The Scarlet Letter

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

  XIX.

  THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE.

  "Thou wilt love her dearly," repeated Hester Prynne, as she and theminister sat watching little Pearl. "Dost thou not think herbeautiful? And see with what natural skill she has made those simpleflowers adorn her! Had she gathered pearls, and diamonds, and rubies,in the wood, they could not have become her better. She is a splendidchild! But I know whose brow she has!"

  "Dost thou know, Hester," said Arthur Dimmesdale, with an unquietsmile, "that this dear child, tripping about always at thy side, hathcaused me many an alarm? Methought--O Hester, what a thought is that,and how terrible to dread it!--that my own features were partlyrepeated in her face, and so strikingly that the world might see them!But she is mostly thine!"

  "No, no! Not mostly!" answered the mother, with a tender smile. "Alittle longer, and thou needest not to be afraid to trace whose childshe is. But how strangely beautiful she looks, with thosewild-flowers in her hair! It is as if one of the fairies, whom we leftin our dear old England, had decked her out to meet us."

  It was with a feeling which neither of them had ever beforeexperienced, that they sat and watched Pearl's slow advance. In herwas visible the tie that united them. She had been offered to theworld, these seven years past, as the living hieroglyphic, in whichwas revealed the secret they so darkly sought to hide,--all written inthis symbol,--all plainly manifest,--had there been a prophet ormagician skilled to read the character of flame! And Pearl was theoneness of their being. Be the foregone evil what it might, how couldthey doubt that their earthly lives and future destinies wereconjoined, when they beheld at once the material union, and thespiritual idea, in whom they met, and were to dwell immortallytogether? Thoughts like these--and perhaps other thoughts, which theydid not acknowledge or define--threw an awe about the child, as shecame onward.

  "Let her see nothing strange--no passion nor eagerness--in thy way ofaccosting her," whispered Hester. "Our Pearl is a fitful and fantasticlittle elf, sometimes. Especially, she is seldom tolerant of emotion,when she does not fully comprehend the why and wherefore. But thechild hath strong affections! She loves me, and will love thee!"

  "Thou canst not think," said the minister, glancing aside at HesterPrynne, "how my heart dreads this interview, and yearns for it! But,in truth, as I already told thee, children are not readily won to befamiliar with me. They will not climb my knee, nor prattle in my ear,nor answer to my smile; but stand apart, and eye me strangely. Evenlittle babes, when I take them in my arms, weep bitterly. Yet Pearl,twice in her little lifetime, hath been kind to me! The firsttime,--thou knowest it well! The last was when thou ledst her withthee to the house of yonder stern old Governor."

  "And thou didst plead so bravely in her behalf and mine!" answered themother. "I remember it; and so shall little Pearl. Fear nothing! Shemay be strange and shy at first, but will soon learn to love thee!"

  By this time Pearl had reached the margin of the brook, and stood onthe farther side, gazing silently at Hester and the clergyman, whostill sat together on the mossy tree-trunk, waiting to receive her.Just where she had paused, the brook chanced to form a pool, so smoothand quiet that it reflected a perfect image of her little figure, withall the brilliant picturesqueness of her beauty, in its adornment offlowers and wreathed foliage, but more refined and spiritualized thanthe reality. This image, so nearly identical with the living Pearl,seemed to communicate somewhat of its own shadowy and intangiblequality to the child herself. It was strange, the way in which Pearlstood, looking so steadfastly at them through the dim medium of theforest-gloom; herself, meanwhile, all glorified with a ray ofsunshine, that was attracted thitherward as by a certain sympathy. Inthe brook beneath stood another child,--another and the same,--withlikewise its ray of golden light. Hester felt herself, in someindistinct and tantalizing manner, estranged from Pearl; as if thechild, in her lonely ramble through the forest, had strayed out of thesphere in which she and her mother dwelt together, and was now vainlyseeking to return to it.

  There was both truth and error in the impression; the child andmother were estranged, but through Hester's fault, not Pearl's. Sincethe latter rambled from her side, another inmate had been admittedwithin the circle of the mother's feelings, and so modified the aspectof them all, that Pearl, the returning wanderer, could not find herwonted place, and hardly knew where she was.

