The Scarlet Letter

"Bring it hither!" said Hester.

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

"Was ever such a child!" observed Hester aside to the minister.

"Oh, I have much to tell thee about her! But, in very truth, she

is right as regards this hateful token. I must bear its torture

yet a little longer--only a few days longer--until we shall have

left this region, 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 for ever!"

With these words she advanced to the margin of the brook, took

up the scarlet letter, and fastened it again into her bosom.

Hopefully, but a moment ago, as Hester had spoken of drowning it

in the deep sea, there was a sense of inevitable doom upon her

as she thus received back this deadly symbol from the hand of

fate. She had flung it into infinite space! she had drawn an

hour's free breath! and here again was the scarlet misery

glittering on the old spot! So it ever is, whether thus typified

or no, that an evil deed invests itself with the character of

doom. Hester next gathered up the heavy tresses of her hair and

confined them beneath her cap. As if there were a withering

spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth and richness of

her womanhood, departed like fading sunshine, and a gray shadow

seemed to fall across her.

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

Pearl.

"Dost thou know thy mother now, child?", asked she,

reproachfully, but with a subdued tone. "Wilt thou come across

the brook, and own thy mother, now that she has her shame upon

her--now that she is sad?"

"Yes; now I will!" answered the child, bounding across the

brook, and clasping Hester in her arms "Now thou art my mother

indeed! and I am thy little Pearl!"

In a mood of tenderness that was not usual with her, she drew

down her mother's head, and kissed her brow and both her cheeks.

But then--by a kind of necessity that always impelled this child

to alloy whatever comfort she might chance to give with a throb

of anguish--Pearl put up her mouth and kissed the scarlet

letter, too.

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

little love, thou mockest me!"

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

"He waits to welcome thee," replied her mother. "Come thou, and

entreat his blessing! He loves thee, my little Pearl, and loves

thy mother, 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, we three together, into the town?"