The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1893-06-09

whom she deemed herself connected in
a union that, unrecognized on earth.
would bring them together before the
bar of final judgment and make that
their marriage altar for joint futurity
of endless retribution. Over and over
again the tempter of souls had thrust
this idea upon Testers contemplation,
and laughed at the passionate and des-
perate joy with which she seized and
then strove to cast it from her. She
barely looked the idea in the face and
FASTENED to bar it in its dungeon. What
she compelled herself to believe-what
finally she reasoned upon as her motive
for continuing a resident of New Eng
land-was half truth and half self
delusion Here, she said to herself, had
been the scene of her guilt, and hero
should be the scene of her earthly pun
ishment; and SO, perchance, the torture
of her daily shame would at length
| purge her soul and work out another
purity than that which she had lost
more saintlike, because the result of
martyrdom.
Hester Prynne therefore did not fec.
| On the outskirts of the town, within the
verge of the peninsula, but not in close
vicinity to any other hahtati0n, there
was q small matched cottage. It had
| been built by an earlier settler and aban-
doned because the soil about it was too
sterile for cultivation, while its COM
parative remoteness put it out Of the
sphere of that social activity which al
ready marked the habits of the emil
grants It stood on the shore looking
across basin of the sea at the forest
covered hills, toward the west. A c1unp
| of scrubby trees, such as alone grew on
the peninsula, did not so much conceal
the cottage from view, as seem to denote
that here was some object which would
| fain have been, or at least ought to be,
concealed In this little, lonesome dwell
ing, with some slender means that she
possessed, and by the license of the mag
istrates, who still kept an inquisitorial
watch over her, Hester established her.
self with her infant child A mystic
shadow of suspicion Immediately at
tached itself to the spot. Children, too
young to comprehend wherefore this
woman should be set out from the sphere
of human charities, would creep nigh
enough to behold her plying her needle
at the cottage window, or standing in
the doorway, or laboring in her little
garden, or coming forth along the path
way that led downward; and, discerning
the scarlet letter on her breast, would
scamper of with a strange, contagious
fear.
Lonely as was Testers situation, and
without friend on earth who dared to
show himself, she, however, incurred no
risk of want. She possessed an art that
sufficed, even in a land that afforded
comparatively little scope for its exer-
else, to supply food for her thriving in
FAINT and herself. 1t was the art-then as
now almost the only one within WON
ans grasp-of needlework. She bore on
her breast, in the curiously embroid-
cred letter, a specimen of her delicate
and imaginative skill, of which the
danes of a court might gladly have
availed themselves to add the richer
and more spiritual adornment Of human
ingenuity to their fabrics of silk anG
gold
By degrees, nor very slowly, hel
handiworlz became what would now b'
termed the fashion. Whether from com
miseration for woman of so miserable
! destiny, or from the morbid curiosity
, that gives a fictitious value even to com
, | DQOn OF NOILulOSS OA LASsS
ever other Intangible circumstance wa
then as now sufficient to bestow on SOM
: persons what others might seek in vain
+, or because Hester really filed gal
! which must otherwise have remained
:. vacant, it is certain that she had read.
and fairly requited employment for a
many hours as she saw fit to occup,
with her needle. Vanity, it may be
! chose to mortify itself by putting on TO
: ceremonials of pomp and state the gar
= ments that had been wrought by he
sinful hands. Her need1ework was see
on the ruff of the governor; militar
men wore it on their scarfs, an
l the minister on his band; it decke
the baby's little cap; it was shu
: ND to be widowed and molder ava
! in the collins of the dead. But
is not recorded that in a single instanc
: was her skill called in to embroider tn
= white veil which was to cover the pun
bushes of a bride. The exception ind
Gated ever relentless rigor wit
= which society frowned upon her sin.
= Hester sought not TO acquire anythin
- beyond a subsistence of the PLANES
: and most ascetic description for herse
e and a simple abundance for her chile
. Her own dress was of the coarsest mat4
, rails and the most somber hue, with onl
= that one ornament-the scarlet letter
= which it was her doom to wear. Tt
. child's attire, on the other hand, W:
. distinguished by fanciful, or, we migl
y rather say, fantastic ingenuity, whic
= served indeed to heighten the airy char
Z that early began to develop itself in I'll
!, little girl, but which appeared to ha'
! also a deeper meaning. We may spea
: further of 1t hereafter. Except for TIL
= small expenditure in the decoration
= her infant, Hester bestowed all her s.
= perhuous means in charity on wretch
= less miserable than herself, and who n
= unfrequently insulted the hand that fl
- them. Much of the time. which 81
p might readily have applied to the bett
:. efforts of her art, she employed In ma
= ing coarse garments for the poor.
It is probable that there was an i'd
= of penance in this mode of occupatio
= = and that she offered up real sacrif
:. of enjoyment In devoting SO MAJ
e hours to such rude handiUork. She b;
- = In her nature a rich, voluptuous, O
= entail characteristic-a taste for f
- gorgeously beautiful, which save IN {
:, exquisite productions of her need
- frr7nd nofI11rr else in all the possib