Huzza! +Huzza! My brain has set the town on fire! Huzza!" + + + +MY KINSMAN, MAJOR MOLINEUX + +After the kings of Great Britain had assumed the right of +appointing the colonial governors, the measures of the latter +seldom met with the ready and generous approbation which had been +paid to those of their predecessors, under the original charters. +The people looked with most jealous scrutiny to the exercise of +power which did not emanate from themselves, and they usually +rewarded their rulers with slender gratitude for the compliances +by which, in softening their instructions from beyond the sea, +they had incurred the reprehension of those who gave them. The +annals of Massachusetts Bay will inform us, that of six governors +in the space of about forty years from the surrender of the old +charter, under James II, two were imprisoned by a popular +insurrection; a third, as Hutchinson inclines to believe, was +driven from the province by the whizzing of a musket-ball; a +fourth, in the opinion of the same historian, was hastened to his +grave by continual bickerings with the House of Representatives; +and the remaining two, as well as their successors, till the +Revolution, were favored with few and brief intervals of peaceful +sway. The inferior members of the court party, in times of high +political excitement, led scarcely a more desirable life. These +remarks may serve as a preface to the following adventures, which +chanced upon a summer night, not far from a hundred years ago. +The reader, in order to avoid a long and dry detail of colonial +affairs, is requested to dispense with an account of the train of +circumstances that had caused much temporary inflammation of the +popular mind. + +It was near nine o'clock of a moonlight evening, when a boat +crossed the ferry with a single passenger, who had obtained his +conveyance at that unusual hour by the promise of an extra fare. +While he stood on the landing-place, searching in either pocket +for the means of fulfilling his agreement, the ferryman lifted a +lantern, by the aid of which, and the newly risen moon, he took a +very accurate survey of the stranger's figure. He was a youth of +barely eighteen years, evidently country-bred, and now, as it +should seem, upon his first visit to town. He was clad in a +coarse gray coat, well worn, but in excellent repair; his under +garments were durably constructed of leather, and fitted tight to +a pair of serviceable and well-shaped limbs; his stockings of +blue yarn were the incontrovertible work of a mother or a sister; +and on his head was a three-cornered hat, which in its better +days had perhaps sheltered the graver brow of the lad's father. +Under his left arm was a heavy cudgel formed of an oak sapling, +and retaining a part of the hardened root; and his equipment was +completed by a wallet, not so abundantly stocked as to incommode +the vigorous shoulders on which it hung. Brown, curly hair, +well-shaped features, and bright, cheerful eyes were nature's +gifts, and worth all that art could have done for his adornment. + +The youth, one of whose names was Robin, finally drew from his +pocket the half of a little province bill of five shillings, +which, in the depreciation in that sort of currency, did but +satisfy the ferryman's demand, with the surplus of a sexangular +piece of parchment, valued at three pence. He then walked forward +into the town, with as light a step as if his day's journey had +not already exceeded thirty miles, and with as eager an eye as if +he were entering London city, instead of the little metropolis of +a New England colony. Before Robin had proceeded far, however, it +occurred to him that he knew not whither to direct his steps; so +he paused, and looked up and down the narrow street, scrutinizing +the small and mean wooden buildings that were scattered on either +side. + +"This low hovel cannot be my kinsman's dwelling," thought he, +"nor yonder old house, where the moonlight enters at the broken +casement; and truly I see none hereabouts that might be worthy of +him. It would have been wise to inquire my way of the ferryman, +and doubtless he would have gone with me, and earned a shilling +from the Major for his pains. But the next man I meet will do as +well." + +He resumed his walk, and was glad to perceive that the street now +became wider, and the houses more respectable in their +appearance. He soon discerned a figure moving on moderately in +advance, and hastened his steps to overtake it. As Robin drew +nigh, he saw that the passenger was a man in years, with a full +periwig of gray hair, a wide-skirted coat of dark cloth, and silk +stockings rolled above his knees. He carried a long and polished +cane, which he struck down perpendicularly before him at every +step; and at regular intervals he uttered two successive hems, of +a peculiarly solemn and sepulchral intonation. Having made these +observations, Robin laid hold of the skirt of the old man's coat +just when the light from the open door and windows of a barber's +shop fell upon both their figures. + +"Good evening to you, honored sir," said he, making a low bow, +and still retaining his hold of the skirt. "I pray you tell me +whereabouts is the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux." + +The youth's question was uttered very loudly; and one of the +barbers, whose razor was descending on a well-soaped chin, and +another who was dressing a Ramillies wig, left their occupations, +and