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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9251-0.txt b/9251-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df29549 --- /dev/null +++ b/9251-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,743 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Old Woman’s Tale, 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: An Old Woman’s Tale + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9251] +First Posted: September 25, 2003 +Last Updated: December 15, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD WOMAN’S TALE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + + + + + THE DOLIVER ROMANCE AND OTHER PIECES + + TALES AND SKETCHES + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + AN OLD WOMAN’S TALE + + + +In the house where I was born, there used to be an old woman crouching +all day long over the kitchen fire, with her elbows on her knees and her +feet in the ashes. Once in a while she took a turn at the spit, and she +never lacked a coarse gray stocking in her lap, the foot about half +finished; it tapered away with her own waning life, and she knit the +toe-stitch on the day of her death. She made it her serious business +and sole amusement to tell me stories at any time from morning till +night, in a mumbling, toothless voice, as I sat on a log of wood, +grasping her check-apron in both my hands. Her personal memory included +the better part of a hundred years, and she had strangely jumbled her +own experience and observation with those of many old people who died in +her young days; so that she might have been taken for a contemporary of +Queen Elizabeth, or of John Rogers in the Primer. There are a thousand +of her traditions lurking in the corners and by-places of my mind, some +more marvellous than what is to follow, some less so, and a few not +marvellous in the least, all of which I should like to repeat, if I were +as happy as she in having a listener. But I am humble enough to own, +that I do not deserve a listener half so well as that old toothless +woman, whose narratives possessed an excellence attributable neither to +herself, nor to any single individual. Her ground-plots, seldom within +the widest scope of probability, were filled up with homely and natural +incidents, the gradual accretions of a long course of years, and fiction +hid its grotesque extravagance in this garb of truth, like the Devil (an +appropriate simile, for the old woman supplies it) disguising himself, +cloven-foot and all, in mortal attire. These tales generally referred +to her birthplace, a village in the valley of the Connecticut, the +aspect of which she impressed with great vividness on my fancy. The +houses in that tract of country, long a wild and dangerous frontier, +were rendered defensible by a strength of architecture that has +preserved many of them till our own times, and I cannot describe the +sort of pleasure with which, two summers since, I rode through the +little town in question, while one object after another rose familiarly +to my eye, like successive portions of a dream becoming realized. Among +other things equally probable, she was wont to assert that all the +inhabitants of this village (at certain intervals, but whether of +twenty-five or fifty years, or a whole century, remained a disputable +point) were subject to a simultaneous slumber, continuing one hour’s +space. When that mysterious time arrived, the parson snored over his +half-written sermon, though it were Saturday night and no provision made +for the morrow,--the mother’s eyelids closed as she bent over her +infant, and no childish cry awakened,--the watcher at the bed of mortal +sickness slumbered upon the death-pillow, and the dying man anticipated +his sleep of ages by one as deep and dreamless. To speak emphatically, +there was a soporific influence throughout the village, stronger than if +every mother’s son and daughter were reading a dull story; +notwithstanding which the old woman professed to hold the substance of +the ensuing account from one of those principally concerned in it. + +One moonlight summer evening, a young man and a girl sat down together +in the open air. They were distant relatives, sprung from a stock once +wealthy, but of late years so poverty-stricken, that David had not a +penny to pay the marriage fee, if Esther should consent to wed. The +seat they had chosen was in an open grove of elm and walnut trees, at a +right angle of the road; a spring of diamond water just bubbled into the +moonlight beside them, and then whimpered away through the bushes and +long grass, in search of a neighboring millstream. The nearest house +(situate within twenty yards of them, and the residence of their +great-grandfather in his lifetime) was a venerable old edifice, crowned +with many high and narrow peaks, all overrun by innumerable creeping +plants, which hung curling about the roof like a nice young wig on an +elderly gentleman’s head. Opposite to this establishment was a tavern, +with a well and horse-trough before it, and a low green bank running along +the left side of the door. Thence, the road went onward, curving scarce +perceptibly, through the village, divided in the midst by a narrow +lane of verdure, and bounded on each side by a grassy strip of twice its +own breadth. The houses had generally an odd look. Here, the moonlight +tried to get a glimpse of one, a rough old heap of ponderous timber, +which, ashamed of its dilapidated aspect, was hiding behind a great +thick tree; the lower story of the next had sunk almost under ground, as +if the poor little house were a-weary of the world, and retiring into +the seclusion of its own cellar; farther on stood one of the few recent +structures, thrusting its painted face conspicuously into the street, +with an evident idea that it was the fairest thing there. About midway +in the village was a grist-mill, partly concealed by the descent of the +ground towards the stream which turned its wheel. At the southern +extremity, just so far distant that the window-paces dazzled into each +other, rose the meeting-house, a dingy old barn-like building, with an +enormously disproportioned steeple sticking up straight into heaven, as +high as the Tower of Babel, and the cause of nearly as much confusion in +its day. This steeple, it must be understood, was an afterthought, and +its addition to the main edifice, when the latter had already begun to +decay, had excited a vehement quarrel, and almost a schism in the +church, some fifty years before. Here the road wound down a hill and +was seen no more, the remotest object in view being the graveyard gate, +beyond the meetinghouse. The youthful pair sat hand in hand beneath the +trees, and for several moments they had not spoken, because the breeze +was hushed, the brook scarce tinkled, the leaves had ceased their +rustling, and everything lay motionless and silent as if Nature were +composing herself to slumber. + +“What a beautiful night it is, Esther!” remarked David, somewhat +drowsily. + +“Very beautiful,” answered the girl, in the same tone. + +“But how still!” continued David. + +“Ah, too still!” said Esther, with a faint shudder, like a modest leaf +when the wind kisses it. + +Perhaps they fell asleep together, and, united as their spirits were by +close and tender sympathies, the same strange dream might have wrapped +them in its shadowy arms. But they conceived, at the time, that they +still remained wakeful by the spring of bubbling water, looking down +through the village, and all along the moonlighted road, and at the +queer old houses, and at the trees which thrust their great twisted +branches almost into the windows. There was only a sort of mistiness +over their minds like the smoky air of an early autumn night. At +length, without any vivid astonishment, they became conscious that a +great many people were either entering the village or already in the +street, but whether they came from the meeting-house, or from a little +beyond it, or where the devil they came from, was more than could be +determined. Certainly, a crowd of people seemed to be there, men, +women, and children, all of whom were yawning and rubbing their eyes, +stretching their limbs, and staggering from side to side of the road, as +if but partially awakened from a sound slumber. Sometimes they stood +stock-still, with their hands over their brows to shade their sight from +the moonbeams. As they drew near, most of their countenances appeared +familiar to Esther and David, possessing the peculiar features of +families in the village, and that general air and aspect by which a +person would recognize his own townsmen in the remotest ends of the +earth. But though the whole multitude might have been taken, in the +mass, for neighbors and acquaintances, there was not a single individual +whose exact likeness they had ever before seen. It was a noticeable +circumstance, also, that the newest fashioned garment on the backs of +these people might have been worn by the great-grandparents of the +existing generation. There was one figure behind all the rest, and not +yet near enough to be perfectly distinguished. + +“Where on earth, David, do all these odd people come from?” said Esther, +with a lazy inclination to laugh. + +“Nowhere on earth, Esther,” replied David, unknowing why he said so. + +As they spoke, the strangers showed some symptoms of disquietude, and +looked towards the fountain for an instant, but immediately appeared to +assume their own trains of thought and previous purposes. They now +separated to different parts of the village, with a readiness that +implied intimate local knowledge, and it may be worthy of remark, that, +though they were evidently loquacious among themselves, neither their +footsteps nor their voices reached the ears of the beholders. Wherever +there was a venerable old house, of fifty years’ standing and upwards, +surrounded by its elm or walnut trees, with its dark and weather-beaten +barn, its well, its orchard and stone-walls, all ancient and all in good +repair around it, there a little group of these people assembled. Such +parties were mostly composed of an aged man and woman, with the younger +members of a family; their faces were full of joy, so deep that it +assumed the shade of melancholy; they pointed to each other the minutest +objects about the homesteads, things in their hearts, and were now +comparing them with the originals. But where hollow places by the +wayside, grass-grown and uneven, with unsightly chimneys rising ruinous +in the midst, gave indications of a fallen dwelling and of hearths long +cold, there did a few of the strangers sit them down on the mouldering +beams, and on the yellow moss that had overspread the door-stone. The +men folded their arms, sad and speechless; the women wrung