, while
a boy of fourteen took the hereditary place before the mast, confronting
the salt spray and the gale, which had blustered against his sire and
grandsire."

[Illustration: NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.]

Of such a race came NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, who was born at Salem, on the
4th, of July, 1804. His father was a sea captain, and died of the yellow
fever at Havana, in 1810. His mother was a woman of great beauty and
extreme sensibility, and it was from her that Nathaniel derived the
peculiarities of character which distinguished him through life. The
death of her husband filled her with the profoundest grief, and though
the violence of her sorrow subsided with time, she passed the
remainder of her life in strict seclusion, constantly grieving in her
quiet way for her departed lord. Her son grew up to the age of ten in
this sad and lonely house, passing four of the most susceptible years of
his life in the society of his sorrowful mother. He became a shy boy,
and avoided the company of other children. His health began to suffer
from the effects of such an unnatural state of affairs, and at the age
of ten he was sent to live on a farm belonging to the family, on the
shore of Sebago Lake, in Maine. The active out-door life which he led
here entirely restored his health, which was naturally strong and
vigorous; here, also, he acquired that fondness for boating which was
his chief amusement in after years. Returning to Salem, he completed his
studies in the preparatory schools, after which he entered Bowdoin
College, where he graduated in 1825, at the age of twenty-one. He was a
classmate of Longfellow and George B. Cheever, with whom he was only
slightly acquainted; and he formed a warm and lasting friendship with
Franklin Pierce, who was in the class next before him. Longfellow has
preserved a recollection of him in his student days as "a shy youth in a
bright-buttoned coat, flitting across the college grounds."

After graduating, he went back to his home in Salem, where he resided
for many years, leading a life of seclusion, which he passed in
meditation and study. His strong literary inclination now vented itself
in efforts which were in every way characteristic of the man. He wrote
numerous wild tales, the most of which he burned, but a few of which
found their way into the newspapers and magazines of the country. They
were full of a wild gloominess, and were told with a power which proved
that their author was no ordinar