came to the door. The citizen, in the mean time, turned a +long-favored countenance upon Robin, and answered him in a tone +of excessive anger and annoyance. His two sepulchral hems, +however, broke into the very centre of his rebuke, with most +singular effect, like a thought of the cold grave obtruding among +wrathful passions. + +"Let go my garment, fellow! I tell you, I know not the man you +speak of. What! I have authority, I have--hem, hem--authority; +and if this be the respect you show for your betters, your feet +shall be brought acquainted with the stocks by daylight, tomorrow +morning!" + +Robin released the old man's skirt, and hastened away, pursued by +an ill-mannered roar of laughter from the barber's shop. He was +at first considerably surprised by the result of his question, +but, being a shrewd youth, soon thought himself able to account +for the mystery. + +"This is some country representative," was his conclusion, "who +has never seen the inside of my kinsman's door, and lacks the +breeding to answer a stranger civilly. The man is old, or +verily--I might be tempted to turn back and smite him on the +nose. Ah, Robin, Robin! even the barber's boys laugh at you for +choosing such a guide! You will be wiser in time, friend Robin." + +He now became entangled in a succession of crooked and narrow +streets, which crossed each other, and meandered at no great +distance from the water-side. The smell of tar was obvious to his +nostrils, the masts of vessels pierced the moonlight above the +tops of the buildings, and the numerous signs, which Robin paused +to read, informed him that he was near the centre of business. +But the streets were empty, the shops were closed, and lights +were visible only in the second stories of a few dwelling-houses. +At length, on the corner of a narrow lane, through which he was +passing, he beheld the broad countenance of a British hero +swinging before the door of an inn, whence proceeded the voices +of many guests. The casement of one of the lower windows was +thrown back, and a very thin curtain permitted Robin to +distinguish a party at supper, round a well-furnished table. The +fragrance of the good cheer steamed forth into the outer air, and +the youth could not fail to recollect that the last remnant of +his travelling stock of provision had yielded to his morning +appetite, and that noon had found and left him dinnerless. + +"Oh, that a parchment three-penny might give me a right to sit +down at yonder table!" said Robin, with a sigh. "But the Major +will make me welcome to the best of his victuals; so I will even +step boldly in, and inquire my way to his dwelling." + +He entered the tavern, and was guided by the murmur of voices and +the fumes of tobacco to the public-room. It was a long and low +apartment, with oaken walls, grown dark in the continual smoke, +and a floor which was thickly sanded, but of no immaculate +purity. A number of persons--the larger part of whom appeared to +be mariners, or in some way connected with the sea--occupied the +wooden benches, or leatherbottomed chairs, conversing on various +matters, and occasionally lending their attention to some topic +of general interest. Three or four little groups were draining as +many bowls of punch, which the West India trade had long since +made a familiar drink in the colony. Others, who had the +appearance of men who lived by regular and laborious handicraft, +preferred the insulated bliss of an unshared potation, and became +more taciturn under its influence. Nearly all, in short, evinced +a predilection for the Good Creature in some of its various +shapes, for this is a vice to which, as Fast Day sermons of a +hundred years ago will testify, we have a long hereditary claim. +The only guests to whom Robin's sympathies inclined him were two +or three sheepish countrymen, who were using the inn somewhat +after the fashion of a Turkish caravansary; they had gotten +themselves into the darkest corner of the room, and heedless of +the Nicotian atmosphere, were supping on the bread of their own +ovens, and the bacon cured in their own chimney-smoke. But though +Robin felt a sort of brotherhood with these strangers, his eyes +were attracted from them to a person who stood near the door, +holding whispered conversation with a group of ill-dressed +associates. His features were separately striking almost to +grotesqueness, and the whole face left a deep impression on the +memory. The forehead bulged out into a double prominence, with a +vale between; the nose came boldly forth in an irregular curve, +and its bridge was of more than a finger's breadth; the eyebrows +were deep and shaggy, and the eyes glowed beneath them like fire +in a cave. + +While Robin deliberated of whom to inquire respecting his +kinsman's dwelling, he was accosted by the innkeeper, a little +man in a stained white apron, who had come to pay his +professional welcome to the stranger. Being in the second +generation from a French Protestant, he seemed to have inherited +the courtesy of his parent nation; but no variety of +circumstances was ever known to change his voice from the one +shrill note in which he now addressed Robin. + +"From the country, I presume, sir?" said he, with a profound bow. +"Beg leave to congratulate you on your arrival, and trust you +intend a long stay with us. Fine town here, sir, beautiful +buildings, and much that may interest a stranger. May I hope for +the honor of your commands