their hands +with a more vivid expression of grief; and the little children tottered +to their knees, shrinking away from the open grave of domestic love. +And wherever a recent edifice reared its white and flashy front on the +foundation of an old one, there a gray-haired man might be seen to shake +his staff in anger at it, while his aged dame and their offspring +appeared to join in their maledictions, forming a fearful picture in the +ghostly moon light. While these scenes were passing, the one figure in +the rear of all the rest was descending the hollow towards the mill, and +the eyes of David and Esther were drawn thence to a pair with whom they +could fully sympathize. It was a youth in a sailor’s dress and a pale +slender maiden, who met each other with a sweet embrace in the middle of +the street. + +“How long it must be since they parted,” observed David. + +“Fifty years at least,” said Esther. + +They continued to gaze with unwondering calmness and quiet interest, as +the dream (if such it were) unrolled its quaint and motley semblance +before them, and their notice was now attracted by several little knots +of people apparently engaged in conversation. Of these one of the +earliest collected and most characteristic was near the tavern, the +persons who composed it being seated on the low green bank along the +left side of the door. A conspicuous figure here was a fine corpulent +old fellow in his shirt-sleeves and flame-colored breeches, and with a +stained white apron over his paunch, beneath which he held his hands and +wherewith at times be wiped his ruddy face. The stately decrepitude of +one of his companions, the scar of an Indian tomahawk on his crown, and +especially his worn buff coat, were appropriate marks of a veteran +belonging to an old Provincial garrison, now deaf to the roll-call. +Another showed his rough face under a tarry hat and wore a pair of wide +trousers, like an ancient mariner who bad tossed away his youth upon the +sea, and was returned, hoary and weather-beaten, to his inland home. +There was also a thin young man, carelessly dressed, who ever and anon +cast a sad look towards the pale maiden above mentioned. With these +there sat a hunter, and one or two others, and they were soon joined by +a miller, who came upward from the dusty mill, his coat as white as if +besprinkled with powdered starlight. All these (by the aid of jests, +which might indeed be old, but had not been recently repeated) waxed +very merry, and it was rather strange, that just as their sides shook +with the heartiest laughter, they appeared greatly like a group of +shadows flickering in the moonshine. Four personages, very different +from these, stood in front of the large house with its periwig of +creeping plants. One was a little elderly figure, distinguished by the +gold on his three-cornered bat and sky-blue coat, and by the seal of +arms annexed to his great gold watch-chain; his air and aspect befitted +a Justice of Peace and County Major, and all earth’s pride and pomposity +were squeezed into this small gentleman of five feet high. The next in +importance was a grave person of sixty or seventy years, whose black +suit and hand sufficiently indicated his character, and the polished +baldness of whose head was worthy of a famous preacher in the village, +half a century before, who had made wigs a subject of pulpit +denunciation. The two other figures, both clad in dark gray, showed the +sobriety of Deacons; one was ridiculously tall and thin, like a man of +ordinary bulk infinitely produced, as the mathematicians say; while the +brevity and thickness of his colleague seemed a compression of the same +man. These four talked with great earnestness, and their gestures +intimated that they had revived the ancient dispute about the meeting-house +steeple. The grave person in black spoke with composed solemnity, +as if he were addressing a Synod; the short deacon grunted out +occasional sentences, as brief as himself; his tall brother drew the +long thread of his argument through the whole discussion, and (reasoning +from analogy) his voice must indubitably have been small and squeaking. +But the little old man in gold-lace was evidently scorched by his own +red-hot eloquence; he bounced from one to another, shook his cane at the +steeple, at the two deacons, and almost in the parson’s face, stamping +with his foot fiercely enough to break a hole through the very earth; +though, indeed, it could not exactly be said that the green grass bent +beneath him. The figure, noticed as coming behind all the rest, had now +surmounted the ascent from the mill, and proved to be an elderly lady +with something in her hand. + +“Why does she walk so slow?” asked David. + +“Don’t you see she is lame?” said Esther. + +This gentlewoman, whose infirmity had kept her so far in the rear of the +crowd, now came hobbling on, glided unobserved by the polemic group, and +paused on the left brink of the fountain, within a few feet of the two +spectators. She was a magnificent old dame, as ever mortal eye beheld. +Her spangled shoes and gold-clocked stockings shone gloriously within the +spacious circle of a red hoop-petticoat, which swelled to the very point +of explosion, and was bedecked all over with embroidery a little +tarnished. Above the petticoat, and parting in front so as to display +it to the best advantage, was a figured blue damask gown. A wide and +stiff ruff encircled her neck, a cap of the finest muslin, though rather +dingy, covered her head; and her nose was bestridden by a pair of +gold-bowed spectacles with enormous glasses. But the old lady’s face was +pinched, sharp and sallow, wearing a niggardly and avaricious +expression, and forming an odd contrast to the splendor of her attire, +as did likewise the implement which she held in her hand. It was a sort +of iron shovel (by housewives termed a “slice”), such as is used in +clearing the oven, and with this, selecting a spot between a walnut-tree +and the fountain, the good dame made an earnest attempt to dig. The +tender sods, however, possessed a strange impenetrability. They +resisted her efforts like a quarry of living granite, and losing her +breath, she cast down the shovel and seemed to bemoan herself most +piteously, gnashing her teeth (what few she had) and wringing her thin +yellow hands. Then, apparently with new hope, she resumed her toil, +which still had the same result,--a circumstance the less surprising to +David and Esther, because at times they would catch the moonlight +shining through the old woman, and dancing in the fountain beyond. The +little man in goldlace now happened to see her, and made his approach on +tiptoe. + +“How hard this elderly lady works!” remarked David. + +“Go and help her, David,” said Esther, compassionately. + +As their drowsy void spoke, both the old woman and the pompous little +figure behind her lifted their eyes, and for a moment they regarded the +youth and damsel with something like kindness and affection; which, +however, were dim and uncertain, and passed away almost immediately. +The old woman again betook herself to the shovel, but was startled by a +hand suddenly laid upon her shoulder; she turned round in great +trepidation, and beheld the dignitary in the blue coat; then followed an +embrace of such closeness as would indicate no remoter connection than +matrimony between these two decorous persons. The gentleman next +pointed to the shovel, appearing to inquire the purpose of his lady’s +occupation; while she as evidently parried his interrogatories, +maintaining a demure and sanctified visage as every good woman ought, in +similar cases. Howbeit, she could not forbear looking askew, behind her +spectacles, towards the spot of stubborn turf. All the while, their +figures had a strangeness in them, and it seemed as if some cunning +jeweller had made their golden ornaments of the yellowest of the setting +sunbeams, and that the blue of their garments was brought from the dark +sky near the moon, and that the gentleman’s silk waistcoat was the +bright side of a fiery cloud, and the lady’s scarlet petticoat a remnant +of the blush of morning,--and that they both were two unrealities of +colored air. But now there was a sudden movement throughout the +multitude. The Squire drew forth a watch as large as the dial on the +famous steeple, looked at the warning hands and got him gone, nor could +his lady tarry; the party at the tavern door took to their heels, headed +by the fat man in the flaming breeches; the tall deacon stalked away +immediately, and the short deacon waddled after, making four steps to +the yard; the mothers called their children about them and set forth, +with a gentle and sad glance behind. Like cloudy fantasies that hurry +by a viewless impulse from the sky, they all were fled, and the wind +rose up and followed them with a strange moaning down the lonely street. +Now whither these people went, is more than may be told; only David and +Esther seemed to see the shadowy splendor of the ancient dame, as she +lingered in the moonshine at the graveyard gate, gazing backward to the +fountain. + +“O Esther! I have had such a dream!” cried David, starting up, and +rubbing his eyes. + +“And I such another!” answered Esther, gaping till her pretty red lips +formed a circle. + +“About an old woman with gold-bowed spectacles,” continued David. + +“And a scarlet hoop-petticoat,” added Esther. They now stared in each +other’s eyes, with great astonishment and some little fear. After a +thoughtful moment or two, David drew a long breath and stood upright. + +“If I live till to-morrow morning,” said he, “I’ll see what may be +buried between that tree and the spring of water.” + +“And why not to-night, David?” asked Esther; for she was a sensible +little girl, and bethought herself that the matter might as well be done +in secrecy. + +David felt the propriety of the remark and looked round for the means of +following her advice. The moon shone brightly on something that rested +against the side of the old house, and, on a nearer view, it proved to +be an iron shovel, bearing a singular resemblance to that which they had +seen in their dreams. He used it with better success than the old +woman, the soil giving way so freely to his efforts, that he had soon +scooped a hole as large as the basin of the spring. Suddenly, he poked +his head down to the very bottom of this cavity. “Oho!--what have we +here?” cried David. