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diff --git a/9241-0.txt b/9241-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bcdd3f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/9241-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,583 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of John Inglefield’s Thanksgiving, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: John Inglefield’s Thanksgiving + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: September 18, 2003 [eBook #9241] +[Most recently updated: May 16, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: David Widger + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN INGLEFIELD’S THANKSGIVING *** + + + + +John Inglefield’s Thanksgiving + +by Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + + +On the evening of Thanksgiving day, John Inglefield, the blacksmith, +sat in his elbow-chair, among those who had been keeping festival at +his board. Being the central figure of the domestic circle, the fire +threw its strongest light on his massive and sturdy frame, reddening +his rough visage, so that it looked like the head of an iron statue, +all aglow, from his own forge, and with its features rudely fashioned +on his own anvil. At John Inglefield’s right hand was an empty chair. +The other places round the hearth were filled by the members of the +family, who all sat quietly, while, with a semblance of fantastic +merriment, their shadows danced on the wall behind then. One of the +group was John Inglefield’s son, who had been bred at college, and was +now a student of theology at Andover. There was also a daughter of +sixteen, whom nobody could look at without thinking of a rosebud almost +blossomed. The only other person at the fireside was Robert Moore, +formerly an apprentice of the blacksmith, but now his journeyman, and +who seemed more like an own son of John Inglefield than did the pale +and slender student. + +Only these four had kept New England’s festival beneath that roof. The +vacant chair at John Inglefield’s right hand was in memory of his wife, +whom death had snatched from him since the previous Thanksgiving. With +a feeling that few would have looked for in his rough nature, the +bereaved husband had himself set the chair in its place next his own; +and often did his eye glance thitherward, as if he deemed it possible +that the cold grave might send back its tenant to the cheerful +fireside, at least for that one evening. Thus did he cherish the grief +that was dear to him. But there was another grief which he would fain +have torn from his heart; or, since that could never be, have buried it +too deep for others to behold, or for his own remembrance. Within the +past year another member of his household had gone from him, but not to +the grave. Yet they kept no vacant chair for her. + +While John Inglefield and his family were sitting round the hearth with +the shadows dancing behind them on the wall, the outer door was opened, +and a light footstep came along the passage. The latch of the inner +door was lifted by some familiar hand, and a young girl came in, +wearing a cloak and hood, which she took off, and laid on the table +beneath the looking-glass. Then, after gazing a moment at the fireside +circle, she approached, and took the seat at John Inglefield’s right +hand, as if it had been reserved on purpose for her. + +“Here I am, at last, father,” said she. “You ate your Thanksgiving +dinner without me, but I have come back to spend the evening with you.” + +Yes, it was Prudence Inglefield. She wore the same neat and maidenly +attire which she had been accustomed to put on when the household work +was over for the day, and her hair was parted from her brow, in the +simple and modest fashion that became her best of all. If her cheek +might otherwise have been pale, yet the glow of the fire suffused it +with a healthful bloom. If she had spent the many months of her absence +in guilt and infamy, yet they seemed to have left no traces on her +gentle aspect. She could not have looked less altered, had she merely +stepped away from her father’s fireside for half an hour, and returned +while the blaze was quivering upwards from the same brands that were +burning at her departure. And to John Inglefield she was the very image +of his buried wife, such as he remembered her on the first Thanksgiving +which they had passed under their own roof. Therefore, though naturally +a stern and rugged man, he could not speak unkindly to his sinful +child, nor yet could he take her to his bosom. + +“You are welcome home, Prudence,” said he, glancing sideways at her, +and his voice faltered. “Your mother would have rejoiced to see you, +but she has been gone from us these four months.” + +“I know it, father, I know it,” replied Prudence, quickly. “And yet, +when I first came in, my eyes were so dazzled by the firelight, that +she seemed to be sitting in this very chair!” + +By this time the other members of the family had begun to recover from +their surprise, and became sensible that it was no ghost from the +grave, nor vision of their vivid recollections, but Prudence, her own +self. Her brother was the next that greeted her. He advanced and held +out his hand affectionately, as a brother should; yet not entirely like +a brother, for, with all his kindness, he was still a clergyman, and +speaking to a child of sin. + +“Sister Prudence,” said he, earnestly, “I rejoice that a merciful +Providence hath turned your steps homeward, in time for me to bid you a +last farewell. In a few weeks, sister, I am to sail as a missionary to +the far islands of the Pacific. There is not one of these beloved faces +that I shall ever hope to behold again on this earth. O, may I see all +of them--yours and all--beyond the grave!” + +A shadow flitted across the girl’s countenance. + +“The grave is very dark, brother,” answered she, withdrawing her hand +somewhat hastily from his grasp. “You must look your last at me by the +light of this fire.” + +While this was passing, the twin-girl-the rosebud that had grown