Evening journal., 1892-09-10

ia which the preacher spoke, might still /
have been swayed TO and fro by the mere
tome and cadence Like all other music.
it hreathed passion and pathos aud emo
tons high or tender in a tongue native |
to the human heart wherever educated /
Muhied as the sound was by its passage |
through the church walls, Hester Prynne |
listened with such intentness, and SYM
pathized so intimately, that the sermon
Ind throughout a meaning for her en-
tirely apart from its indistinguishable
words. These, perhaps, if more dis
tinctly heard. might have been only a
grosser medium and have clogged the
spiritual sense. Now she caught the
low undertone, as of the wind sinking
down to repose itself; then assembled
with it. as it rose through progressive
gradations Of sweetness and power. I'M
til its volume seemed to envelop her
with an atmosphere Of awe and solemn
grandeur. And yet, majestic as the
voice sometimes became, there was for
ever in it an essential character Of plain
tiveness.
A loud or low expression Of anguish
hr
conceived. Of suffering humanity, that
touched a sensibility in every bosoml AT
times this deep strain Of pathos was all
that could be heard, and scarcely heard,
signing amid a desolate silence But
even when the minister's voice grew
high and commanding, when il gushed
irrepressibly upward, when it assumed
its utmost breadth and power, 50 over
filing the church as TO burst its way
through the solid walls and diifuse It
self in the open air-still, if the auditor
listened intently and for the purpose.
he could detect the same cry of pain.
What vast? The complaint of a human
heart, sorrow laden, perchance guilty
telling its secret, whether of guilt or
sorrow, to the great heart Of mankind.
beseeching its sympathy or forgiveness.
never in vainl TWAS this profound and
continual undertone that gave the cler-
gyman his most appropriate power
During all this time Hester stood,
statuelilSe, at the foot Of the scaffold. If
the minister's voice had not kept her
there, there would nevertheless have been
an inevitable magnetism in that spot,
whence she dated the first hour Of her
life Of ignominy. There was a SENSE
within her-too III defined to be made a
thought, but weighing heavily on her
mind-that her whole orb Of life, both
before and after, was connected with
this spot, as with the one point that gave
it unity.
Little Pearl, meanwhile, had quilted
her mothers side, and was playing at
her own viii about the market place
She made the somber crowd cheerful by
her erratic and glistening ray; even as 8
bird of bright plumage eliminates Z
whole tree Of dushy foliage by darling
to and fro, half seen and half concealed
amid the twilight Of the clustering
leaves. She had an undulating, but Of
tentmes a sharp and irregular move
ment. It indicated the restless vivacit.
Of her spirit, which today was doubl,
indefatigable in its tiptoe dance, becaus
it was played upon and vibrated with he
mothers disquietude.
Whenever Pearl saw anything to ex
site her ever active and wandering curl
osity, she few thitherward and, as w
might say, seized upon that man O
thing rs her own property, so far as sh
[ desired it; but without yielding the m
Q nutcst degree Of control over her motion
q in requital The Puritans looked OF
D and, if they smiled, were none the les
inclined 30 pronounce the child a demo
offspring, from the Undesirable char
S of beauty and eccentricity that shon
Q through her little figure and sparkle
g with its activity. She ran and locke
the Wild Indian in the face; and he grey
, conscious of a nature wilder than hi
r own. Thence with native audacity, bu
r still with a reserve as Characteristic, sh
y few into the midst of a group Of mar
S ners-the swarthy checked wild men {
y the ocean, rs the Indians were Of th
S land: and they gazed wonderingly and a,
p miringly at Pearl, as if flake Of the sc
l. foam had taken the shape Of a lit
y maid, and were gifted with soul Of I'll
r sea fire that flashes beneath the Prov
), the night time
One of these seafaring men-the shil
Il master, indeed, who had spoken TO He
" ter Illluc-NNto 80 hll4Atttn WIN cal
e aspect that he attempted to lay han'
= upon her, with purpose to snatch a kis
# Finding it as impossible to touch her
10 to catch a humming bird in the air
Il took from his hat the gold chain tn
If was twisted about it and threw it TO Il
l. child. Pearl Immediately twined
20 around her neck and waist with sue
n happy skill that once seen there it b
ID came a part of her, and it was diificu
ID 10 imagine her without it.
Thy mother is yonder woman wi
sr the scarlet letter." said the seama
e. will thou carry her a message fro
j. me;"
o IF the message pleases me l viii
u answered Pearl
10 Then tell her, rejoined he, that
le spake again with the black visage
IS hump shouldered old doctor, and he c
cages to bring his friend, the gentlem
no She wots Of, aboard with him. SO
thy mother take no thought save
!" herself and thee Wit thou tell
OF this, thou witch babyY
ut Mistress Hibbins says my father