Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1892-05-21
JOB WORK

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 inclosure
Pearl looked as beautiful as the day,
but was in one of those moods of per-
verse merrinent which, whenever they
occurred, seemed 10 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 a 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
grizzly 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. Il 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?
"None-save the freedom of a broken
law answered Mr.. Dimmesdaie in a
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 extravaganza ecstasy. Hester
Prynne likewise had involuntarily
looked up, and all these fouf persons,
old and young, regarded one another in
silence, till the child laughed aloud and
shouted: Come away, motherl Come
away, or yonder old black man will
catclf you'll He hath got hold of the
minister already. Come away, mother,
or he will catch you'll But he cannot
catch little Pearll"
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, ont
of new elements, and must perforce DO
permitted to live her own life and be a
law unto herself, without her eccentrici-
ties being reckoned to her for a crime.
There goes woman" resumed Rog-
er Chillingworth after a pause, ''who,
be her dement's what they may, hath
none of that mystery of hidden sinful
ness which you deem so grievous to DO
borne. Is Hester Prynne the less mis-
cradle, think you, for that scarlet letter
on her breasty
81 do verify believe it," answered the
clergyman. Nevertheless, cannot an
swer for her. There was a look Of pain
in her face which | would gladly have
been spared the sight Of. But still, me-
tainks II must needs be better for the
sufferer 10 be free to show his pain, as
this poor woman Hester is, than TO cover
it all up in his heart"
There was another pause, and the ply
stefan began anew to examine and ar
range the plants which he had gathered.
"You inquired of me, little time
agone," said he at length, "my judg-
ment as touching your health"
81 did," answered the clergyman.
"and would gladly learn it. Speak
frankly, pray you, be it for life OF
| deathY'
Freely, then, and plainly" said the
| physician, still busy with his plants, but
keeping a wary eye ON Mr.. Dimmesdale,
"the disorder is strange one; not SO
much in itself, nor as outwardly mani
| fested-in so far at least as the synp-
toms have been laid open to my obser-
walton. Looking daily at you, my good
sir, and watching the tokens Of your as
pect now for months gone by, / should
deem you man sore sick it may be,
| yet not so sick but that an instructed
and watchful physician might well hope
to cure you. Butt know not what 70
say--the disease is what seem to know
| yet know it not"
"You speak in riddles, learned SIR"
said the pale minister, glancing aside
| out Of the window.
"Then, to speak more plainly" con-
tinued the physician, land crave par
| don, sir-should it seem to require par
don-for this needful plainness of my
speech. Let me ask-as your friend-as
one having charge, under Providence, Of
your life and physical well being-hath
all the operation Of this disorder been
fairly laid open and recounted to meg'
How can you question ity' asked the
minister. Surely, it were child's play
to call in a physician and then hide the
sorer
"You would tell me then that | know
| ALP said Roger Chillingworth deliber-
ately, and fixing an eye, bright with in
tense and concentrated intelligence, on
| the minister's face. "Be it sol But
againl He to whom only the outward
and physical evil is laid open knoweth
oftentimes but half the evil which he II
called upon to cure. A bodily disease,
which we look upon as whole and entire
within itself, may after all be but q
| symptom Of some ailInent In the spirit
ual part. Your pardon once again, GOOD
sir, if my speech give the shadow Of
ofense. You, sir, Of all men whom
have known, are he whose body is the
closest conjoined and imbued and idcn
titled, so to speak, with the spirit where
Of it is the instrument"
"Then / need ask no further said
the clergyman, somewhat hastily rising
from his chair. ''You deal not, take
it, in medicine for the souly'
Thus, Sickness continued Roger
Chillingworth, going on in an unaltered
tone without needing the interruption
but standing up and confronting the
emaciated and white checked minister
with his low, dark and misshapen figure
Ia sickness, a sore place, If we may 50
call it, in your spirit, hath Immediately
its appropriate manifestation in your
bodily frame. Would you therefore
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