* * * * *

After many days there was more than one account of what had been
witnessed on the scaffold. Most of the spectators testified to having
seen, on the breast of the unhappy minister, a scarlet letter imprinted
in the flesh. Others denied that there was any mark whatever on his
breast, more than on a new-born infant's. According to these highly
respectable witnesses the minister's confession implied no part of the
guilt of Hester Prynne, but was to teach us that we were all sinners
alike. Old Roger Chillingworth died and bequeathed his property to
little Pearl.

For years the mother and child lived in England, and then Pearl married,
and Hester returned alone to the little cottage by the forest.

* * * * *




The House of the Seven Gables


"The House of the Seven Gables," published in 1851, was
written by Nathaniel Hawthorne directly after "The Scarlet
Letter," and though not equal to that remarkable book, was
full worthy of its author's reputation, and brought no
disappointment to those who looked for great things from his
pen. It seemed to James Russell Lowell "the highest art" to
typify, "in the revived likeness of Judge Pyncheon to his