in respect to supper?" + +"The man sees a family likeness! the rogue has guessed that I am +related to the Major!" thought Robin, who had hitherto +experienced little superfluous civility. + +All eyes were now turned on the country lad, standing at the +door, in his worn three-cornered hat, gray coat, leather +breeches, and blue yarn stockings, leaning on an oaken cudgel, +and bearing a wallet on his back. + +Robin replied to the courteous innkeeper, with such an assumption +of confidence as befitted the Major's relative. "My honest +friend," he said, "I shall make it a point to patronize your +house on some occasion, when"--here he could not help lowering +his voice--"when I may have more than a parchment three-pence in +my pocket. My present business," continued he, speaking with +lofty confidence, "is merely to inquire my way to the dwelling of +my kinsman, Major Molineux." + +There was a sudden and general movement in the room, which Robin +interpreted as expressing the eagerness of each individual to +become his guide. But the innkeeper turned his eyes to a written +paper on the wall, which he read, or seemed to read, with +occasional recurrences to the young man's figure. + +"What have we here?" said he, breaking his speech into little dry +fragments. " 'Left the house of the subscriber, bounden servant, +Hezekiah Mudge,--had on, when he went away, gray coat, leather +breeches, master's third-best hat. One pound currency reward to +whosoever shall lodge him in any jail of the providence.' Better +trudge, boy; better trudge!" + +Robin had begun to draw his hand towards the lighter end of the +oak cudgel, but a strange hostility in every countenance induced +him to relinquish his purpose of breaking the courteous +innkeeper's head. As he turned to leave the room, he encountered +a sneering glance from the bold-featured personage whom he had +before noticed; and no sooner was he beyond the door, than he +heard a general laugh, in which the innkeeper's voice might be +distinguished, like the dropping of small stones into a kettle. + +"Now, is it not strange," thought Robin, with his usual +shrewdness, "is it not strange that the confession of an empty +pocket should outweigh the name of my kinsman, Major Molineux? +Oh, if I had one of those grinning rascals in the woods, where I +and my oak sapling grew up together, I would teach him that my +arm is heavy though my purse be light!" + +On turning the corner of the narrow lane, Robin found himself in +a spacious street, with an unbroken line of lofty houses on each +side, and a steepled building at the upper end, whence the +ringing of a bell announced the hour of nine. The light of the +moon, and the lamps from the numerous shop-windows, discovered +people promenading on the pavement, and amongst them Robin had +hoped to recognize his hitherto inscrutable relative. The result +of his former inquiries made him unwilling to hazard another, in +a scene of such publicity, and he determined to walk slowly and +silently up the street, thrusting his face close to that of every +elderly gentleman, in search of the Major's lineaments. In his +progress, Robin encountered many gay and gallant figures. +Embroidered garments of showy colors, enormous periwigs, +gold-laced hats, and silver-hilted swords glided past him and +dazzled his optics. Travelled youths, imitators of the European +fine gentlemen of the period, trod jauntily along, half dancing +to the fashionable tunes which they hummed, and making poor Robin +ashamed of his quiet and natural gait. At length, after many +pauses to examine the gorgeous display of goods in the +shop-windows, and after suffering some rebukes for the +impertinence of his scrutiny into people's faces, the Major's +kinsman found himself near the steepled building, still +unsuccessful in his search. As yet, however, he had seen only one +side of the thronged street; so Robin crossed, and continued the +same sort of inquisition down the opposite pavement, with +stronger hopes than the philosopher seeking an honest man, but +with no better fortune. He had arrived about midway towards the +lower end, from which his course began, when he overheard the +approach of some one who struck down a cane on the flag-stones at +every step, uttering at regular intervals, two sepulchral hems. + +"Mercy on us!" quoth Robin, recognizing the sound. + +Turning a corner, which chanced to be close at his right hand, he +hastened to pursue his researches in some other part of the town. +His patience now was wearing low, and he seemed to feel more +fatigue from his rambles since he crossed the ferry, than from +his journey of several days on the other side. Hunger also +pleaded loudly within him, and Robin began to balance the +propriety of demanding, violently, and with lifted cudgel, the +necessary guidance from the first solitary passenger whom he +should meet. While a resolution to this effect was gaining +strength, he entered a street of mean appearance, on either side +of which a row of ill-built houses was straggling towards the +harbor. The moonlight fell upon no passenger along the whole +extent, but in the third domicile which Robin passed there was a +half-opened door, and his keen glance detected a woman's garment +within. + +"My luck may be better here," said he to himself. + +Accordingly, he approached the doors and beheld it shut closer as +he did so; yet an open space remained, sufficing for the fair +occupant to observe the