The Scarlet Letter

In the absorbing contemplation of the scarlet letter, I had

hitherto neglected to examine a small roll of dingy paper,

around which it had been twisted. This I now opened, and had the

satisfaction to find recorded by the old Surveyor's pen, a

reasonably complete explanation of the whole affair. There were

several foolscap sheets, containing many particulars respecting

the life and conversation of one Hester Prynne, who appeared to

have been rather a noteworthy personage in the view of our

ancestors. She had flourished during the period between the

early days of Massachusetts and the close of the seventeenth

century. Aged persons, alive in the time of Mr. Surveyor Pue,

and from whose oral testimony he had made up his narrative,

remembered her, in their youth, as a very old, but not decrepit

woman, of a stately and solemn aspect. It had been her habit,

from an almost immemorial date, to go about the country as a

kind of voluntary nurse, and doing whatever miscellaneous good

she might; taking upon herself, likewise, to give advice in all

matters, especially those of the heart, by which means--as a

person of such propensities inevitably must--she gained from

many people the reverence due to an angel, but, I should

imagine, was looked upon by others as an intruder and a

nuisance. Prying further into the manuscript, I found the record

of other doings and sufferings of this singular woman, for most

of which the reader is referred to the story entitled "THE

SCARLET LETTER"; and it should be borne carefully in mind that

the main facts of that story are authorized and authenticated by

the document of Mr. Surveyor Pue. The original papers, together

with the scarlet letter itself--a most curious relic--are still

in my possession, and shall be freely exhibited to whomsoever,

induced by the great interest of the narrative, may desire a

sight of them. I must not be understood affirming that, in the

dressing up of the tale, and imagining the motives and modes of

passion that influenced the characters who figure in it, I have

invariably confined myself within the limits of the old

Surveyor's half-a-dozen sheets of foolscap. On the contrary, I

have allowed myself, as to such points, nearly, or altogether,

as much license as if the facts had been entirely of my own

invention. What I contend for is the authenticity of the

outline.

This incident recalled my mind, in some degree, to its old

track. There seemed to be here the groundwork of a tale. It

impressed me as if the ancient Surveyor, in his garb of a

hundred years gone by, and wearing his immortal wig--which was

buried with him, but did not perish in the grave--had met me in

the deserted chamber of the Custom-House. In his port was the

dignity of one who had borne His Majesty's commission, and who

was therefore illuminated by a ray of the splendour that shone

so dazzlingly about the throne. How unlike alas the hangdog look

of a republican official, who, as the servant of the people,

feels himself less than the least, and below the lowest of his

masters. With his own ghostly hand, the obscurely seen, but

majestic, figure had imparted to me the scarlet symbol and the

little roll of explanatory manuscript. With his own ghostly

voice he had exhorted me, on the sacred consideration of my

filial duty and reverence towards him--who might reasonably

regard himself as my official ancestor--to bring his mouldy and

moth-eaten lucubrations before the public. "Do this," said the

ghost of Mr. Surveyor Pue, emphatically nodding the head that

looked so imposing within its memorable wig; "do this, and the

profit shall be all your own. You will shortly need it; for it

is not in your days as it was in mine, when a man's office was a

life-lease, and oftentimes an heirloom. But I charge you, in

this matter of old Mistress Prynne, give to your predecessor's

memory the credit which will be rightfully due" And I said to

the ghost of Mr. Surveyor Pue--"I will".