San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-20

Roger Chillingworth, with somewhat
more emphasis than usual, and making q
slight gesture withhis forefnger. "They
fear to take up the shame thatrightfully
belongs to them. Their love for man,
their zeal for Gods service--these holy
impulses may or may not coexistin their
hearts with the evil inmates to which
their guilt has unbarred the door and
which must needs propagate hellish
breed within them. But if they seek to
| glorify God let them not lift heavenward
their fellow men, let them do it by max
ing manifest the power and reality of
conscience in constraining them to pen
itential self abasementl Wouldst thou
have me to believe, o wise and pious
| friend, that false show can be better
can be more for Gods glory and mans
welfare-than Gods own truth? Trust
me, such men deceive themselvesp
at may be So, said the young clergy
man indifferently, as waving a discus
sion that he considered irrelevant or UNI
seasonable. He had ready faculty, in
deed, of escaping from any topic that
agitated his too sensitive and nervous
temperament. But now, Iwould ask
of my well skilled physician whether
in good sooth he deems me to have
profted by his kindly care of this weak
frame of mine?
Before Roger Chillingworth could
answer they heard the clear. wild
laughter of a young ehilds voice pro-
ceeding from the adjacent burial ground.
Looking instinctively from the open
window-for it was summer time-the
minister beheld Hester Prynne and lit
tie Pearl passing along the footpath that
traversed the Enclosure.
Pearl looked as beautiful as the day,
but was in one of those moods of per-
verse merriment which, whenever they
occurred, seemed to remove her entirely
out of the sphere of sympathy or human
contact. She now skipped irreverently
from one grave to another, until, COM
ing to the broad. fiat, armorial tomb
stone of departed worthy-perhaps of
Isaac johnson himself-she began to
dance upon it. In reply to her mothers
command and entreaty that she would
behave more decorously, little Pearl
paused to gather the prickly burrs from
a tall burdock which grew beside the
tomb. Taking handful of these, she
arranged them along the lines of the
scarlet letter that decorated the mater
nal bosom, to which the burrs, as their
nature was, tenaciously adhered. Hes
ter did not pluck them off.
Roger Chillingworth had by this time
approached the window, and smiled
grimly down.
There is no law, nor reverence for
authority, no regard for human ordi-
nances or opinions, right or wrong, mixed
up with that child's composition" re-
marked he, as much to himself as to his
companion. 81 saw her the other day |
bespatter the governor himself with |
water at. the cattle trough in Spring |
lane. What. in heavens name, is she? |
Is the imp altogether evil? Hath she
affections? Hath she any discoverable
principle of being?
.'sNone-save the freedom of broken
law" answered Mr.. Dimmesdale in
quiet way. as if he had been discussing
the point within himself. Whether
capable of good know not"
The child probably overheard their
voices, for looking up to the window,
with bright but naughty smile of
mirth and intelligence, she threw one
of the prickly burrs at the Reverend Mr..
Dimmesdale. The sensitive clergyman
shrunk with nervous dread from the |
light missile. Detecting his emotion,
Pearl clapped her little hands in
the most extravagant ecstasy. Hester
Prynne likewise had involuntarily |
looked up, and all these four persons,
old and young, regarded one another in
silence, till the child laughed aloud and
shouted: Come away, mother! Come
away, or yonder old black. man will |
catch you! He hath got hold of the
minister already. Come away, mother,
or he will catch you! But he cannot
catch little Pearlp'
So she drew her mother away, skip |
ping, dancing and frisking Enthusiastically |
among the hillocks of the dead people, |
like creature that had nothing in COM
mon with a bygone and buried genera |
ton, nor owned herself akin to it. 1t |
was as if she had been made afresh, out |
of new elements, and must ,perforce be
permitted to live her own life and be a
law unto herself, without her eccentrici-
ties being reckoned to her for crime.
There goes woman" resumed Rog- |
er Chillingworth after pause, "who,
be her dement's what they may, hath
none of that mystery of hidden sinful
ness which you deem so grievous to be
borne. Is Hester Prynne the less mis-
cradle, think you, for that scarlet letter
on her breastp