stranger, without a corresponding display +on her part. All that Robin could discern was a strip of scarlet +petticoat, and the occasional sparkle of an eye, as if the +moonbeams were trembling on some bright thing. + +"Pretty mistress," for I may call her so with a good conscience +thought the shrewd youth, since I know nothing to the +contrary,--"my sweet pretty mistress, will you be kind enough to +tell me whereabouts I must seek the dwelling of my kinsman, Major +Molineux?" + +Robin's voice was plaintive and winning, and the female, seeing +nothing to be shunned in the handsome country youth, thrust open +the door, and came forth into the moonlight. She was a dainty +little figure with a white neck, round arms, and a slender waist, +at the extremity of which her scarlet petticoat jutted out over a +hoop, as if she were standing in a balloon. Moreover, her face +was oval and pretty, her hair dark beneath the little cap, and +her bright eyes possessed a sly freedom, which triumphed over +those of Robin. + +"Major Molineux dwells here," said this fair woman. + +Now, her voice was the sweetest Robin had heard that night, yet +he could not help doubting whether that sweet voice spoke Gospel +truth. He looked up and down the mean street, and then surveyed +the house before which they stood. It was a small, dark edifice +of two stories, the second of which projected over the lower +floor, and the front apartment had the aspect of a shop for petty +commodities. + +"Now, truly, I am in luck," replied Robin, cunningly, "and so +indeed is my kinsman, the Major, in having so pretty a +housekeeper. But I prithee trouble him to step to the door; I +will deliver him a message from his friends in the country, and +then go back to my lodgings at the inn." + +"Nay, the Major has been abed this hour or more," said the lady +of the scarlet petticoat; "and it would be to little purpose to +disturb him to-night, seeing his evening draught was of the +strongest. But he is a kind-hearted man, and it would be as much +as my life's worth to let a kinsman of his turn away from the +door. You are the good old gentleman's very picture, and I could +swear that was his rainy-weather hat. Also he has garments very +much resembling those leather small-clothes. But come in, I pray, +for I bid you hearty welcome in his name." + +So saying, the fair and hospitable dame took our hero by the +hand; and the touch was light, and the force was gentleness, and +though Robin read in her eyes what he did not hear in her words, +yet the slender-waisted woman in the scarlet petticoat proved +stronger than the athletic country youth. She had drawn his +half-willing footsteps nearly to the threshold, when the opening +of a door in the neighborhood startled the Major's housekeeper, +and, leaving the Major's kinsman, she vanished speedily into her +own domicile. A heavy yawn preceded the appearance of a man, who, +like the Moonshine of Pyramus and Thisbe, carried a lantern, +needlessly aiding his sister luminary in the heavens. As he +walked sleepily up the street, he turned his broad, dull face on +Robin, and displayed a long staff, spiked at the end. + +"Home, vagabond, home!" said the watchman, in accents that seemed +to fall asleep as soon as they were uttered. "Home, or we'll set +you in the stocks by peep of day!" + +"This is the second hint of the kind," thought Robin. "I wish +they would end my difficulties, by setting me there to-night." + +Nevertheless, the youth felt an instinctive antipathy towards the +guardian of midnight order, which at first prevented him from +asking his usual question. But just when the man was about to +vanish behind the corner, Robin resolved not to lose the +opportunity, and shouted lustily after him, "I say, friend! will +you guide me to the house of my kinsman, Major Molineux?" + +The watchman made no reply, but turned the corner and was gone; +yet Robin seemed to hear the sound of drowsy laughter stealing +along the solitary street. At that moment, also, a pleasant +titter saluted him from the open window above his head; he looked +up, and caught the sparkle of a saucy eye; a round arm beckoned +to him, and next he heard light footsteps descending the +staircase within. But Robin, being of the household of a New +England clergyman, was a good youth, as well as a shrewd one; so +he resisted temptation, and fled away. + +He now roamed desperately, and at random, through the town, +almost ready to believe that a spell was on him, like that by +which a wizard of his country had once kept three pursuers +wandering, a whole winter night, within twenty paces of the +cottage which they sought. The streets lay before him, strange +and desolate, and the lights were extinguished in almost every +house. Twice, however, little parties of men, among whom Robin +distinguished individuals in outlandish attire, came hurrying +along; but, though on both occasions, they paused to address him +such intercourse did not at all enlighten his perplexity. They +did but utter a few words in some language of which Robin knew +nothing, and perceiving his inability to answer, bestowed a curse +upon him in plain English and hastened away. Finally, the lad +determined to knock at the door of every mansion that might +appear worthy to be occupied by his kinsman, trusting that +perseverance would overcome the fatality that had hitherto +thwarted him. Firm in this resolve, he was passing beneath the +walls of a church, which formed