ird."

In 1838 George Bancroft was Collector of the Port of Boston, and, having
been deeply impressed with the genius displayed in the first volume of
"Twice-Told Tales," sought out Hawthorne and offered him a place in the
Boston Custom-House as weigher and gauger. Hawthorne accepted the
position, and at once entered upon his duties. Leaving his solitude and
the weird phantoms that had been his companions for so long, he passed
immediately into the busy bustle of the great New England port. It was a
new world to him, and one which interested him keenly. His duties kept
him constantly on the wharf, and threw him daily into contact with
captains and sailors from all parts of the world. He became a great
favorite with these, and they told him many a strange story of their
adventures and of the sights they had seen in distant lands, and these,
as they were listened to by him, took each a distinctive form in his
imagination. Not less interesting to him were the men among whom his
duties threw him. They were more to him than the ordinary beings that
thronged the streets of the great city, for they had been victorious in
many a battle with the mighty deep, and they had looked on the wondrous
sights of the far-off lands of the Old World. Queer people they were,
too, each a Captain Cuttle or a Dirk Hatteraick in himself, and many an
hour did the dreamy writer spend with them, apparently listening to
their rude stories, but really making keen studies of the men
themselves.

He discharged his duties faithfully in the Boston Custom-House,
performing each with an exactness thoroughly characteristic of him,
until 1841, when the accession of President Harrison to power obliged
him to withdraw to make way for a Whig.

From the Custom-house he went to live at Brook Farm as one of that
singular community of dreamers and enthusiasts which was to inaugurate a
new era of men and things in the world, but which came at last to a most
inglorious termination. He was thrown into intimate association here
with many who have since become prominent in our literary history, and
for some of them conceived a warm attachment. He took his share of the
farm labors, to which he was very partial, but remained at the community
less than a year, and then returned to Boston. In his "Blithedale
Romance" he has given us a picture of the life at Brook Farm, though he
denies having sketched his characters from his old associates at that
place.

In 1843 he ma