The Scarlet Letter

And she was gentler here than in the grassy-margined streets of

the settlement, or in her mother's cottage. The Bowers appeared

to know it, and one and another whispered as she passed, "Adorn

thyself with me, thou beautiful child, adorn thyself with

me!"--and, to please them, Pearl gathered the violets, and

anemones, 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 a 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 mother's voice, and came slowly

back.

Slowly--for she saw the clergyman!