the corner of two streets, when, +as he turned into the shade of its steeple, he encountered a +bulky stranger muffled in a cloak. The man was proceeding with +the speed of earnest business, but Robin planted himself full +before him, holding the oak cudgel with both hands across his +body as a bar to further passage + +"Halt, honest man, and answer me a question," said he, very +resolutely. "Tell me, this instant, whereabouts is the dwelling +of my kinsman, Major Molineux!" + +"Keep your tongue between your teeth, fool, and let me pass!" +said a deep, gruff voice, which Robin partly remembered. "Let me +pass, or I'll strike you to the earth!" + +"No, no, neighbor!" cried Robin, flourishing his cudgel, and then +thrusting its larger end close to the man's muffled face. "No, +no, I'm not the fool you take me for, nor do you pass till I have +an answer to my question. Whereabouts is the dwelling of my +kinsman, Major Molineux?" The stranger, instead of attempting to +force his passage, stepped back into the moonlight, unmuffled his +face, and stared full into that of Robin. + +"Watch here an hour, and Major Molineux will pass by," said he. + +Robin gazed with dismay and astonishment on the unprecedented +physiognomy of the speaker. The forehead with its double +prominence the broad hooked nose, the shaggy eyebrows, and fiery +eyes were those which he had noticed at the inn, but the man's +complexion had undergone a singular, or, more properly, a twofold +change. One side of the face blazed an intense red, while the +other was black as midnight, the division line being in the broad +bridge of the nose; and a mouth which seemed to extend from ear +to ear was black or red, in contrast to the color of the cheek. +The effect was as if two individual devils, a fiend of fire and a +fiend of darkness, had united themselves to form this infernal +visage. The stranger grinned in Robin's face, muffled his +party-colored features, and was out of sight in a moment. + +"Strange things we travellers see!" ejaculated Robin. + +He seated himself, however, upon the steps of the church-door, +resolving to wait the appointed time for his kinsman. A few +moments were consumed in philosophical speculations upon the +species of man who had just left him; but having settled this +point shrewdly, rationally, and satisfactorily, he was compelled +to look elsewhere for his amusement. And first he threw his eyes +along the street. It was of more respectable appearance than most +of those into which he had wandered, and the moon, creating, like +the imaginative power, a beautiful strangeness in familiar +objects, gave something of romance to a scene that might not have +possessed it in the light of day. The irregular and often quaint +architecture of the houses, some of whose roofs were broken into +numerous little peaks, while others ascended, steep and narrow, +into a single point, and others again were square; the pure +snow-white of some of their complexions, the aged darkness of +others, and the thousand sparklings, reflected from bright +substances in the walls of many; these matters engaged Robin's +attention for a while, and then began to grow wearisome. Next he +endeavored to define the forms of distant objects, starting away, +with almost ghostly indistinctness, just as his eye appeared to +grasp them, and finally he took a minute survey of an edifice +which stood on the opposite side of the street, directly in front +of the church-door, where he was stationed. It was a large, +square mansion, distinguished from its neighbors by a balcony, +which rested on tall pillars, and by an elaborate Gothic window, +communicating therewith. + +"Perhaps this is the very house I have been seeking," thought +Robin. + +Then he strove to speed away the time, by listening to a murmur +which swept continually along the street, yet was scarcely +audible, except to an unaccustomed ear like his; it was a low, +dull, dreamy sound, compounded of many noises, each of which was +at too great a distance to be separately heard. Robin marvelled +at this snore of a sleeping town, and marvelled more whenever its +continuity was broken by now and then a distant shout, apparently +loud where it originated. But altogether it was a sleep-inspiring +sound, and, to shake off its drowsy influence, Robin arose, and +climbed a window-frame, that he might view the interior of the +church. There the moonbeams came trembling in, and fell down upon +the deserted pews, and extended along the quiet aisles. A fainter +yet more awful radiance was hovering around the pulpit, and one +solitary ray had dared to rest upon the open page of the great +Bible. Had nature, in that deep hour, become a worshipper in the +house which man had builded? Or was that heavenly light the +visible sanctity of the place,--visible because no earthly and +impure feet were within the walls? The scene made Robin's heart +shiver with a sensation of loneliness stronger than he had ever +felt in the remotest depths of his native woods; so he turned +away and sat down again before the door. There were graves around +the church, and now an uneasy thought obtruded into Robin's +breast. What if the object of his search, which had been so often +and so strangely thwarted, were all the time mouldering in his +shroud? What if his kinsman should glide through yonder gate, and +nod and smile to him in dimly passing by? + +"Oh that any breathing thing were here with me!" said Robin. + +Recalling