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diff --git a/9207.txt b/9207.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4dada5 --- /dev/null +++ b/9207.txt @@ -0,0 +1,581 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Vision of the Fountain (From "Twice +Told Tales"), by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Vision of the Fountain (From "Twice Told Tales") + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Posting Date: November 27, 2010 [EBook #9207] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: August 23, 2003 +Last Updated: February 5, 2007 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VISION OF THE FOUNTAIN *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + + + + + TWICE TOLD TALES + + THE VISION OF THE FOUNTAIN + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + +At fifteen, I became a resident in a country village, more than a hundred +miles from home. The morning after my arrival--a September morning, but +warm and bright as any in July--I rambled into a wood of oaks, with a few +walnut-trees intermixed, forming the closest shade above my head. The +ground was rocky, uneven, overgrown with bushes and clumps of young +saplings, and traversed only by cattle-paths. The track, which I chanced +to follow, led me to a crystal spring, with a border of grass, as freshly +green as on May morning, and overshadowed by the limb of a great oak. +One solitary sunbeam found its way down, and played like a goldfish in +the water. + +From my childhood, I have loved to gaze into a spring. The water filled +a circular basin, small but deep, and set round with stones, some of +which were covered with slimy moss, the others naked, and of variegated +hue, reddish, white, and brown. The bottom was covered with coarse sand, +which sparkled in the lonely sunbeam, and seemed to illuminate the spring +with an unborrowed light. In one spot, the gush of the water violently +agitated the sand, but without obscuring the fountain, or breaking the +glassiness of its surface. It appeared as if some living creature were +about to emerge--the Naiad of the spring, perhaps--in the shape of a +beautiful young woman, with a gown of filmy water-moss, a belt of +rainbow-drops, and a cold, pure, passionless countenance. How would the +beholder shiver, pleasantly, yet fearfully, to see her sitting on one of +the stones, paddling her white feet in the ripples, and throwing up +water, to sparkle in the sun! Wherever she laid her hands on grass and +flowers, they would immediately be moist, as with morning dew. Then +would she set about her labors, like a careful housewife, to clear the +fountain of withered leaves, and bits of slimy wood, and old acorns from +the oaks above, and grains of corn left by cattle in drinking, till the +bright sand, in the bright water, were like a treasury of diamonds. But, +should the intruder approach too near, he would find only the drops of a +summer shower glistening about the spot where he had seen her. + +Reclining on the border of grass, where the dewy goddess should have +been, I bent forward, and a pair of eyes met mine within the watery +mirror. They were the reflection of my own. I looked again, and lo! +another face, deeper in the fountain than my own image, more distinct in +all the features, yet faint as thought. The vision had the aspect of a +fair young girl, with locks of paly gold. A mirthful expression laughed +in the eyes and dimpled over the whole shadowy countenance, till it +seemed just what a fountain would be, if, while dancing merrily into the +sunshine, it should assume the shape of woman. Through the dim rosiness +of the cheeks, I could see the brown leaves, the slimy twigs, the acorns, +and the sparkling sand. The solitary sunbeam was diffused among the +golden hair, which melted into its faint brightness, and became a glory +round that head so beautiful! + +My description can give no idea how suddenly the fountain was thus +tenanted, and how soon it was left desolate. I breathed; and there was +the face! I held my breath; and it was gone! Had it passed away, or +faded into nothing? I doubted whether it had ever been. + +My sweet readers, what a dreamy and delicious hour did I spend, where +that vision found and left me! For a long time I sat perfectly still, +waiting till it should reappear, and fearful that the slightest motion, +or even the flutter of my breath, might frighten it away. Thus have I +often started from a pleasant dream, and then kept quiet, in hopes to +wile it back. Deep were my musings, as to the race and attributes of +that ethereal being. Had I created her? Was she the daughter of my +fancy, akin to those strange shapes which peep under the lids of +children's eyes? And did her beauty gladden me, for that one moment, and +then die? Or was she a water-nymph within the fountain, or fairy, or +woodland goddess peeping over my shoulder, or the ghost of some forsaken +maid, who had drowned herself for love? Or, in good truth, had a lovely +girl, with a warm heart, and lips that would bear pressure, stolen softly +behind me, and thrown her image into the spring? + +I watched and waited, but no vision came again. I departed, but with a +spell upon me, which drew me back, that same afternoon, to the haunted +spring. There was the water gushing, the sand sparkling, and the sunbeam +glimmering. There the vision was not, but only a great frog, the hermit +of that solitude, who immediately withdrew his speckled snout and made +himself invisible, all except a pair of long legs, beneath a stone. +Methought he had a devilish look! I could have slain him! + +Thus did the Vision leave me; and many a doleful day succeeded to the +parting moment. By the spring, and in the wood, and on the hill, and +through the village; at dewy sunrise, burning noon, and at that magic +hour of sunset, when she had vanished from my