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s An Old Woman’s Tale, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD WOMAN’S TALE *** + +***** This file should be named 9251-0.txt or 9251-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/5/9251/ + +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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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/9251-0.zip b/9251-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e477526 --- /dev/null +++ b/9251-0.zip diff --git a/9251-h.zip b/9251-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..76a98a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/9251-h.zip diff --git a/9251-h/9251-h.htm b/9251-h/9251-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..927ea7e --- /dev/null +++ b/9251-h/9251-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,810 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg E-text of An Old Woman's Tale, by Nathaniel + Hawthorne + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Old Woman's Tale, 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: An Old Woman's Tale + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9251] +First Posted: September 25, 2003 +Last Updated: December 15, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD WOMAN'S TALE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h4> + THE DOLIVER ROMANCE AND OTHER PIECES<br /> + </h4> + <h4> + TALES AND SKETCHES<br /> + </h4> + <h3> + By Nathaniel Hawthorne<br /> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + AN OLD WOMAN’S TALE<br /> + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + In the house where I was born, there used to be an old woman crouching all + day long over the kitchen fire, with her elbows on her knees and her feet + in the ashes. Once in a while she took a turn at the spit, and she never + lacked a coarse gray stocking in her lap, the foot about half finished; it + tapered away with her own waning life, and she knit the toe-stitch on the + day of her death. She made it her serious business and sole amusement to + tell me stories at any time from morning till night, in a mumbling, + toothless voice, as I sat on a log of wood, grasping her check-apron in + both my hands. Her personal memory included the better part of a hundred + years, and she had strangely jumbled her own experience and observation + with those of many old people who died in her young days; so that she + might have been taken for a contemporary of Queen Elizabeth, or of John + Rogers in the Primer. There are a thousand of her traditions lurking in + the corners and by-places of my mind, some more marvellous than what is to + follow, some less so, and a few not marvellous in the least, all of which + I should like to repeat, if I were as happy as she in having a listener. + But I am humble enough to own, that I do not deserve a listener half so + well as that old toothless woman, whose narratives possessed an excellence + attributable neither to herself, nor to any single individual. Her + ground-plots, seldom within the widest scope of probability, were filled + up with homely and natural incidents, the gradual accretions of a long + course of years, and fiction hid its grotesque extravagance in this garb + of truth, like the Devil (an appropriate simile, for the old woman + supplies it) disguising himself, cloven-foot and all, in mortal attire. + These tales generally referred to her birthplace, a village in the valley + of the Connecticut, the aspect of which she impressed with great vividness + on my fancy. The houses in that tract of country, long a wild and + dangerous frontier, were rendered defensible by a strength of architecture + that has preserved many of them till our own times, and I cannot describe + the sort of pleasure with which, two summers since, I rode through the + little town in question, while one object after another rose familiarly to + my eye, like successive portions of a dream becoming realized. Among other + things equally probable, she was wont to assert that all the inhabitants + of this village (at certain intervals, but whether of twenty-five or fifty + years, or a whole century, remained a disputable point) were subject to a + simultaneous slumber, continuing one hour’s space. When that mysterious + time arrived, the parson snored over his half-written sermon, though it + were Saturday night and no provision made for the morrow,—the + mother’s eyelids closed as she bent over her infant, and no childish cry + awakened,—the watcher at the bed of mortal sickness slumbered upon + the death-pillow, and the dying man anticipated his sleep of ages by one + as deep and dreamless. To speak emphatically, there was a soporific + influence throughout the village, stronger than if every mother’s son and + daughter were reading a dull story; notwithstanding which the old woman + professed to hold the substance of the ensuing account from one of those + principally concerned in it. + </p> + <p> + One moonlight summer evening, a young man and a girl sat down together in + the open air. They were distant relatives, sprung from a stock once + wealthy, but of late years so poverty-stricken, that David had not a penny + to pay the marriage fee, if Esther should consent to wed. The seat they + had chosen was in an open grove of elm and walnut trees, at a right angle + of the road; a spring of diamond water just bubbled into the moonlight + beside them, and then whimpered away through the bushes and long grass, in + search of a neighboring millstream. The nearest house (situate within + twenty yards of them, and the residence of their great-grandfather in his + lifetime) was a venerable old edifice, crowned with many high and narrow + peaks, all overrun by innumerable creeping plants, which hung curling + about the roof like a nice young wig on an elderly gentleman’s head. + Opposite to this establishment was a tavern, with a well and horse-trough + before it, and a low green bank running along the left side of the door. + Thence, the road went onward, curving scarce perceptibly, through the + village, divided in the midst by a narrow lane of verdure, and bounded on + each side by a grassy strip of twice its own breadth. The houses had + generally an odd look. Here, the moonlight tried to get a glimpse of one, + a rough old heap of ponderous timber, which, ashamed of its dilapidated + aspect, was hiding behind a great thick tree; the lower story of the next + had sunk almost under ground, as if the poor little house were a-weary of + the world, and retiring into the seclusion of its own cellar; farther on + stood one of the few recent structures, thrusting its painted face + conspicuously into the street, with an evident idea that it was the + fairest thing there. About midway in the village was a grist-mill, partly + concealed by the descent of the ground towards the stream which turned its + wheel. At the southern extremity, just so far distant that the + window-paces dazzled into each other, rose the meeting-house, a dingy old + barn-like building, with an enormously disproportioned steeple sticking up + straight into heaven, as high as the Tower of Babel, and the cause of + nearly as much confusion in its day. This steeple, it must be understood, + was an afterthought, and its addition to the main edifice, when the latter + had already begun to decay, had excited a vehement quarrel, and almost a + schism in the church, some fifty years before. Here the road wound down a + hill and was seen no more, the remotest object in view being the graveyard + gate, beyond the meetinghouse. The youthful pair sat hand in hand beneath + the trees, and for several moments they had not spoken, because the breeze + was hushed, the brook scarce tinkled, the leaves had ceased their + rustling, and everything lay motionless and silent as if Nature were + composing herself to slumber. + </p> + <p> + “What a beautiful night it is, Esther!” remarked David, somewhat drowsily. + </p> + <p> + “Very beautiful,” answered the girl, in the same tone. + </p> + <p> + “But how still!” continued David. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, too still!” said Esther, with a faint shudder, like a modest leaf + when the wind kisses it. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps they fell asleep together, and, united as their spirits were by + close and tender sympathies, the same strange dream might have wrapped + them in its shadowy arms. But they conceived, at the time, that they still + remained wakeful by the spring of bubbling water, looking down through the + village, and all along the moonlighted road, and at the queer old houses, + and at the trees which thrust their great twisted branches almost into the + windows. There was only a sort of mistiness over their minds like the + smoky air of an early autumn night. At length, without any vivid + astonishment, they became conscious that a great many people were either + entering the village or already in the street, but whether they came from + the meeting-house, or from a little beyond it, or where the devil they + came from, was more than could be determined. Certainly, a crowd of people + seemed to be there, men, women, and children, all of whom were yawning and + rubbing their eyes, stretching their limbs, and staggering from side to + side of the road, as if but partially awakened from a sound slumber. + Sometimes they stood stock-still, with their hands over their brows to + shade their sight from the moonbeams. As they drew near, most of their + countenances appeared familiar to Esther and David, possessing the + peculiar features of families in the village, and that general air and + aspect by which a person would recognize his own townsmen in the remotest + ends of the earth. But though the whole multitude might have been taken, + in the mass, for neighbors and acquaintances, there was not a single + individual whose exact likeness they had ever before seen. It was a + noticeable circumstance, also, that the newest fashioned garment on the + backs of these people might have been worn by the great-grandparents of + the existing generation. There was one figure behind all the rest, and not + yet near enough to be perfectly distinguished. + </p> + <p> + “Where on earth, David, do all these odd people come from?” said Esther, + with a lazy inclination to laugh. + </p> + <p> + “Nowhere on earth, Esther,” replied David, unknowing why he said so. + </p> + <p> + As they spoke, the strangers showed some symptoms of disquietude, and + looked towards the fountain for an instant, but immediately appeared to + assume their own trains of thought and previous purposes. They now + separated to different parts of the village, with a readiness that implied + intimate local knowledge, and it may be worthy of remark, that, though + they were evidently loquacious among themselves, neither their footsteps + nor their voices reached the ears of the beholders. Wherever there was a + venerable old house, of fifty years’ standing and upwards, surrounded by + its elm or walnut trees, with its dark and weather-beaten barn, its well, + its orchard and stone-walls, all ancient and all in good