The Scarlet Letter

Pearl was decked out with airy gaiety. It would have been

impossible to guess that this bright and sunny apparition owed

its existence to the shape of gloomy gray; or that a fancy, at

once so gorgeous and so delicate as must have been requisite to

contrive the child's apparel, was the same that had achieved a

task perhaps more difficult, in imparting so distinct a

peculiarity to Hester's simple robe. The dress, so proper was it

to little Pearl, seemed an effluence, or inevitable development

and outward manifestation of her character, no more to be

separated from her than the many-hued brilliancy from a

butterfly's wing, or the painted glory from the leaf of a bright

flower. As with these, so with the child; her garb was all of

one idea with her nature. On this eventful day, moreover, there

was a certain singular inquietude and excitement in her mood,

resembling nothing so much as the shimmer of a diamond, that

sparkles and flashes with the varied throbbings of the breast on

which it is displayed. Children have always a sympathy in the

agitations of those connected with them: always, especially, a

sense of any trouble or impending revolution, of whatever kind,

in domestic circumstances; and therefore Pearl, who was the gem

on her mother's unquiet bosom, betrayed, by the very dance of

her spirits, the emotions which none could detect in the marble

passiveness of Hester's brow.

This effervescence made her flit with a bird-like movement,

rather than walk by her mother's side.

She broke continually into shouts of a wild, inarticulate, and

sometimes piercing music. When they reached the market-place,

she became still more restless, on perceiving the stir and

bustle that enlivened the spot; for it was usually more like the

broad and lonesome green before a village meeting-house, than

the centre of a town's business.

"Why, what is this, mother?" cried she. "Wherefore have all the

people left their work to-day? Is it a play-day for the whole

world? See, there is the blacksmith! He has washed his sooty

face, and put on his Sabbath-day clothes, and looks as if he

would gladly be merry, if any kind body would only teach him

how! And there is Master Brackett, the old jailer, nodding and

smiling at me. Why does he do so, mother?"

"He remembers thee a little babe, my child," answered Hester.

"He should not nod and smile at me, for all that--the black,

grim, ugly-eyed old man!" said Pearl. "He may nod at thee, if he

will; for thou art clad in gray, and wearest the scarlet letter.

But see, mother, how many faces of strange people, and Indians

among them, and sailors! What have they all come to do, here in

the market-place?"

"They wait to see the procession pass," said Hester. "For the

Governor and the magistrates are to go by, and the ministers,

and all the great people and good people, with the music and the

soldiers marching before them."