  "I have a strange fancy," observed the sensitive minister, "that thisbrook is the boundary between two worlds, and that thou canst nevermeet thy Pearl again. Or is she an elfish spirit, who, as the legendsof our childhood taught us, is forbidden to cross a running stream?Pray hasten her; for this delay has already imparted a tremor to mynerves."

  "Come, dearest child!" said Hester, encouragingly, and stretching outboth her arms. "How slow thou art! When hast thou been so sluggishbefore now? Here is a friend of mine, who must be thy friend also.Thou wilt have twice as much love, henceforward, as thy mother alonecould give thee! Leap across the brook, and come to us. Thou canstleap like a young deer!"

  The Child at the Brook-Side]

  Pearl, without responding in any manner to these honey-sweetexpressions, remained on the other side of the brook. Now she fixedher bright, wild eyes on her mother, now on the minister, and nowincluded them both in the same glance; as if to detect and explain toherself the relation which they bore to one another. For someunaccountable reason, as Arthur Dimmesdale felt the child's eyes uponhimself, his hand--with that gesture so habitual as to have becomeinvoluntary--stole over his heart. At length, assuming a singular airof authority, Pearl stretched out her hand, with the small forefingerextended, and pointing evidently towards her mother's breast. Andbeneath, in the mirror of the brook, there was the flower-girdled andsunny image of little Pearl, pointing her small forefinger too.

  "Thou strange child, why dost thou not come to me?" exclaimed Hester.

  Pearl still pointed with her forefinger; and a frown gathered on herbrow; the more impressive from the childish, the almost baby-likeaspect of the features that conveyed it. As her mother still keptbeckoning to her, and arraying her face in a holiday suit ofunaccustomed smiles, the child stamped her foot with a yet moreimperious look and gesture. In the brook, again, was the fantasticbeauty of the image, with its reflected frown, its pointed finger, andimperious gesture, giving emphasis to the aspect of little Pearl.

  "Hasten, Pearl; or I shall be angry with thee!" cried Hester Prynne,who, however inured to such behavior on the elf-child's part at otherseasons, was naturally anxious for a more seemly deportment now. "Leapacross the brook, naughty child, and run hither! Else I must come tothee!"

  But Pearl, not a whit startled at her mother's threats, any more thanmollified by her entreaties, now suddenly burst into a fit of passion,gesticulating violently, and throwing her small figure into the mostextravagant contortions. She accompanied this wild outbreak withpiercing shrieks, which the woods reverberated on all sides; so that,alone as she was in her childish and unreasonable wrath, it seemed asif a hidden multitude were lending her their sympathy andencouragement. Seen in the brook, once more, was the shadowy wrath ofPearl's image, crowned and girdled with flowers, but stamping itsfoot, wildly gesticulating, and, in the midst of all, still pointingits small forefinger at Hester's bosom!

  "I see what ails the child," whispered Hester to the clergyman, andturning pale in spite of a strong effort to conceal her trouble andannoyance. "Children will not abide any, the slightest, change in theaccustomed aspect of things that are daily before their eyes. Pearlmisses something which she has always seen me wear!"

  "I pray you," answered the minister, "if thou hast any means ofpacifying the child, do it forthwith! Save it were the cankered wrathof an old witch, like Mistress Hibbins," added he, attempting tosmile, "I know nothing that I would not sooner encounter than thispassion in a child. In Pearl's young beauty, as in the wrinkled witch,it has a preternatural effect. Pacify he
r, if thou lovest me!"

  Hester turned again towards Pearl, with a crimson blush upon hercheek, a conscious glance aside at the clergyman, and then a heavysigh; while, even before she had time to speak, the blush yielded to adeadly pallor.

  "Pearl," said she, sadly, "look down at thy feet! There!--beforethee!--on the hither side of the brook!"

  The child turned her eyes to the point indicated; and there lay thescarlet letter, so close upon the margin of the stream, that the goldembroidery was reflected in it.

  "Bring it hither!" said Hester.