repair around it, + there a little group of these people assembled. Such parties were mostly + composed of an aged man and woman, with the younger members of a family; + their faces were full of joy, so deep that it assumed the shade of + melancholy; they pointed to each other the minutest objects about the + homesteads, things in their hearts, and were now comparing them with the + originals. But where hollow places by the wayside, grass-grown and uneven, + with unsightly chimneys rising ruinous in the midst, gave indications of a + fallen dwelling and of hearths long cold, there did a few of the strangers + sit them down on the mouldering beams, and on the yellow moss that had + overspread the door-stone. The men folded their arms, sad and speechless; + the women wrung their hands with a more vivid expression of grief; and the + little children tottered to their knees, shrinking away from the open + grave of domestic love. And wherever a recent edifice reared its white and + flashy front on the foundation of an old one, there a gray-haired man + might be seen to shake his staff in anger at it, while his aged dame and + their offspring appeared to join in their maledictions, forming a fearful + picture in the ghostly moon light. While these scenes were passing, the + one figure in the rear of all the rest was descending the hollow towards + the mill, and the eyes of David and Esther were drawn thence to a pair + with whom they could fully sympathize. It was a youth in a sailor’s dress + and a pale slender maiden, who met each other with a sweet embrace in the + middle of the street. + </p> + <p> + “How long it must be since they parted,” observed David. + </p> + <p> + “Fifty years at least,” said Esther. + </p> + <p> + They continued to gaze with unwondering calmness and quiet interest, as + the dream (if such it were) unrolled its quaint and motley semblance + before them, and their notice was now attracted by several little knots of + people apparently engaged in conversation. Of these one of the earliest + collected and most characteristic was near the tavern, the persons who + composed it being seated on the low green bank along the left side of the + door. A conspicuous figure here was a fine corpulent old fellow in his + shirt-sleeves and flame-colored breeches, and with a stained white apron + over his paunch, beneath which he held his hands and wherewith at times be + wiped his ruddy face. The stately decrepitude of one of his companions, + the scar of an Indian tomahawk on his crown, and especially his worn buff + coat, were appropriate marks of a veteran belonging to an old Provincial + garrison, now deaf to the roll-call. Another showed his rough face under a + tarry hat and wore a pair of wide trousers, like an ancient mariner who + bad tossed away his youth upon the sea, and was returned, hoary and + weather-beaten, to his inland home. There was also a thin young man, + carelessly dressed, who ever and anon cast a sad look towards the pale + maiden above mentioned. With these there sat a hunter, and one or two + others, and they were soon joined by a miller, who came upward from the + dusty mill, his coat as white as if besprinkled with powdered starlight. + All these (by the aid of jests, which might indeed be old, but had not + been recently repeated) waxed very merry, and it was rather strange, that + just as their sides shook with the heartiest laughter, they appeared + greatly like a group of shadows flickering in the moonshine. Four + personages, very different from these, stood in front of the large house + with its periwig of creeping plants. One was a little elderly figure, + distinguished by the gold on his three-cornered bat and sky-blue coat, and + by the seal of arms annexed to his great gold watch-chain; his air and + aspect befitted a Justice of Peace and County Major, and all earth’s pride + and pomposity were squeezed into this small gentleman of five feet high. + The next in importance was a grave person of sixty or seventy years, whose + black suit and hand sufficiently indicated his character, and the polished + baldness of whose head was worthy of a famous preacher in the village, + half a century before, who had made wigs a subject of pulpit denunciation. + The two other figures, both clad in dark gray, showed the sobriety of + Deacons; one was ridiculously tall and thin, like a man of ordinary bulk + infinitely produced, as the mathematicians say; while the brevity and + thickness of his colleague seemed a compression of the same man. These + four talked with great earnestness, and their gestures intimated that they + had revived the ancient dispute about the meeting-house steeple. The grave + person in black spoke with composed solemnity, as if he were addressing a + Synod; the short deacon grunted out occasional sentences, as brief as + himself; his tall brother drew the long thread of his argument through the + whole discussion, and (reasoning from analogy) his voice must indubitably + have been small and squeaking. But the little old man in gold-lace was + evidently scorched by his own red-hot eloquence; he bounced from one to + another, shook his cane at the steeple, at the two deacons, and almost in + the parson’s face, stamping with his foot fiercely enough to break a hole + through the very earth; though, indeed, it could not exactly be said that + the green grass bent beneath him. The figure, noticed as coming behind all + the rest, had now surmounted the ascent from the mill, and proved to be an + elderly lady with something in her hand. + </p> + <p> + “Why does she walk so slow?” asked David. + </p> + <p> + “Don’t you see she is lame?” said Esther. + </p> + <p> + This gentlewoman, whose infirmity had kept her so far in the rear of the + crowd, now came hobbling on, glided unobserved by the polemic group, and + paused on the left brink of the fountain, within a few feet of the two + spectators. She was a magnificent old dame, as ever mortal eye beheld. Her + spangled shoes and gold-clocked stockings shone gloriously within the + spacious circle of a red hoop-petticoat, which swelled to the very point + of explosion, and was bedecked all over with embroidery a little + tarnished. Above the petticoat, and parting in front so as to display it + to the best advantage, was a figured blue damask gown. A wide and stiff + ruff encircled her neck, a cap of the finest muslin, though rather dingy, + covered her head; and her nose was bestridden by a pair of gold-bowed + spectacles with enormous glasses. But the old lady’s face was pinched, + sharp and sallow, wearing a niggardly and avaricious expression, and + forming an odd contrast to the splendor of her attire, as did likewise the + implement which she held in her hand. It was a sort of iron shovel (by + housewives termed a “slice”), such as is used in clearing the oven, and + with this, selecting a spot between a walnut-tree and the fountain, the + good dame made an earnest attempt to dig. The tender sods, however, + possessed a strange impenetrability. They resisted her efforts like a + quarry of living granite, and losing her breath, she cast down the shovel + and seemed to bemoan herself most piteously, gnashing her teeth (what few + she had) and wringing her thin yellow hands. Then, apparently with new + hope, she resumed her toil, which still had the same result,—a + circumstance the less surprising to David and Esther, because at times + they would catch the moonlight shining through the old woman, and dancing + in the fountain beyond. The little man in goldlace now happened to see + her, and made his approach on tiptoe. + </p> + <p> + “How hard this elderly lady works!” remarked David. + </p> + <p> + “Go and help her, David,” said Esther, compassionately. + </p> + <p> + As their drowsy void spoke, both the old woman and the pompous little + figure behind her lifted their eyes, and for a moment they regarded the + youth and damsel with something like kindness and affection; which, + however, were dim and uncertain, and passed away almost immediately. The + old woman again betook herself to the shovel, but was startled by a hand + suddenly laid upon her shoulder; she turned round in great trepidation, + and beheld the dignitary in the blue coat; then followed an embrace of + such closeness as would indicate no remoter connection than matrimony + between these two decorous persons. The gentleman next pointed to the + shovel, appearing to inquire the purpose of his lady’s occupation; while + she as evidently parried his interrogatories, maintaining a demure and + sanctified visage as every good woman ought, in similar cases. Howbeit, + she could not forbear looking askew, behind her spectacles, towards the + spot of stubborn turf. All the while, their figures had a strangeness in + them, and it seemed as if some cunning jeweller had made their golden + ornaments of the yellowest of the setting sunbeams, and that the blue of + their garments was brought from the dark sky near the moon, and that the + gentleman’s silk waistcoat was the bright side of a fiery cloud, and the + lady’s scarlet petticoat a remnant of the blush of morning,—and that + they both were two unrealities of colored air. But now there was a sudden + movement throughout the multitude. The Squire drew forth a watch as large + as the dial on the famous steeple, looked at the warning hands and got him + gone, nor could his lady tarry; the party at the tavern door took to their + heels, headed by the fat man in the flaming breeches; the tall deacon + stalked away immediately, and the short deacon waddled after, making four + steps to the yard; the mothers called their children about them and set + forth, with a gentle and sad glance behind. Like cloudy fantasies that + hurry by a viewless impulse from the sky, they all were fled, and the wind + rose up and followed them with a strange moaning down the lonely street. + Now whither these people went, is more than may be told; only David and + Esther seemed to see the shadowy splendor of the ancient dame, as she + lingered in the moonshine at the graveyard gate, gazing backward to the + fountain. + </p> + <p> + “O Esther! I have had such a dream!” cried David, starting up, and rubbing + his eyes. + </p> + <p> + “And I such another!” answered Esther, gaping till her pretty red lips + formed a circle. + </p> + <p> + “About an old woman with gold-bowed spectacles,” continued David. + </p> + <p> + “And a scarlet hoop-petticoat,” added Esther. They now stared in each + other’s eyes, with great astonishment and some little fear. After a + thoughtful moment or two, David drew a long breath and stood upright. + </p> + <p> + “If I live till to-morrow morning,” said he, “I’ll see what may be buried + between that tree and the spring of water.” + </p> + <p> + “And why not to-night, David?” asked Esther; for she was a sensible little + girl, and bethought herself that the matter might as well be done in + secrecy. + </p> + <p> + David felt the propriety of the remark and looked round for the means of + following her advice. The moon shone brightly on something that rested + against the side of the old house, and, on a nearer view, it proved to be + an iron shovel, bearing a singular resemblance to that which they had seen + in their dreams. He used it with better success than the old woman, the + soil giving way so freely to his efforts, that he had soon scooped a hole + as large as the basin of the spring. Suddenly, he poked his head down to + the very bottom of this cavity. “Oho!