San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-30

ulSH anu COIuDldf2ulnS, WHEN III SuSneU
irrepressibly upward. when it assumed
its utmost breadth and power, so over
filling the church ,as to burst its way
through the solid walls and diffuse 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 was it? The complaint of a human
heart. sorrow laden, perchance guilty
telling it's secret, whether of guilt or
sorrow, to the great heart of mankind;
beseeching its sympathy or forgiveness.
at every moment. IN leach accent and
never in vain. 1t was this profound and
continual undertone that gave the cler-
gyman his most appropriate power.
During all this time Hester stood.
| statuelike, at the foot of the scaffold. Ii
the minister's voice had not kept her
| there. there would nevertheless have been
whence she dated the first hour of her
life of rignominy. Theme was a sense
within her-too i'll defined ito 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 n point that gave
it unity.
Little Pearl, meanwhile. had quilted
her mothers side, and was playing at
her own will about the market place.
She made the somber crowd chserful by
her erratic and glistening ray: even as a
bird of bright plumage Eliminates a
whole tree of dusky foliage by darling
to and fro, half seen and half concealed
amid the twilight of the clustering
leaves. She had an undnlating. bat Of
tentimes a sharp and irregular move
ment. 1t indicated the restless viyacity
of her spirit, which today was doubly
interchangeable in it's tiptoe dance, because
it was played upon and yibrated with her
mothers disquietude.
Whenever Pearl saw anything to ex-
cite her eyer active and wandering curl
osity, she few thitherward and, as we
might say. seized upon sthat man or
thing as her own property. so far as she
desired it: but without yielding the mi
nutest degree of control over her motions
in requital. The Puritans looked on,
and, if they smiled, were none the less
inclined to pronounce the child a demon
offspring, from the indescribable charm
of beauty and eccentricity that shone
through her little figure and sparkled
with its activity. She ran and looked
the wild Indian in the face; and he grew
conscious of a nature wilder than his
own. Thence with native audacity, but
still with a reserve as characteristic. she
flew into the midst of a group of mari
ners-the swarthy checked wild men of
the ocean,, as the Indians were of the
land: and they gazed wonderingly and ad-
miringly at Pearl, as il a fake of the sea
foam had taken the shape of a little
maid, and were gifted with a soul of the
sea fire that flashes beneath the prov in
the night time.
One of these seafaring men-the ship
master, indeed, who had spoken to Hes
ter Prynne-was so smitten with Pearls
aspect that he attempted to lay hands
upon her, with purpose to snatch a kiss.
Finding it as impossible to touch her as
to catch a humming bird in the air, he
took from his hat the gold chain that
was twisted about it and threw it to the
child. Pearl Immediately twined it
around her neck and waist with such
happy skill that once seen there it be-
came a part of her, and it was difficult
to imagine her without.it.
THY mother is yonder woman with
the scarlet letter." said the
wilt thou carry her a message from
me?"
IF the message pleases me | will"
answered Pearl.
Then tell her." rejoined he, THAT |
spake again with the black visaged.
hump shouldered old doctor, and he en-
cages to bring his friend, the gentleman
she wots of, aboard with him. So let
thy mother take no thought save for
herself and thee. Wilt thou tell her
this, thou witch baby?"
Mistress Hibbins says my father is
the Prince of the AirI" cried Pearl, with
a naughty smile. "If thou callest me
that i'll name | shall tell him of thee,
and he will chase thy ship with a tenn
pestr'
Pursuing a zigzag course across the
market place the child returned to her
mother and communicated what the
mariner had said. Hester's. strong,
calm, steadfastly enduring spirit almost
sank at last on beholding this dark and
grim c~ountenance of an inevitable doom,
which-at the moment when a passage
seemed to open for the minister and her.
self out of their labyrinth of misery
showed itself with an unrelenting smile
right in the midst of their path.
With her mind harassed by the ter
rible perplexity in which the shinInas-