his thoughts from this uncomfortable track, he sent +them over forest, hill, and stream, and attempted to imagine how +that evening of ambiguity and weariness had been spent by his +father's household. He pictured them assembled at the door, +beneath the tree, the great old tree, which had been spared for +its huge twisted trunk and venerable shade, when a thousand leafy +brethren fell. There, at the going down of the summer sun, it was +his father's custom to perform domestic worship that the +neighbors might come and join with him like brothers of the +family, and that the wayfaring man might pause to drink at that +fountain, and keep his heart pure by freshening the memory of +home. Robin distinguished the seat of every individual of the +little audience; he saw the good man in the midst, holding the +Scriptures in the golden light that fell from the western clouds; +he beheld him close the book and all rise up to pray. He heard +the old thanksgivings for daily mercies, the old supplications +for their continuance to which he had so often listened in +weariness, but which were now among his dear remembrances. He +perceived the slight inequality of his father's voice when he +came to speak of the absent one; he noted how his mother turned +her face to the broad and knotted trunk; how his elder brother +scorned, because the beard was rough upon his upper lip, to +permit his features to be moved; how the younger sister drew down +a low hanging branch before her eyes; and how the little one of +all, whose sports had hitherto broken the decorum of the scene, +understood the prayer for her playmate, and burst into clamorous +grief. Then he saw them go in at the door; and when Robin would +have entered also, the latch tinkled into its place, and he was +excluded from his home. + +"Am I here, or there?" cried Robin, starting; for all at once, +when his thoughts had become visible and audible in a dream, the +long, wide, solitary street shone out before him. + +He aroused himself, and endeavored to fix his attention steadily +upon the large edifice which he had surveyed before. But still +his mind kept vibrating between fancy and reality; by turns, the +pillars of the balcony lengthened into the tall, bare stems of +pines, dwindled down to human figures, settled again into their +true shape and size, and then commenced a new succession of +changes. For a single moment, when he deemed himself awake, he +could have sworn that a visage--one which he seemed to remember, +yet could not absolutely name as his kinsman's--was looking +towards him from the Gothic window. A deeper sleep wrestled with +and nearly overcame him, but fled at the sound of footsteps along +the opposite pavement. Robin rubbed his eyes, discerned a man +passing at the foot of the balcony, and addressed him in a loud, +peevish, and lamentable cry. + +"Hallo, friend! must I wait here all night for my kinsman, Major +Molineux?" + +The sleeping echoes awoke, and answered the voice; and the +passenger, barely able to discern a figure sitting in the oblique +shade of the steeple, traversed the street to obtain a nearer +view. He was himself a gentleman in his prime, of open, +intelligent, cheerful, and altogether prepossessing countenance. +Perceiving a country youth, apparently homeless and without +friends, he accosted him in a tone of real kindness, which had +become strange to Robin's ears. + +"Well, my good lad, why are you sitting here?" inquired he. "Can +I be of service to you in any way?" + +"I am afraid not, sir," replied Robin, despondingly; "yet I shall +take it kindly, if you'll answer me a single question. I've been +searching, half the night, for one Major Molineux, now, sir, is +there really such a person in these parts, or am I dreaming?" + +"Major Molineux! The name is not altogether strange to me," said +the gentleman, smiling. "Have you any objection to telling me the +nature of your business with him?" + +Then Robin briefly related that his father was a clergyman, +settled on a small salary, at a long distance back in the +country, and that he and Major Molineux were brothers' children. +The Major, having inherited riches, and acquired civil and +military rank, had visited his cousin, in great pomp, a year or +two before; had manifested much interest in Robin and an elder +brother, and, being childless himself, had thrown out hints +respecting the future establishment of one of them in life. The +elder brother was destined to succeed to the farm which his +father cultivated in the interval of sacred duties; it was +therefore determined that Robin should profit by his kinsman's +generous intentions, especially as he seemed to be rather the +favorite, and was thought to possess other necessary endowments. + +"For I have the name of being a shrewd youth," observed Robin, in +this part of his story. + +"I doubt not you deserve it," replied his new friend, +good-naturedly; "but pray proceed." + +"Well, sir, being nearly eighteen years old, and well grown, as +you see," continued Robin, drawing himself up to his full height, +"I thought it high time to begin in the world. So my mother and +sister put me in handsome trim, and my father gave me half the +remnant of his last year's salary, and five days ago I started +for this place, to pay the Major a visit. But, would you believe +it, sir! I crossed the ferry a little after dark, and have yet +found nobody that would show me the way to his dwelling; only, an +hour or two since, I