—what have we here?” cried + David. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s An Old Woman’s Tale, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD WOMAN’S TALE *** + +***** This file should be named 9251-h.htm or 9251-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/5/9251/ + +Produced by David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines and 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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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: An Old Woman's Tale + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Posting Date: December 23, 2010 [EBook #9251] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: September 25, 2003 +Last Updated: February 8, 2007 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD WOMAN'S TALE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + THE DOLIVER ROMANCE AND OTHER PIECES + + TALES AND SKETCHES + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + AN OLD WOMAN'S TALE + + + +In the house where I was born, there used to be an old woman crouching +all day long over the kitchen fire, with her elbows on her knees and her +feet in the ashes. Once in a while she took a turn at the spit, and she +never lacked a coarse gray stocking in her lap, the foot about half +finished; it tapered away with her own waning life, and she knit the +toe-stitch on the day of her death. She made it her serious business +and sole amusement to tell me stories at any time from morning till +night, in a mumbling, toothless voice, as I sat on a log of wood, +grasping her check-apron in both my hands. Her personal memory included +the better part of a hundred years, and she had strangely jumbled her +own experience and observation with those of many old people who died in +her young days; so that she might have been taken for a contemporary of +Queen Elizabeth, or of John Rogers in the Primer. There are a thousand +of her traditions lurking in the corners and by-places of my mind, some +more marvellous than what is to follow, some less so, and a few not +marvellous in the least, all of which I should like to repeat, if I were +as happy as she in having a listener. But I am humble enough to own, +that I do not deserve a listener half so well as that old toothless +woman, whose narratives possessed an excellence attributable neither to +herself, nor to any single individual. Her ground-plots, seldom within +the widest scope of probability, were filled up with homely and natural +incidents, the gradual accretions of a long course of years, and fiction +hid its grotesque extravagance in this garb of truth, like the Devil (an +appropriate simile, for the old woman supplies it) disguising himself, +cloven-foot and all, in mortal attire. These tales generally referred +to her birthplace, a village in the valley of the Connecticut, the +aspect of which she impressed with great vividness on my fancy. The +houses in that tract of country, long a wild and dangerous frontier, +were rendered defensible by a strength of architecture that has +preserved many of them till our own times, and I cannot describe the +sort of pleasure with which, two summers since, I rode through the +little town in question, while one object after another rose familiarly +to my eye, like successive portions of a dream becoming realized. Among +other things equally probable, she was wont to assert that all the +inhabitants of this village (at certain intervals, but whether of +twenty-five or fifty years, or a whole century, remained a disputable +point) were subject to a simultaneous slumber, continuing one hour's +space. When that mysterious time arrived, the parson snored over his +half-written sermon, though it were Saturday night and no provision made +for the morrow,--the mother's eyelids closed as she bent over her +infant, and no childish cry awakened,--the watcher at the bed of mortal +sickness slumbered upon the death-pillow, and the dying man anticipated +his sleep of ages by one as deep and dreamless. To speak emphatically, +there was a soporific influence throughout the village, stronger than if +every mother's son and daughter were reading a dull story; +notwithstanding which the old woman professed to hold the substance of +the ensuing account from one of those principally concerned in it. + +One moonlight summer evening, a young man and a girl sat down together +in the open air. They were distant relatives, sprung from a stock once +wealthy, but of late years so poverty-stricken, that David had not a +penny to pay the marriage fee, if Esther should consent to wed. The +seat they had chosen was in an open grove of elm and walnut trees, at a +right angle of the road; a spring of diamond water just bubbled into the +moonlight beside them, and then whimpered away through the bushes and +long grass, in search of a neighboring millstream. The nearest house +(situate within twenty yards of them, and the residence of their +great-grandfather in his lifetime) was a venerable old edifice, crowned +with many high and narrow peaks, all overrun by innumerable creeping +plants, which hung curling about the roof like a nice young wig on an +elderly gentleman's head. Opposite to this establishment was a tavern, +with a well and horse-trough before it, and a low green bank running along +the left side of the door. Thence, the road went onward, curving scarce +perceptibly, through the village, divided in the midst by a narrow +lane of verdure, and bounded on each side by a grassy strip of twice its +own breadth. The houses had generally an odd look. Here, the moonlight +tried to get a glimpse of one, a rough old heap of ponderous timber, +which, ashamed of its dilapidated aspect, was hiding behind a great +thick tree; the lower story of the next had sunk almost under ground, as +if the poor little house were a-weary of the world, and retiring into +the seclusion of its own cellar; farther on stood one of the few recent +structures, thrusting its painted face conspicuously into the street, +with an evident idea that it was the fairest thing there. About midway +in the village was a grist-mill, partly concealed by the descent of the +ground towards the stream which turned its wheel. At the southern +extremity, just so far distant that the window-paces dazzled into each +other, rose the meeting-house, a dingy old barn-like building, with an +enormously disproportioned steeple sticking up straight into heaven, as +high as the Tower of Babel, and the cause of nearly as much confusion in +its day. This steeple, it must be understood, was an afterthought, and +its addition to the main edifice, when the latter had already begun to +decay, had excited a vehement quarrel, and almost a schism in the +church, some fifty years before. Here the road wound down a hill and +was seen no more, the remotest object in view being the graveyard gate, +beyond the meetinghouse. The youthful pair sat hand in hand beneath the +trees, and for several moments they had not spoken, because the breeze +was hushed, the brook scarce tinkled, the leaves had ceased their +rustling, and everything lay motionless and silent as if Nature were +composing herself to slumber. + +"What a beautiful night it is, Esther!" remarked David, somewhat +drowsily. + +"Very beautiful," answered the girl, in the same tone. + +"But how still!" continued David. + +"Ah, too still!" said Esther, with a faint shudder, like a modest leaf +when the wind kisses it. + +Perhaps they fell asleep together, and, united as their spirits were by +close and tender sympathies, the same strange dream might have wrapped +them in its shadowy arms. But they conceived, at the time, that they +still remained wakeful by the spring of bubbling water, looking down +through the village, and all along the moonlighted road, and at the +queer old houses, and at the trees which thrust their great twisted +branches almost into the windows. There was only a sort of mistiness +over their minds like the smoky air of an early autumn night. At +length, without any vivid astonishment, they became conscious that a +great many people were either entering the village or already in the +street, but whether they came from the meeting-house, or from a little +beyond it, or where the devil they came from, was more than could be +determined. Certainly, a crowd of people seemed to be there, men, +women, and children, all of whom were yawning and rubbing their eyes, +stretching their limbs, and staggering from side to side of the road, as +if but partially awakened from a sound slumber. Sometimes they stood +stock-still, with their hands over their brows to shade their sight from +the moonbeams. As they drew near, most of their countenances appeared +familiar to Esther and David, possessing the peculiar features of +families in the village, and that general air and aspect by which a +person would recognize his own townsmen in the remotest ends of the +earth. But though the whole multitude might have been taken, in the +mass, for neighbors and acquaintances, there was not a single individual +whose exact likeness they had ever before seen. It was a noticeable +circumstance, also, that the newest fashioned garment on the backs of +these people might have been worn by the great-grandparents of the +existing generation. There was one figure behind all the rest, and not +yet near enough to be perfectly distinguished. + +"Where on earth, David, do all these odd people come from?" said Esther, +with a lazy inclination to laugh. + +"Nowhere on earth, Esther," replied David, unknowing why he said so. + +As they spoke, the strangers showed some symptoms of disquietude, and +looked towards the fountain for an instant, but immediately appeared to +assume their own trains of thought and previous purposes. They now +separated to different parts of the village, with a readiness that +implied intimate local knowledge, and it may be worthy of remark, that, +though they were evidently loquacious among themselves, neither their +footsteps nor their voices reached the ears of the beholders. Wherever +there was a venerable old house, of fifty years' standing and upwards, +surrounded