  "Come thou and take it up!" answered Pearl.

  "Was ever such a child!" observed Hester, aside to the minister. "O, Ihave much to tell thee about her! But, in very truth, she is right asregards this hateful token. I must bear its torture yet a littlelonger,--only a few days longer,--until we shall have left thisregion, and look back hither as to a land which we have dreamed of.The forest cannot hide it! The mid-ocean shall take it from my hand,and swallow it up forever!"

  With these words, she advanced to the margin of the brook, took up thescarlet letter, and fastened it again into her bosom. Hopefully, but amoment ago, as Hester had spoken of drowning it in the deep sea, therewas a sense of inevitable doom upon her, as she thus received backthis deadly symbol from the hand of fate. She had flung it intoinfinite space!--she had drawn an hour's free breath!--and here againwas the scarlet misery, glittering on the old spot! So it ever is,whether thus typified or no, that an evil deed invests itself with thecharacter of doom. Hester next gathered up the heavy tresses of herhair, and confined them beneath her cap. As if there were a witheringspell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth and richness of herwomanhood, departed, like fading sunshine; and a gray shadow seemed tofall across her.

  When the dreary change was wrought, she extended her hand to Pearl.

  "Dost thou know thy mother now, child?" asked she, reproachfully, butwith a subdued tone. "Wilt thou come across the brook, and own thymother, now that she has her shame upon her,--now that she is sad?"

  "Yes; now I will!" answered the child, bounding across the brook, andclasping Hester in her arms. "Now thou art my mother indeed! And I amthy little Pearl!"

  In a mood of tenderness that was not usual with her, she drew down hermother's head, and kissed her brow and both her cheeks. But then--by akind of necessity that always impelled this child to alloy whatevercomfort she might chance to give with a throb of anguish--Pearl put upher mouth, and kissed the scarlet letter too!

  "That was not kind!" said Hester. "When thou hast shown me a littlelove, thou mockest me!"

  "Why doth the minister sit yonder?" asked Pearl.

  "He waits to welcome thee," replied her mother. "Come thou, andentreat his blessing! He loves thee, my little Pearl, and loves thymother too. Wilt thou not love him? Come! he longs to greet thee!"

  "Doth he love us?" said Pearl, looking up, with acute intelligence,into her mother's face. "Will he go back with us, hand in hand, wethree together, into the town?"

  "Not now, dear child," answered Hester. "But in days to come he willwalk hand in hand with us. We will have a home and fireside of ourown; and thou shalt sit upon his knee; and he will teach thee manythings, and love thee dearly. Thou wilt love him; wilt thou not?"

  "And will he always keep his hand over his heart?" inquired Pearl.

  "Foolish child, what a question is that!" exclaimed her mother. "Comeand ask his blessing!"

  But, whether influenced by the jealousy that seems instinctive withevery petted child towards a dangerous rival, or from whatever capriceof her freakish nature, Pearl would show no favor to the clergyman. Itwas only by an exertion of force that her mother brought her up tohim, hanging back, and manifesting her reluctance by odd grimaces; ofwhich, ever since her babyhood, she had possessed a singular variety,and could transform her mobile physiognomy into a series of differentaspects, with a new mischief in them, each and all. Theminister--painfully embarrassed, but hoping that a kiss might prove atalisman to admit him into the child's kindlier regards--bent forward,and impressed one on her brow. Hereupon, Pearl broke away from hermother, and, running to the brook, stooped over it, and bathed herforehead, until the unwelcome kiss was quite washed off, and diffusedthrough a long lapse of the gliding water. She then remained apart,silently watching Hester and the clergyman; while they talkedtogether, and made such arrangements as were suggested by their newposition, and the purposes soon to be fulfilled.

  And now this fateful interview had come to a close. The dell was to beleft a solitude among its dark, old trees, which, with theirmultitudinous tongues, would whisper long of what had passed there,and no mortal be the wiser. And the melancholy brook would add thisother tale to the mystery with which its little heart was alreadyoverburdened, and whereof it still kept up a murmuring babble, withnot a whit more cheerfulness of tone than for ages heretofore.