The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tanglewood Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Title: Tanglewood Tales

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Posting Date: August 6, 2008 [EBook #976]
Release Date: July, 1997

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Dianne Bean

TANGLEWOOD TALES

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

THE WAYSIDE. INTRODUCTORY.

A short time ago, I was favored with a flying visit from my young friend
Eustace Bright, whom I had not before met with since quitting the breezy
mountains of Berkshire. It being the winter vacation at his college,
Eustace was allowing himself a little relaxation, in the hope, he told
me, of repairing the inroads which severe application to study had
made upon his health; and I was happy to conclude, from the excellent
physical condition in which I saw him, that the remedy had already been
attended with very desirable success. He had now run up from Boston by
the noon train, partly impelled by the friendly regard with which he
is pleased to honor me, and partly, as I soon found, on a matter of
literary business.

It delighted me to receive Mr. Bright, for the first time, under a roof,
though a very humble one, which I could really call my own. Nor did I
fail (as is the custom of landed proprietors all about the world) to
parade the poor fellow up and down over my half a dozen acres; secretly
rejoicing, nevertheless, that the disarray of the inclement season, and
particularly the six inches of snow then upon the ground, prevented him
from observing the ragged neglect of soil and shrubbery into which the
place had lapsed. It was idle, however, to imagine that an airy guest
from Monument Mountain, Bald Summit, and old Graylock, shaggy with
primeval forests, could see anything to admire in my poor little
hillside, with its growth of frail and insect-eaten locust trees.
Eustace very frankly called the view from my hill top tame; and so,
no doubt, it was, after rough, broken, rugged, headlong Berkshire, and
especially the northern parts of the county, with which his college
residence had made him familiar. But to me there is a peculiar, quiet
ch