by its elm or walnut trees, with its dark and weather-beaten +barn, its well, its orchard and stone-walls, all ancient and all in good +repair around it, there a little group of these people assembled. Such +parties were mostly composed of an aged man and woman, with the younger +members of a family; their faces were full of joy, so deep that it +assumed the shade of melancholy; they pointed to each other the minutest +objects about the homesteads, things in their hearts, and were now +comparing them with the originals. But where hollow places by the +wayside, grass-grown and uneven, with unsightly chimneys rising ruinous +in the midst, gave indications of a fallen dwelling and of hearths long +cold, there did a few of the strangers sit them down on the mouldering +beams, and on the yellow moss that had overspread the door-stone. The +men folded their arms, sad and speechless; the women wrung their hands +with a more vivid expression of grief; and the little children tottered +to their knees, shrinking away from the open grave of domestic love. +And wherever a recent edifice reared its white and flashy front on the +foundation of an old one, there a gray-haired man might be seen to shake +his staff in anger at it, while his aged dame and their offspring +appeared to join in their maledictions, forming a fearful picture in the +ghostly moon light. While these scenes were passing, the one figure in +the rear of all the rest was descending the hollow towards the mill, and +the eyes of David and Esther were drawn thence to a pair with whom they +could fully sympathize. It was a youth in a sailor's dress and a pale +slender maiden, who met each other with a sweet embrace in the middle of +the street. + +"How long it must be since they parted," observed David. + +"Fifty years at least," said Esther. + +They continued to gaze with unwondering calmness and quiet interest, as +the dream (if such it were) unrolled its quaint and motley semblance +before them, and their notice was now attracted by several little knots +of people apparently engaged in conversation. Of these one of the +earliest collected and most characteristic was near the tavern, the +persons who composed it being seated on the low green bank along the +left side of the door. A conspicuous figure here was a fine corpulent +old fellow in his shirt-sleeves and flame-colored breeches, and with a +stained white apron over his paunch, beneath which he held his hands and +wherewith at times be wiped his ruddy face. The stately decrepitude of +one of his companions, the scar of an Indian tomahawk on his crown, and +especially his worn buff coat, were appropriate marks of a veteran +belonging to an old Provincial garrison, now deaf to the roll-call. +Another showed his rough face under a tarry hat and wore a pair of wide +trousers, like an ancient mariner who bad tossed away his youth upon the +sea, and was returned, hoary and weather-beaten, to his inland home. +There was also a thin young man, carelessly dressed, who ever and anon +cast a sad look towards the pale maiden above mentioned. With these +there sat a hunter, and one or two others, and they were soon joined by +a miller, who came upward from the dusty mill, his coat as white as if +besprinkled with powdered starlight. All these (by the aid of jests, +which might indeed be old, but had not been recently repeated) waxed +very merry, and it was rather strange, that just as their sides shook +with the heartiest laughter, they appeared greatly like a group of +shadows flickering in the moonshine. Four personages, very different +from these, stood in front of the large house with its periwig of +creeping plants. One was a little elderly figure, distinguished by the +gold on his three-cornered bat and sky-blue coat, and by the seal of +arms annexed to his great gold watch-chain; his air and aspect befitted +a Justice of Peace and County Major, and all earth's pride and pomposity +were squeezed into this small gentleman of five feet high. The next in +importance was a grave person of sixty or seventy years, whose black +suit and hand sufficiently indicated his character, and the polished +baldness of whose head was worthy of a famous preacher in the village, +half a century before, who had made wigs a subject of pulpit +denunciation. The two other figures, both clad in dark gray, showed the +sobriety of Deacons; one was ridiculously tall and thin, like a man of +ordinary bulk infinitely produced, as the mathematicians say; while the +brevity and thickness of his colleague seemed a compression of the same +man. These four talked with great earnestness, and their gestures +intimated that they had revived the ancient dispute about the meeting-house +steeple. The grave person in black spoke with composed solemnity, +as if he were addressing a Synod; the short deacon grunted out +occasional sentences, as brief as himself; his tall brother drew the +long thread of his argument through the whole discussion, and (reasoning +from analogy) his voice must indubitably have been small and squeaking. +But the little old man in gold-lace was evidently scorched by his own +red-hot eloquence; he bounced from one to another, shook his cane at the +steeple, at the two deacons, and almost in the parson's face, stamping +with his foot fiercely enough to break a hole through the very earth; +though, indeed, it could not exactly be said that the green grass bent +beneath him. The figure, noticed as coming behind all the rest, had now +surmounted the ascent from the mill, and proved to be an elderly lady +with something in her hand. + +"Why does she walk so slow?" asked David. + +"Don't you see she is lame?" said Esther. + +This gentlewoman, whose infirmity had kept her so far in the rear of the +crowd, now came hobbling on, glided unobserved by the polemic group, and +paused on the left brink of the fountain, within a few feet of the two +spectators. She was a magnificent old dame, as ever mortal eye beheld. +Her spangled shoes and gold-clocked stockings shone gloriously within the +spacious circle of a red hoop-petticoat, which swelled to the very point +of explosion, and was bedecked all over with embroidery a little +tarnished. Above the petticoat, and parting in front so as to display +it to the best advantage, was a figured blue damask gown. A wide and +stiff ruff encircled her neck, a cap of the finest muslin, though rather +dingy, covered her head; and her nose was bestridden by a pair of +gold-bowed spectacles with enormous glasses. But the old lady's face was +pinched, sharp and sallow, wearing a niggardly and avaricious +expression, and forming an odd contrast to the splendor of her attire, +as did likewise the implement which she held in her hand. It was a sort +of iron shovel (by housewives termed a "slice"), such as is used in +clearing the oven, and with this, selecting a spot between a walnut-tree +and the fountain, the good dame made an earnest attempt to dig. The +tender sods, however, possessed a strange impenetrability. They +resisted her efforts like a quarry of living granite, and losing her +breath, she cast down the shovel and seemed to bemoan herself most +piteously, gnashing her teeth (what few she had) and wringing her thin +yellow hands. Then, apparently with new hope, she resumed her toil, +which still had the same result,--a circumstance the less surprising to +David and Esther, because at times they would catch the moonlight +shining through the old woman, and dancing in the fountain beyond. The +little man in goldlace now happened to see her, and made his approach on +tiptoe. + +"How hard this elderly lady works!" remarked David. + +"Go and help her, David," said Esther, compassionately. + +As their drowsy void spoke, both the old woman and the pompous little +figure behind her lifted their eyes, and for a moment they regarded the +youth and damsel with something like kindness and affection; which, +however, were dim and uncertain, and passed away almost immediately. +The old woman again betook herself to the shovel, but was startled by a +hand suddenly laid upon her shoulder; she turned round in great +trepidation, and beheld the dignitary in the blue coat; then followed an +embrace of such closeness as would indicate no remoter connection than +matrimony between these two decorous persons. The gentleman next +pointed to the shovel, appearing to inquire the purpose of his lady's +occupation; while she as evidently parried his interrogatories, +maintaining a demure and sanctified visage as every good woman ought, in +similar cases. Howbeit, she could not forbear looking askew, behind her +spectacles, towards the spot of stubborn turf. All the while, their +figures had a strangeness in them, and it seemed as if some cunning +jeweller had made their golden ornaments of the yellowest of the setting +sunbeams, and that the blue of their garments was brought from the dark +sky near the moon, and that the gentleman's silk waistcoat was the +bright side of a fiery cloud, and the lady's scarlet petticoat a remnant +of the blush of morning,--and that they both were two unrealities of +colored air. But now there was a sudden movement throughout the +multitude. The Squire drew forth a watch as large as the dial on the +famous steeple, looked at the warning hands and got him gone, nor could +his lady tarry; the party at the tavern door took to their heels, headed +by the fat man in the flaming breeches; the tall deacon stalked away +immediately, and the short deacon waddled after, making four steps to +the yard; the mothers called their children about them and set forth, +with a gentle and sad glance behind. Like cloudy fantasies that hurry +by a viewless impulse from the sky, they all were fled, and the wind +rose up and followed them with a strange moaning down the lonely street. +Now whither these people went, is more than may be told; only David and +Esther seemed to see the shadowy splendor of the ancient dame, as she +lingered in the moonshine at the graveyard gate, gazing backward to the +fountain. + +"O Esther! I have had such a dream!" cried David, starting up, and +rubbing his eyes. + +"And I such another!" answered Esther, gaping till her pretty red lips +formed a circle. + +"About an old woman with gold-bowed spectacles," continued David. + +"And a scarlet hoop-petticoat," added Esther. They now stared in each +other's eyes, with great astonishment and some little fear. After a +thoughtful moment or two, David drew a long breath and stood upright. + +"If I live till to-morrow morning," said he, "I'll see what may be +buried between that tree and the spring of water." + +"And why not to-night, David?" asked Esther; for she was a sensible +little girl, and bethought herself that the matter might as well be done +in secrecy. + +David felt the propriety of the remark and looked round for the means of +following her advice. The moon shone brightly on something that rested +against the side of the old house, and, on a nearer view, it proved to +be an iron shovel, bearing a singular resemblance to that which they had +seen in their dreams. He used it with better success than the old +woman, the soil giving way so freely to his efforts, that he had soon +scooped a hole as large as the basin of the spring. Suddenly, he poked +his head down to the very bottom of this cavity. "Oho!