sight, I sought her, but in +vain. Weeks came and went, months rolled away, and she appeared not in +them. I imparted my mystery to none, but wandered to and fro, or sat in +solitude, like one that had caught a glimpse of heaven, and could take no +more joy on earth. I withdrew into an inner world, where my thoughts +lived and breathed, and the Vision in the midst of them. Without +intending it, I became at once the author and hero of a romance, +conjuring up rivals, imagining events, the actions of others and my own, +and experiencing every change of passion, till jealousy and despair had +their end in bliss. O, had I the burning fancy of my early youth, with +manhood's colder gift, the power of expression, your hearts, sweet +ladies, should flutter at my tale! + +In the middle of January, I was summoned home. The day before my +departure, visiting the spots which had been hallowed by the Vision, I +found that the spring had a frozen bosom, and nothing but the snow and a +glare of winter sunshine, on the hill of the rainbow. "Let me hope," +thought I, "or my heart will be as icy as the fountain, and the whole +world as desolate as this snowy hill." Most of the day was spent in +preparing for the journey, which was to commence at four o'clock the next +morning. About an hour after supper, when all was in readiness, I +descended from my chamber to the sitting-room, to take leave of the old +clergyman and his family, with whom I had been an inmate. A gust of wind +blew out my lamp as I passed through the entry. + +According to their invariable custom, so pleasant a one when the fire +blazes cheerfully, the family were sitting in the parlor, with no other +light than what came from the hearth. As the good clergyman's scanty +stipend compelled him to use all sorts of economy, the foundation of his +fires was always a large heap of tan, or ground bark, which would +smoulder away, from morning till night, with a dull warmth and no flame. +This evening the heap of tan was newly put on, and surmounted with three +sticks of red-oak, full of moisture, and a few pieces of dry pine, that +had not yet kindled. There was no light, except the little that came +sullenly from two half-burned brands, without even glimmering on the +andirons. But I knew the position of the old minister's arm-chair, and +also where his wife sat, with her knitting-work, and how to avoid his two +daughters, one a stout country lass, and the other a consumptive girl. +Groping through the gloom, I found my own place next to that of the son, +a learned collegian, who had come home to keep school in the village +during the winter vacation. I noticed that there was less room than +usual, to-night, between the collegian's chair and mine. + +As people are always taciturn in the dark, not a word was said for some +time after my entrance. Nothing broke the stillness but the regular +click of the matron's knitting-needles. At times, the fire threw out a +brief and dusky gleam, which twinkled on the old man's glasses, and +hovered doubtfully round our circle, but was far too faint to portray the +individuals who composed it. Were we not like ghosts? Dreamy as the +scene was, might it not be a type of the mode in which departed people, +who had known and loved each other here, would hold communion in +eternity? We were aware of each other's presence, not by sight, nor +sound, nor touch, but by an inward consciousness. Would it not be so +among the dead? + +The silence was interrupted by the consumptive daughter, addressing a +remark to some one in the circle, whom she called Rachel. Her tremulous +and decayed accents were answered by a single word, but in a voice that +made me start, and bend towards the spot whence it had proceeded. Had I +ever heard that sweet, low tone? If not, why did it rouse up so many old +recollections, or mockeries of such, the shadows of things familiar, yet +unknown, and fill my mind with confused images of her features who had +spoken, though buried in the gloom of the parlor? Whom had my heart +recognized, that it throbbed so? I listened, to catch her gentle +breathing, and strove, by the intensity of my gaze, to picture forth a +shape where none was visible. + +Suddenly, the dry pine caught; the fire blazed up with a ruddy glow; and +where the darkness had been, there was she,--the Vision of the Fountain! +A spirit of radiance only, she had vanished with the rainbow, and +appeared again in the firelight, perhaps to flicker with the blaze, and +be gone. Yet, her cheek was rosy and life-like, and her features, in the +bright warmth of the room, were even sweeter and tenderer than my +recollection of them. She knew me! The mirthful expression that had +laughed in her eyes and dimpled over her countenance, when I beheld her +faint beauty in the fountain, was laughing and dimpling there now. One +moment our glance mingled,--the next, down rolled the heap of tan upon +the kindled wood,--and darkness snatched away that Daughter of the Light, +and gave her back to me no more! + +Fair ladies, there is nothing more to tell. Must the simple mystery be +revealed, then, that Rachel was the daughter of the village squire, and +had left home for a boarding-school, the morning after I arrived, and +returned the day before my departure? If I transformed her to an angel, +it is what every youthful lover does for his mistress. Therein consists +the essence of my story. But slight the change, sweet maids, to make +angels of yourselves! + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Vision of the Fountain (From +"Twice Told Tales"), by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VISION OF THE FOUNTAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 9207.txt or 9207.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/0/9207/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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