on the +same stem with the castaway--stood gazing at her sister, longing to +fling herself upon her bosom, so that the tendrils of their hearts +might intertwine again. At first she was restrained by mingled grief +and shame, and by a dread that Prudence was too much changed to respond +to her affection, or that her own purity would be felt as a reproach by +the lost one. But, as she listened to the familiar voice, while the +face grew more and more familiar, she forgot everything save that +Prudence had come back. Springing forward, she would have clasped her +in a close embrace. At that very instant, however, Prudence started +from her chair, and held out both her hands, with a warning gesture. + +“No, Mary,--no, my sister,” cried she, “do not you touch me. Your bosom +must not be pressed to mine!” + +Mary shuddered and stood still, for she felt that something darker than +the grave was between Prudence and herself, though they seemed so near +each other in the light of their father’s hearth, where they had grown +up together. Meanwhile Prudence threw her eyes around the room, in +search of one who had not yet bidden her welcome. He had withdrawn from +his seat by the fireside, and was standing near the door, with his face +averted, so that his features could be discerned only by the flickering +shadow of the profile upon the wall. But Prudence called to him, in a +cheerful and kindly tone:-- + +“Come, Robert,” said she, “won’t you shake hands with your old friend?” + +Robert Moore held back for a moment, but affection struggled +powerfully, and overcame his pride and resentment; he rushed towards +Prudence, seized her hand, and pressed it to his bosom. + +“There, there, Robert!” said she, smiling sadly, as she withdrew her +hand, “you must not give me too warm a welcome.” + +And now, having exchanged greetings with each member of the family, +Prudence again seated herself in the chair at John Inglefield’s right +hand. She was naturally a girl of quick and tender sensibilities, +gladsome in her general mood, but with a bewitching pathos interfused +among her merriest words and deeds. It was remarked of her, too, that +she had a faculty, even from childhood, of throwing her own feelings, +like a spell, over her companions. Such as she had been in her days of +innocence, so did she appear this evening. Her friends, in the surprise +and bewilderment of her return, almost forgot that she had ever left +them, or that she had forfeited any of her claims to their affection. +In the morning, perhaps, they might have looked at her with altered +eyes, but by the Thanksgiving fireside they felt only that their own +Prudence had come back to them, and were thankful. John Inglefleld’s +rough visage brightened with the glow of his heart, as it grew warm and +merry within him; once or twice, even, he laughed till the room rang +again, yet seemed startled by the echo of his own mirth. The grave +young minister became as frolicsome as a school-boy. Mary, too, the +rosebud, forgot that her twin-blossom had ever been torn from the stem, +and trampled in the dust. And as for Robert Moore, he gazed at Prudence +with the bashful earnestness of love new-born, while she, with sweet +maiden coquetry, half smiled upon and half discouraged him. + +In short, it was one of those intervals when sorrow vanishes in its own +depth of shadow, and joy starts forth in transitory brightness. When +the clock struck eight, Prudence poured out her father’s customary +draught of herb-tea, which had been steeping by the fireside ever since +twilight. + +“God bless you, child!” said John Inglefield, as he took the cup from +her hand; “you have made your old father happy again. But we miss your +mother sadly, Prudence, sadly. It seems as if she ought to be here +now.” + +“Now, father, or never,” replied Prudence. + +It was now the hour for domestic worship. But while the family were +making preparations for this duty, they suddenly perceived that +Prudence had put on her cloak and hood, and was lifting the latch of +the door. + +“Prudence, Prudence! where are you going?” cried they all, with one +voice. + +As Prudence passed out of the door, she turned towards them, and flung +back her hand with a gesture of farewell. But her face was so changed +that they hardly recognized it. Sin and evil passions glowed through +its comeliness, and wrought a horrible deformity; a smile gleamed in +her eyes, as of triumphant mockery, at their surprise and grief. + +“Daughter,” cried John Inglefield, between wrath and sorrow, “stay and +be your father’s blessing, or take his curse with you!” + +For an instant Prudence lingered and looked back into the fire-lighted +room, while her countenance wore almost the expression as if she were +struggling with a fiend, who had power to seize his victim even within +the hallowed precincts of her father’s hearth. The fiend prevailed; and +Prudence vanished into the outer darkness. When the family rushed to +the door, they could see nothing, but heard the sound of wheels +rattling over the frozen ground. + +That same night, among the painted beauties at the theatre of a +neighboring city, there was one whose dissolute mirth seemed +inconsistent with any sympathy for pure affections, and for the joys +and griefs which are hallowed by them. Yet this was Prudence +Inglefield. Her visit to the Thanksgiving fireside was the realization +of one of those waking dreams in which the guilty soul will sometimes +stray back to its innocence. But Sin, alas! is careful of her +bond-slaves; they hear her voice, perhaps, at the holiest moment, and +are constrained to go whither she summons them. The same dark power +that drew Prudence Inglefleld from her father’s hearth--the same in its +nature, though heightened then to a dread necessity--would snatch a +guilty soul from the gate of heaven, and make its sin and its +punishment alike eternal. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN INGLEFIELD’S THANKSGIVING *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. 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