--what have we +here?" cried David. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's An Old Woman's Tale, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN OLD WOMAN'S TALE *** + +***** This file should be named 9251.txt or 9251.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/2/5/9251/ + +Produced by David Widger. 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Once in a while she took a turn at the spit, and she +never lacked a coarse gray stocking in her lap, the foot about half +finished; it tapered away with her own waning life, and she knit the +toe-stitch on the day of her death. She made it her serious business +and sole amusement to tell me stories at any time from morning till +night, in a mumbling, toothless voice, as I sat on a log of wood, +grasping her cheek-apron in both my hands. Her personal memory included +the better part of a hundred years, and she had strangely jumbled her +own experience and observation with those of many old people who died in +her young days; so that she might have been taken for a contemporary of +Queen Elizabeth, or of John Rogers in the Primer. There are a thousand +of her traditions lurking in the corners and by-places of my mind, some +more marvellous than what is to follow, some less so, and a few not +marvellous in the least, all of which I should like to repeat, if I were +as happy as she in having a listener. But I am humble enough to own, +that I do not deserve a listener half so well as that old toothless +woman, whose narratives possessed an excellence attributable neither to +herself, nor to any single individual. Her ground-plots, seldom within +the widest scope of probability, were filled up with homely and natural +incidents, the gradual accretions of a long course of years, and fiction +hid its grotesque extravagance in this garb of truth, like the Devil (an +appropriate simile, for the old woman supplies it) disguising himself, +cloven-foot and all, in mortal attire. These tales generally referred +to her birthplace, a village in, the valley of the Connecticut, the +aspect of which she impressed with great vividness on my fancy. The +houses in that tract of country, long a wild and dangerous frontier, +were rendered defensible by a strength of architecture that has +preserved many of them till our own times, and I cannot describe the +sort of pleasure with which, two summers since, I rode through the +little town in question, while one object after another rose familiarly +to my eye, like successive portions of a dream becoming realized. Among +other things equally probable, she was wont to assert that all the +inhabitants of this village (at certain intervals, but whether of +twenty-five or fifty years, or a whole century, remained a disputable +point) were subject to a simultaneous slumber, continuing one hour's +space. When that mysterious time arrived, the parson snored over his +half-written sermon, though it were Saturday night and no provision made +for the morrow,--the mother's eyelids closed as she bent over her +infant, and no childish cry awakened,--the watcher at the bed of mortal +sickness slumbered upon the death-pillow, and the dying man anticipated +his sleep of ages by one as deep and dreamless. To speak emphatically, +there was a soporific influence throughout the village, stronger than if +every mother's son and daughter were reading a dull story; +notwithstanding which the old woman professed to hold the substance of +the ensuing account from one of those principally concerned in it. + +One moonlight summer evening, a young man and a girl sat down together +in the open air. They were distant relatives, sprung from a stock once +wealthy, but of late years so poverty-stricken, that David had not a +penny to pay the marriage fee, if Esther should consent to wed. The +seat they had chosen was in an open grove of elm and walnut trees, at a +right angle of the road; a spring of diamond water just bubbled into the +moonlight beside them, and then whimpered away through the bushes and +long grass, in search of a neighboring millstream. The nearest house +(situate within twenty yards of them, and the residence of their great- +grandfather in his lifetime) was a venerable old edifice, crowned with +many high and narrow peaks, all overrun by innumerable creeping plants, +which hung curling about the roof like a nice young wig on an elderly +gentleman's head. Opposite to this establishment was a tavern, with a +well and horse-trough before it, and a low green bank running along the +left side of the door. Thence, the road went onward, curving scarce +perceptibly, through the village, divided in the midst by a narrow +lane of verdure, and bounded on each side by a grassy strip of twice its +own breadth. The houses had generally an odd look. Here, the moonlight +tried to get a glimpse of one, a rough old heap of ponderous timber, +which, ashamed of its dilapidated aspect, was hiding behind a great +thick tree; the lower story of the next had sunk almost under ground, as +if the poor little house were a-weary of the world, and retiring into +the seclusion of its own cellar; farther on stood one of the few recent +structures, thrusting its painted face conspicuously into the street, +with an evident idea that it was the fairest thing there. About midway +in the village was a grist-mill, partly concealed by the descent of the +ground towards the stream which turned its wheel. At the southern +extremity, just so far distant that the window-paces dazzled into each +other, rose the meeting-house, a dingy old barn-like building, with an +enormously disproportioned steeple sticking up straight into heaven, as +high as the Tower of Babel, and the cause of nearly as much confusion in +its day. This steeple, it must be understood, was an afterthought, and +its addition to the main edifice, when the latter had already begun to +decay, had excited a vehement quarrel, and almost a schism in the +church, some fifty years before. Here the road wound down a hill and +was seen no more, the remotest object in view being the graveyard gate, +beyond the meetinghouse. The youthful pair sat hand in hand beneath the +trees, and for several moments they had not spoken, because the breeze +was hushed, the brook scarce tinkled, the leaves had ceased their +rustling, and everything lay motionless and silent as if Nature were +composing herself to slumber. + +"What a beautiful night it is, Esther!" remarked David, somewhat +drowsily. + +"Very beautiful," answered the girl, in the same tone. + +"But how still!" continued David. + +"Ah, too still!" said Esther, with a faint shudder, like a modest leaf +when the wind kisses it. + +Perhaps they fell asleep together, and, united as their spirits were by +close and tender sympathies, the same strange dream might have wrapped +them in its shadowy arms. But they conceived, at the time, that they +still remained wakeful by the spring of bubbling water, looking down +through the village, and all along the moonlighted road, and at the +queer old houses, and at the trees which thrust their great twisted +branches almost into the windows. There was only a sort of mistiness +over their minds like the smoky air of an early autumn night. At +length, without any vivid astonishment, they became conscious that a +great many people were either entering the village or already in the +street, but whether they came from the meeting-house, or from a little +beyond it, or where the devil they came from, was more than could be +determined. Certainly, a crowd of people seemed to be there, men, +women, and children, all of whom were yawning and rubbing their eyes, +stretching their limbs, and staggering from side to side of the road, as +if but partially awakened from a sound slumber. Sometimes they stood +stock-still, with their hands over their brows to shade their sight from +the moonbeams. As they drew near, most of their countenances appeared +familiar to Esther and David, possessing the peculiar features of +families in the village, and that general air and aspect by which a +person would recognize his own townsmen in the remotest ends of the +earth. But though the whole multitude might have been taken, in the +mass, for neighbors and acquaintances, there was not a single individual +whose exact likeness they had ever before seen. It was a noticeable +circumstance, also, that the newest fashioned garment on the backs of +these people might have been worn by the great-grandparents of the +existing generation. There was one figure behind all the rest, and not +yet near enough to be perfectly distinguished. + +"Where on earth, David, do all these odd people come from?" said Esther, +with a lazy inclination to laugh. + +"Nowhere on earth, Esther," replied David, unknowing why he said so. + +As they spoke, the strangers showed some symptoms of disquietude, and +looked towards the fountain for an instant, but immediately appeared to +assume their own trains of thought and previous purposes. They now +separated to different parts of the village, with a readiness that +implied intimate local knowledge, and it may be worthy of remark, that, +though they were evidently loquacious among themselves, neither their +footsteps nor their voices reached the ears of the beholders. Wherever +there was a venerable old house, of fifty years' standing and upwards, +surrounded by its elm or walnut trees, with its dark and weather-beaten +barn, its well, its orchard and stone-walls, all ancient and all in good +repair around it, there a little group of these people assembled. Such +parties were mostly composed of an aged man and woman, with the younger +members of a family; their faces were full of joy, so deep that it +assumed the shade of melancholy; they pointed to each other the minutest +objects about the homesteads, things in their hearts, and were now +comparing them with the originals. But where hollow places by the +wayside, grass-grown and uneven, with unsightly chimneys rising ruinous +in the midst, gave indications of a fallen dwelling and of hearths long +cold, there did a few of the strangers sit them down on the mouldering +beams, and on the yellow moss that had overspread the door-stone. The +men folded their arms, sad and speechless; the women wrung their hands +with a more vivid expression of grief; and the little children tottered +to their knees, shrinking away from the open grave of domestic love. +And wherever a recent edifice reared its white and flashy front on the +foundation of an old one, there a gray-haired man might be seen to shake +his staff in anger at it, while his aged dame and their offspring +appeared to join in their maledictions, forming a fearful picture in the +ghostly moon light. While these scenes were passing, the one figure in +the rear of all the rest was descending the hollow towards the mill, and +the eyes of David and Esther were drawn thence to a pair with whom they +could fully sympathize. It was a youth in a sailor's dress and a pale +slender maiden, who met each other with a sweet embrace in the middle of +the street. + +"How long it must be since they parted," observed David. + +"Fifty years at least," said Esther. + +They continued to gaze with unwondering calmness and quiet interest, as +the dream (if such it were) unrolled its quaint and motley semblance +before them, and their notice was now attracted by several little knots +of people apparently engaged in conversation. Of these one of the +earliest collected and most characteristic was near the tavern, the +persons who composed it being seated on the low green bank along the +left side of the door. A conspicuous figure here was a fine corpulent +old fellow in his shirt-sleeves and flame-colored breeches, and with a +stained white apron over his paunch, beneath which he held his hands and +wherewith at times be wiped his ruddy face. The stately decrepitude of +one of his companions, the scar of an Indian tomahawk on his crown, and +especially his worn buff coat, were appropriate marks of a veteran +belonging to an old Provincial garrison, now deaf to the roll-call. +Another showed his rough face under a tarry hat and wore a pair of wide +trousers, like an ancient mariner who bad tossed away his youth upon the +sea, and was returned, hoary and weather-beaten, to his inland home. +There was also a thin young man, carelessly dressed, who ever and anon +cast a sad look towards the pale maiden above mentioned. With these +there sat a hunter, and one or two others, and they were soon joined by +a miller, who came upward from the dusty mill, his coat as white as if +besprinkled with powdered starlight. All these (by the aid of jests, +which might indeed be old, but had not been recently repeated) waxed +very merry, and it was rather strange, that just as their sides shook +with the heartiest laughter, they appeared greatly like a group of +shadows flickering in the moonshine. Four personages, very different +from these, stood in front of the large house with its periwig of +creeping plants. One was a little elderly figure, distinguished by the +gold on his three-cornered bat and sky-blue coat, and by the seal of +arms annexed to his great gold watch-chain; his air and aspect befitted +a Justice of Peace and County Major, and all earth's pride and pomposity +were squeezed into this small gentleman of five feet high. The next in +importance was a grave person of sixty or seventy years, whose black +suit and hand sufficiently indicated his character, and the polished +baldness of whose head was worthy of a famous preacher in the village, +half a century before, who had made wigs a subject of pulpit +denunciation. The two other figures, both clad in dark gray, showed the +sobriety of Deacons; one was ridiculously tall and thin, like a man of +ordinary bulk infinitely produced, as the mathematicians say; while the +brevity and thickness of his colleague seemed a compression of the same +man. These four talked with great earnestness, and their gestures +intimated that they had revived the ancient dispute about the meeting- +house steeple. The grave person in black spoke with composed solemnity, +as if he were addressing a Synod; the short deacon grunted out +occasional sentences, as brief as himself; his tall brother drew the +long thread of his argument through the whole discussion, and (reasoning +from analogy) his voice must indubitably have been small and squeaking. +But the little old man in gold-lace was evidently scorched by his own +red-hot eloquence; he bounced from one to another, shook his cane at the +steeple, at the two deacons, and almost in the parson's face, stamping +with his foot fiercely enough to break a hole through the very earth; +though, indeed, it could not exactly be said that the green grass bent +beneath him. The figure, noticed as coming behind all the rest, had now +surmounted the ascent from the mill, and proved to be an elderly lady +with something in her hand. + +"Why does she walk so slow?" asked David. + +"Don't you see she is lame?" said Esther. + +This gentlewoman, whose infirmity had kept her so far in the rear of the +crowd, now came hobbling on, glided unobserved by the polemic group, and +paused on the left brink of the fountain, within a few feet of the two +spectators. She was a magnificent old dame, as ever mortal eye beheld. +Her spangled shoes and gold-clocked stockings shone gloriously within the +spacious circle of a red hoop-petticoat, which swelled to the very point +of explosion, and was bedecked all over with embroidery a little +tarnished. Above the petticoat, and parting in front so as to display +it to the best advantage, was a figured blue damask gown. A wide and +stiff ruff encircled her neck, a cap of the finest muslin, though rather +dingy, covered her head; and her nose was bestridden by a pair of gold- +bowed spectacles with enormous glasses. But the old lady's face was +pinched, sharp and sallow, wearing a niggardly and avaricious +expression, and forming an odd contrast to the splendor of her attire, +as did likewise the implement which she held in her hand. It was a sort +of iron shovel (by housewives termed a "slice"), such as is used in +clearing the oven, and with this, selecting a spot between a walnut-tree +and the fountain, the good dame made an earnest attempt to dig. The +tender sods, however, possessed a strange impenetrability. They +resisted her efforts like a quarry of living granite, and losing her +breath, she cast down the shovel and seemed to bemoan herself most +piteously, gnashing her teeth (what few she had) and wringing her thin +yellow hands. Then, apparently with new hope, she resumed her toil, +which still had the same result,--a circumstance the less surprising to +David and Esther, because at times they would catch the moonlight +shining through the old woman, and dancing in the fountain beyond. The +little man in goldlace now happened to see her, and made his approach on +tiptoe. + +"How hard this elderly lady works!" remarked David. + +"Go and help her, David," said Esther, compassionately. + +As their drowsy void spoke, both the old woman and the pompous little +figure behind her lifted their eyes, and for a moment they regarded the +youth and damsel with something like kindness and affection; which, +however, were dim and uncertain, and passed away almost immediately. +The old woman again betook herself to the shovel, but was startled by a +hand suddenly laid upon her shoulder; she turned round in great +trepidation, and beheld the dignitary in the blue coat; then followed an +embrace of such closeness as would indicate no remoter connection than +matrimony between these two decorous persons. The gentleman next +pointed to the shovel, appearing to inquire the purpose of his lady's +occupation; while she as evidently parried his interrogatories, +maintaining a demure and sanctified visage as every good woman ought, in +similar cases. Howbeit, she could not forbear looking askew, behind her +spectacles, towards the spot of stubborn turf. All the while, their +figures had a strangeness in them, and it seemed as if some cunning +jeweller had made their golden ornaments of the yellowest of the setting +sunbeams, and that the blue of their garments was brought from the dark +sky near the moon, and that the gentleman's silk waistcoat was the +bright side of a fiery cloud, and the lady's scarlet petticoat a remnant +of the blush of morning,--and that they both were two unrealities of +colored air. But now there was a sudden movement throughout the +multitude. The Squire drew forth a watch as large as the dial on the +famous steeple, looked at the warning hands and got him gone, nor could +his lady tarry; the party at the tavern door took to their heels, headed +by the fat man in the flaming breeches; the tall deacon stalked away +immediately, and the short deacon waddled after, making four steps to +the yard; the mothers called their children about them and set forth, +with a gentle and sad glance behind. Like cloudy fantasies that hurry +by a viewless impulse from the sky, they all were fled, and the wind +rose up and followed them with a strange moaning down the lonely street. +Now whither these people went, is more than may be told; only David and +Esther seemed to see the shadowy splendor of the ancient dame, as she +lingered in the moonshine at the graveyard gate, gazing backward to the +fountain. + +"O Esther! I have had such a dream!" cried David, starting up, and +rubbing his eyes. + +"And I such another!" answered Esther, gaping till her pretty red lips +formed a circle. + +"About an old woman with gold-bowed spectacles," continued David. + +"And a scarlet hoop-petticoat," added Esther. They now stared in each +other's eyes, with great astonishment and some little fear. After a +thoughtful moment or two, David drew a long breath and stood upright. + +"If I live till to-morrow morning," said he, "I'll see what may be +buried between that tree and the spring of water." + +"And why not to-night, David?" asked Esther; for she was a sensible +little girl, and bethought herself that the matter might as well be done +in secrecy. + +David felt the propriety of the remark and looked round for the means of +following her advice. The moon shone brightly on something that rested +against the side of the old house, and, on a nearer view, it proved to +be an iron shovel, bearing a singular resemblance to that which they had +seen in their dreams. He used it with better success than the old +woman, the soil giving way so freely to his efforts, that he had soon +scooped a hole as large as the basin of the spring. Suddenly, he poked +his head down to the very bottom of this cavity. "Oho!--what have we +here?" cried David. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, AN OLD WOMAN'S TALE *** +By Nathaniel Hawthorne + +***** This file should be named haw7810.txt or haw7810.zip **** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, haw7811.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, haw7810a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net] + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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