Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-05-14
MIS- c Il l. L 4 Y Y. .
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN,
BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

Bertram, the lime burner, q round and
heavy looking man, begrimmed with char
coal, sat watching his kiln at nightfall,
while his little son played at building
houses with the scat tered fragments of
marble, when, on the hillside below them,
they heard roar of laughter, not mrthful
but slow, and even solemn, like the wind
shaking the boughs of the forest
Father, what is that?" asked the little
boy. leaving his play, and pressing betwixt
his fathers knees.
"Oh, some reveler, suppose" answered
the lime burner "some merry fellow from
the bar room in the village, who dared not
laugh loud enough within doors, least he
should blow the roof of the house off. So,
here he is, shaking his jolly sides at the foot
Of Graylock."
"B But father said the child, more sens-
tive than the.obtuse mddle-aged man ,'he does
not laugh like man that is glad; so the
noise frightens me :"
Don't be a fool, child :" cried the father,
grufly; 'you will never make man, | do
believe; there is too much of your mother in
you. | have known the rustling Of leaf to
startle her. Hark, here comes that merry
fellow now. You shall see that there is no
harm in him
Bertram and his little son, while they We're
talking thus. sat watching the lime-kiln. 1t
was a rude round tower-like structure
about twenty feet high. heavily built of
rough stones, and with hillock of earth
heaped about the larger part of its circum-
ference so that the blocks and fragments
of marble might be drawn by cart loads
and thrown in at the top. There was
an opening at the bottom of the tower,
like an oven mouth, but large enough
to admit man in stoop:nc posture, and
provided with massive iron door. With
the smoke and Jets of the fame issuing from
the chinks and crevicts of this door, which
seemed to give admittance into the hillside,
it resembled nothing SO much as the private
entrance to the Internal regions, which the
shepherds of the Delectable Mountains were
accustomed to show to pilgrims.
There are many such lime-kilns in that
tract of country, for the purpose of burning
the white marble, which composcs large
part of the substance of the hills. Some of
them, built years ago, and long deserted, with
weeds growing in the vacant ground of the
interior, which is open to the sky. and the
grass and wild flowers roofing themselves into
the chnks of the stones, look already like
relics of antiquity. and NAV vet be oyersnread
with the lichens ofcenturies to come. Others.
where the lime-burner still feeds his daily and
night-long fire, afford points of interest to the
wanderer among the hills, who seats himself
on log of wood or a fragment of marble. to
hold chat with the solitary man. 1t is a
lonesome. and when the character is inclined
to thought. NAV he nm intensely thonchtfni
occupation, as Il proved in the case of Ethan
Brand, who had unused to some nurnose in
davs gone by. while the fire in this verv kiln
was BURNING
The man who now yatcbed tho fro yo. ~
adiHerent order and tronbled bimsalf with M
thoughts save the verv few that were rsnu;Y
site TO his business. At freouent intervals he
flung back the clashinp weight of the iron
door, and turning his face from the insufTera.
ble glare, thrust in huge logs of oak or stir
red the immense brands With n long mole.
Within the furnace were seen the curling and
riotous flames, and the burning marble, al.
most molten with the intensity Of the heat
while without, the reflection of the fire ouiy.
cred on the dark intricacv of the surroundinp
forest, and showed in the foreground a bright
and ruddv little nicture of the hut the snrinp
beside its door. the athletic and coal -begrim.
med figure of the lime-burner. and the half
frightened child, shrinking into the protec.
tion of his fathers shadow. And when agar
the iron door was closed, then re-appeared tn,
tender light of the half-full moon, which
vainlv strove IN traca out tho ;nd;st,nct sba no.