The Scarlet Letter

"I wonder if mother will ask me what it means?" thought Pearl.

Just then she heard her mother's voice, and, flitting along as

lightly as one of the little sea-birds, appeared before Hester

Prynne dancing, laughing, and pointing her finger to the

ornament upon her bosom.

"My little Pearl," said Hester, after a moment's silence, "the

green letter, and on thy childish bosom, has no purport. But

dost thou know, my child, what this letter means which thy

mother is doomed to wear?"

"Yes, mother," said the child. "It is the great letter A. Thou

hast taught me in the horn-book."

Hester looked steadily into her little face; but though there

was that singular expression which she had so often remarked in

her black eyes, she could not satisfy herself whether Pearl

really attached any meaning to the symbol. She felt a morbid

desire to ascertain the point.

"Dost thou know, child, wherefore thy mother wears this letter?"

"Truly do I!" answered Pearl, looking brightly into her mother's

face. "It is for the same reason that the minister keeps his

hand over his heart!"

"And what reason is that?" asked Hester, half smiling at the

absurd incongruity of the child's observation; but on second

thoughts turning pale.

"What has the letter to do with any heart save mine?"

"Nay, mother, I have told all I know," said Pearl, more

seriously than she was wont to speak. "Ask yonder old man whom

thou hast been talking with,--it may be he can tell. But in good

earnest now, mother dear, what does this scarlet letter

mean?--and why dost thou wear it on thy bosom?--and why does the

minister keep his hand over his heart?"

She took her mother's hand in both her own, and gazed into her

eyes with an earnestness that was seldom seen in her wild and

capricious character. The thought occurred to Hester, that the

child might really be seeking to approach her with childlike

confidence, and doing what she could, and as intelligently as

she knew how, to establish a meeting-point of sympathy. It

showed Pearl in an unwonted aspect. Heretofore, the mother,

while loving her child with the intensity of a sole affection,

had schooled herself to hope for little other return than the

waywardness of an April breeze, which spends its time in airy

sport, and has its gusts of inexplicable passion, and is

petulant in its best of moods, and chills oftener than caresses

you, when you take it to your bosom; in requital of which

misdemeanours it will sometimes, of its own vague purpose, kiss

your cheek with a kind of doubtful tenderness, and play gently

with your hair, and then be gone about its other idle business,

leaving a dreamy pleasure at your heart. And this, moreover, was

a mother's estimate of the child's disposition. Any other

observer might have seen few but unamiable traits, and have

given them a far darker colouring. But now the idea came

strongly into Hester's mind, that Pearl, with her remarkable

precocity and acuteness, might already have approached the age

when she could have been made a friend, and intrusted with as

much of her mother's sorrows as could be imparted, without

irreverence either to the parent or the child. In the little

chaos of Pearl's character there might be seen emerging and

could have been from the very first--the steadfast principles of

an unflinching courage--an uncontrollable will--sturdy pride,

which might be disciplined into self-respect--and a bitter scorn

of many things which, when examined, might be found to have the

taint of falsehood in them. She possessed affections, too,

though hitherto acrid and disagreeable, as are the richest

flavours of unripe fruit. With all these sterling attributes,

thought Hester, the evil which she inherited from her mother

must be great indeed, if a noble woman do not grow out of this

elfish child.