San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-27
THE SCARLET LETTER
By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE


their sorrow. All at once, as with
sudden smile ,of heaven, forth burst the
sunshine. pouring avery flood into the
obscure forest, gladdening each green
leaf, transmitting the yellow fallen ones
to gold and cleaning adown the gray
trunks of the solemn trees. The objects
that had made "a shadow hitherto en-
bodied the brightness now. The course
of the little bsook might be traced by
its merry CLEAN afar into the woods
heart of mystery, which had become a
mystery of joy.
Such was the sympathy of nature
that wild, heather nature of the forest,
never subjugated by human law, nor IL
lumined by higher truth-with the bliss
of these two spirits! Love, whether
newly born or aroused from deathllke
slumber, must always create sunshine,
filling the heart so full of radiance that
it overfows upon the outward world.
Had the forest still kept its gloom it
would have been brignt in dester's eyes.
and bright in Arthur .Dimmesdale's!
Hester looked at him with the thrill
of another JOY.
Thou must know .PearlE said she.
.sOur little Pearl! Thou hast seen her
yes, know it-but thou wilt see her
now with other eyes. She is strange
child. hardly comprehend her. But
thou wilt love her dearly as | do, and
wilt advise me how to deal with her. :"
''Dost thou think the child will be
glad to know me?' asked the minister
somewhat uneasily. Il have long
tshrunk from children because they often
show distrust-a backwardness to be
familiar with me. have even been
afraid of little Pearl"
''Ah. that was sad!' answered the
mother. .'But she will love thee dearly
and thou her. She is not far off. Twill
call her! Pearl! PEARL
81 see the child" observed the minis
ter. ''Yonder she is, standing in streak
of sunshine, a good way off on the other
side of the brook. So thou thinkest the
child will love me?"
Hester smiled and again called to
Pearl, who,was visible at some distance,
as the minister had described her, like
a bright appareled vision in sunbeam
which fell down upon her through an
arch of boughs. The ray quivered to
and fro making her figure dim or dis
tinct--now real child, now like a
childs spirit-as the splendor went and
came again. She heard her mothers
voice and approached slowly through
the forest.
Pearl had not found the hour pass
wearisomely while her mother sat talk
ing with the clergyman. The great
black forest-stern as it showed itself to
those who brought the guilt and troubles
of the world into its bosom--became the
playmate of the lonely infant as well as
it knew how. Somber as it was it put
on the kipdest of its moods to welcome
her.
And she was gentler here than in the
grassy margined streets of the settle
ment or in her mothers cottage. The
flowers seemed to know it, and one an
other whispered as she passed, "Adorn
thyself witt me, thou beautiful child
adorn thyse - with mer' and to please
them Pearl 1thered the violets and an
emones and cOlumbines and some twigs
of the freshest green, which the old
trees held down before her eyes. With
these she decorated her hair and her
young waist, and became nymph child
or an infant dryad, or whatever else was
in closest sympathy with the antique
wood, In such guise had Pearl adorned
herself, when she heard her mothers
voice and came slowly back.
Il Slowly, for she saw the clergyman.