San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-17
THE SCARLET LETTER.
By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

SOnaDly lOlIy udll. eAISuulllS through Jlle
whole depth of the house and forming
medium of general communication, more
or less directly, with all the other apart
Inents Y
At about the center of the oak panels
that lined the hall was suspended a suit
trail relic-but, of the most modern date,
for it had been manufactured by skill.
full armorer in London the same year IN
which Governor Bellingham came over
to New England. ThereMas a steel head
piece, a cuirass, a gorget and greaves,
with pair of gauntlets and a sword
hanging beneath, all, and especially the
helmet and breastplate, so highly bur-
nished as to glow with white radiance
and scatter an illumination everywhere
about upon the floor. This bright pane
ply was not meant for mere idle show,
but had been worn by the governor on
many solemn muster and training field,
and had glittered, moreover, at the head
of regiment in the Pequod war. For,
though bred lawyer and accustomed
to speak of Bacon, Coke, Noye and Finch
as his professional associates, the ext
gencies of this new country had trans
formed Governor Bellingham into SOL
dier as well as statesman and ruler.
Little Pearl, who was as greatly
pleased with the cleaning armor as she
had been with the glittering frontispieoe
-of the house, spent some time looking
into the polished mirror of the breast
plate.
Mother" cried she, 81 see you here.
.Lookl Lookr'
Hester looked, by way of humoring
the child, and she saw that, owing to
the peculiar effect of this convex mirror,
the scarlet letter was represented in ex-
aggerated and gigantic proportions, so
as to be greatly the most prominent fea-
ture of her appearance. In truth, she
seemed absolutely hidden behind it.
Pearl pointed upward also, at a similar
picture in the headpiece, smiling at her
mother with the elfish intelligence that
was so familiar an expression on her
small physiognomy. That look of
naughty merriment was likewise reflect
ed in the mirror with so much breadth
and intensity of effect that it made Hes
ter Prynne feel as if it could not he the
image of her own child, but of an imp
who was seeking to mold itself into
Pearls, shape.
Come along, Pearl" said she, draw
ing her away. Come and look into
this fair garden. 1t may be we shall
see flowers there, more beautiful ones
than we find in the woods"
Pearl accordingly ran to the bow win
dow at the farther end of the hall and
looked along the vista of garden walk
carpeted with closely shaver grass and
bordered with some rude and immature
attempt at shrubbery. But the proprie-
tor appeared already to have relin-
pushed as hopeless the effort to perpet-
uate on this side of the Atlantic, in
hard soil and amid the close struggle for
subsistence, the native English taste for
ornamental gardening. Cabbages grew
in plain sight, and pumpkin vine,
rooted at some distance, had run across
the intervening space and deposited one
of its gigantic products directly beneath
SAAO holt "ihAO"J dC IL w vain bllC SON-
ernor that this great lump of vegetable
gold was as rich an ornament as New
England earth would offer him.
There were a few rosebushes, how.
ever, and number of apple trees, prob
ably the descendants of those planted by
the Reverend Mr.. Blackstone, the first
settler of the peninsula; that half myth
illogical parsonage who rides through
our early annals seated on the back of
bull
Pearl, seeing the rosebushes, began to
cry for red rose and would not be
pacifed.
"Hush, child, hush!" said her mother
earnestly. do not cry, dear little Pearl!
l hear voices in the garden. The gov
ernor is coming, and gentlemen along
with himr'
In fact, adown the vista Of the garden
avenue a number of persons were seen
approaching toward the house.