was told to wait here, and Major Molineux +would pass by." + +"Can you describe the man who told you this?" inquired the +gentleman. + +"Oh, he was a very ill-favored fellow, sir," replied Robin, "with +two great bumps on his forehead, a hook nose, fiery eyes; and, +what struck me as the strangest, his face was of two different +colors. Do you happen to know such a man, sir?" + +"Not intimately," answered the stranger, "but I chanced to meet +him a little time previous to your stopping me. I believe you may +trust his word, and that the Major will very shortly pass through +this street. In the mean time, as I have a singular curiosity to +witness your meeting, I will sit down here upon the steps and +bear you company." + +He seated himself accordingly, and soon engaged his companion in +animated discourse. It was but of brief continuance, however, for +a noise of shouting, which had long been remotely audible, drew +so much nearer that Robin inquired its cause. + +"What may be the meaning of this uproar?" asked he. "Truly, if +your town be always as noisy, I shall find little sleep while I +am an inhabitant." + +"Why, indeed, friend Robin, there do appear to be three or four +riotous fellows abroad to-night," replied the gentleman. "You +must not expect all the stillness of your native woods here in +our streets. But the watch will shortly be at the heels of these +lads and--" + +"Ay, and set them in the stocks by peep of day," interrupted +Robin recollecting his own encounter with the drowsy +lantern-bearer. "But, dear sir, if I may trust my ears, an army +of watchmen would never make head against such a multitude of +rioters. There were at least a thousand voices went up to make +that one shout." + +"May not a man have several voices, Robin, as well as two +complexions?" said his friend. + +"Perhaps a man may; but Heaven forbid that a woman should!" +responded the shrewd youth, thinking of the seductive tones of +the Major's housekeeper. + +The sounds of a trumpet in some neighboring street now became so +evident and continual, that Robin's curiosity was strongly +excited. In addition to the shouts, he heard frequent bursts from +many instruments of discord, and a wild and confused laughter +filled up the intervals. Robin rose from the steps, and looked +wistfully towards a point whither people seemed to be hastening. + +"Surely some prodigious merry-making is going on," exclaimed he +"I have laughed very little since I left home, sir, and should be +sorry to lose an opportunity. Shall we step round the corner by +that darkish house and take our share of the fun?" + +"Sit down again, sit down, good Robin," replied the gentleman, +laying his hand on the skirt of the gray coat. "You forget that +we must wait here for your kinsman; and there is reason to +believe that he will pass by, in the course of a very few +moments." + +The near approach of the uproar had now disturbed the +neighborhood; windows flew open on all sides; and many heads, in +the attire of the pillow, and confused by sleep suddenly broken, +were protruded to the gaze of whoever had leisure to observe +them. Eager voices hailed each other from house to house, all +demanding the explanation, which not a soul could give. +Half-dressed men hurried towards the unknown commotion stumbling +as they went over the stone steps that thrust themselves into the +narrow foot-walk. The shouts, the laughter, and the tuneless bray +the antipodes of music, came onwards with increasing din, till +scattered individuals, and then denser bodies, began to appear +round a corner at the distance of a hundred yards + +"Will you recognize your kinsman, if he passes in this crowd?" +inquired the gentleman + +"Indeed, I can't warrant it, sir; but I'll take my stand here, +and keep a bright lookout," answered Robin, descending to the +outer edge of the pavement. + +A mighty stream of people now emptied into the street, and came +rolling slowly towards the church. A single horseman wheeled the +corner in the midst of them, and close behind him came a band of +fearful wind instruments, sending forth a fresher discord now +that +no intervening buildings kept it from the ear. Then a redder +light disturbed the moonbeams, and a dense multitude of torches +shone along the street, concealing, by their glare, whatever +object they illuminated. The single horseman, clad in a military +dress, and bearing a drawn sword, rode onward as the leader, and, +by his fierce and variegated countenance, appeared like war +personified; the red of one cheek was an emblem of fire and +sword; the blackness of the other betokened the mourning that +attends them. In his train were wild figures in the Indian dress, +and many fantastic shapes without a model, giving the whole march +a visionary air, as if a dream had broken forth from some +feverish brain, and were sweeping visibly through the midnight +streets. A mass of people, inactive, except as applauding +spectators, hemmed the procession in; and several women ran along +the sidewalk, piercing the confusion of heavier sounds with their +shrill voices of mirth or terror. + +"The double-faced fellow has his eye upon me," muttered Robin, +with an indefinite but an uncomfortable idea that he was himself +to bear a part in the pageantry. + +The leader turned himself in the saddle, and fixed his glance +full upon the country youth, as the steed went slowly by. When +Robin had freed his eyes from those fiery ones, the musicians +were passing before him, and the torches were close at hand; but +the unsteady brightness of the latter formed a veil which he +could not penetrate. The rattling of wheels over the stones +sometimes found its way to his ear, and confused traces of a +human form appeared at intervals, and then melted into the vivid +light. A moment more, and the leader thundered a command to halt: +the trumpets vomited a horrid breath, and then held their peace; +the shouts and laughter of the people died away, and there +remained only a universal hum, allied to silence. Right before +Robin's eyes was an uncovered cart. There the torches blazed the +brightest, there the moon shone out like day, and there, in +tar-and-feathery dignity, sat his kinsman, Major Molineux! + +He was an elderly man, of large and majestic person, and strong, +square features, betokening a steady soul; but steady as it was, +his enemies had found means to shake it. His face was pale as +death, and far more ghastly; the broad forehead was contracted in +his agony, so that his eyebrows formed one grizzled line; his +eyes were red and wild, and the foam hung white upon his +quivering lip. His whole frame was agitated by a quick and +continual tremor, which his pride strove to quell, even in those +circumstances of overwhelming humiliation. But perhaps the +bitterest pang of all was when his eyes met those of Robin; for +he evidently knew him on the instant, as the youth stood +witnessing the foul disgrace of a head grown gray in honor. They +stared at each other in silence, and Robin's knees shook, and his +hair bristled, with a mixture of pity and terror. Soon, however, +a bewildering excitement began to seize upon his mind; the +preceding adventures of the night, the unexpected appearance of +the crowd, the torches, the confused din and the hush that +followed, the spectre of his kinsman reviled by that great +multitude,--all this, and, more than all, a perception of +tremendous ridicule in the whole scene, affected him with a sort +of mental inebriety. At that moment a voice of sluggish merriment +saluted Robin's ears; he turned instinctively, and just behind +the corner of the church stood the lantern-bearer, rubbing his +eyes, and drowsily enjoying the lad's amazement. Then he heard a +peal of laughter like the ringing of silvery bells; a woman +twitched his arm, a saucy eye met his, and he saw the lady of the +scarlet petticoat. A sharp, dry cachinnation appealed to his +memory, and, standing on tiptoe in the crowd, with his white +apron over his head, he beheld the courteous little innkeeper. +And lastly, there sailed over the heads of the multitude a great, +broad laugh, broken in the midst by two sepulchral hems; thus, +"Haw, haw, haw,--hem, hem,--haw, haw, haw, haw!" + +The sound proceeded from the balcony of the opposite edifice, and +thither Robin turned his eyes. In front of the Gothic window +stood the old citizen, wrapped in a wide gown, his gray periwig +exchanged for a nightcap, which was thrust back from his +forehead, and his silk stockings hanging about his legs. He +supported himself on his polished cane in a fit of convulsive +merriment, which manifested itself on his solemn old features +like a funny inscription on a tombstone. Then Robin seemed to +hear the voices of the barbers, of the guests of the inn, and of +all who had made sport of him that night. The contagion was +spreading among the multitude, when all at once, it seized upon +Robin, and he sent forth a shout of laughter that echoed through +the street,--every man shook his sides, every man emptied his +lungs, but Robin's shout was the loudest there. The cloud-spirits +peeped from their silvery islands, as the congregated mirth went +roaring up the sky! The Man in the Moon heard the far bellow. +"Oho," quoth he, "the old earth is frolicsome to-night!" + +When there was a momentary calm in that tempestuous sea of sound, +the leader gave the sign, the procession resumed its march. On +they went, like fiends that throng in mockery around some dead +potentate, mighty no more, but majestic still in his agony. On +they went, in counterfeited pomp, in senseless uproar, in +frenzied merriment, trampling all on an old man's heart. On swept +the tumult, and left a silent street behind. + + . . . . . . . . . . . + +"Well, Robin, are you dreaming?" inquired the gentleman, laying +his hand on the youth's shoulder. + +Robin started, and withdrew his arm from the stone post to which +he had instinctively clung, as the living stream rolled by him. +His cheek was somewhat pale, and his eye not quite as lively as +in the earlier part of the evening. + +"Will you be kind enough to show me the way to the ferry?" said +he, after a moment's pause. + +"You have, then, adopted a new subject of inquiry?" observed his +companion, with a smile. + +"Why, yes, sir," replied Robin, rather dryly. "Thanks to you, and +to my other friends, I have at last met my kinsman, and he will +scarce desire to see my face again. I begin to grow weary of a +town life, sir. Will you show me the way to the ferry?" + +"No, my good friend Robin,--not to-night, at least," said the +gentleman. "Some few days hence, if you wish it, I will speed you +on your journey. Or, if you prefer to remain with us, perhaps, as +you are a shrewd youth, you may rise in the world without the +help of your kinsman, Major Molineux." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etexts from The Snow Image by Hawthorne + |