Mosses from an Old Manse, and other stories

threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own p

journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoug

arry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now

with the pink ribbons; "and may yo

prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed a

n the corner by the meeting-house, he looked back and saw the head of Faith

Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight. But no, no; 't would

ees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a soli

an Brown to himself; and he glanced fearfully behind him as he

, beheld the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an ol

k of the Old South was striking as I came through

with a tremor in his voice, caused by the sudden appe

l they might have been taken for father and son. And yet, though the elder person was as simply clad as the younger, and as simple in manner too, he had an indescribable air of one who knew the world, and who would not have felt abashed at the governor's dinner table or in King William's court, were it possible that his affairs shoul

r, "this is a dull pace for the beginning of a j

aving kept covenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose now to retu

walk on, nevertheless, reasoning as we go; and if I convince thee

ods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since

e to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fir

or, verily, I marvel not, seeing that the least rumor of the sort would have driven them from

eacons of many a church have drunk the communion wine with me; the selectmen of divers towns make me their chairman; and a maj

ernor and council; they have their own ways, and are no rule for a simple husbandman like me. But, were I to go on with thee, how should I

burst into a fit of irrepressible mirth, shaking himself so violen

omposing himself, "Well, go on, Goodman Brown, g

n, considerably nettled, "there is my wife, Faith. It woul

ways, Goodman Brown. I would not for twenty old women like th

ecognized a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism in youth, an

with your leave, friend, I shall take a cut through the woods until we have left this Christian woma

aveller. "Betake you to the wo

f's length of the old dame. She, meanwhile, was making the best of her way, with singular speed for so aged a woman, and mumbling some indistinc

screamed the

d?" observed the traveller, confrontin

he grandfather of the silly fellow that now is. But - would your worship believe it? - my broomstick hath strangely disappeared, stolen, as I s

e fat of a new-born babe," said

he meeting, and no horse to ride on, I made up my mind to foot it; for they tell me there is a nice young man to be

d. "I may not spare you my arm, Goody Cl

tian magi. Of this fact, however, Goodman Brown could not take cognizance. He had cast up his eyes in astonishment, and, looking down again,

" said the young man; and there was a w

uggested by himself. As they went, he plucked a branch of maple to serve for a walking stick, and began to strip it of the twigs and little boughs, which were wet with evening dew. The moment his fingers touched them they became stra

s errand. What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil when I thought she w

e, composedly. "Sit here and rest yourself a while; and when yo

should meet the minister in his morning walk, nor shrink from the eye of good old Deacon Gookin. And what calm sleep would be his that very night, which was to have been spent so wickedly, but so purely and sweetly now, in the arms of Faith! Amidst these pleasan

ough their figures brushed the small boughs by the wayside, it could not be seen that they intercepted, even for a moment, the faint gleam from the strip of bright sky athwart which they must have passed. Goodman Brown alternately crouched and stood on tiptoe, pulling aside the branches and thrusting forth his head as far as he durst without disc

some of our community are to be here from Falmouth and beyond, and others from Connecticut and Rhode Island, besides several of the Indian powwow

nes of the minister. "Spur up, or we shall be late. Not

, then, could these holy men be journeying so deep into the heathen wilderness? Young Goodman Brown caught hold of a tree for support, being ready to sink down on the ground, faint and ove

ow, I will yet stand firm agains

tful sound of voices. Once the listener fancied that he could distinguish the accents of towns-people of his own, men and women, both pious and ungodly, many of whom he had met at the communion table, and had seen others rioting at the tavern. The next moment, so indistinct were the sounds, he doubted whether he had heard aught but the murmur of the old forest, whispering without a wind. T

and the echoes of the forest mocked him, crying, "Faith! Faith!" as

immediately in a louder murmur of voices, fading into far-off laughter, as the dark cloud swept away, leaving the clear and silent sky above Goodm

oment. "There is no good on earth; and sin is but a

and vanished at length, leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness, still rushing onward with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil. The whole forest was peopled with frightful sounds - the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the y

Goodman Brown when th

deviltry. Come witch, come wizard, come Indian powwow, come devil himsel

en he rages in the breast of man. Thus sped the demoniac on his course, until, quivering among the trees, he saw a red light before him, as when the felled trunks and branches of a clearing have been set on fire, and throw up their lurid blaze against the sky, at the hour of midnight. He paused, in a lull of the tempest that had driven him onward, and heard the swell of what seemed a hymn, rolling sol

unded by four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems untouched, like candles at an evening meeting. The mass of foliage that had overgrown the summit of the rock was all on fire, blazing high into the night and fitfully illuminating the whole field. E

-clad company," q

dens, all of excellent repute, and fair young girls, who trembled lest their mothers should espy them. Either the sudden gleams of light flashing over the obscure field bedazzled Goodman Brown, or he recognized a score of the church members of Salem village famous for their especial sanctity. Good old Deacon Gookin had arrived, and waited at the skirts of that venerable saint, his revered pastor. But, irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of t

Goodman Brown; and, as hope ca

ghty organ; and with the final peal of that dreadful anthem there came a sound, as if the roaring wind, the rushing streams, the howling beasts, and every other voice of the unconcerted wilderness were mingling and according with the voice of guilty man in homage to the prince of all. The four blazing pines threw up a loftier flame, and obscurely disc

a voice that echoed through the

ooking downward from a smoke wreath, while a woman, with dim features of despair, threw out her hand to warn him back. Was it his mother? But he had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought, when the minister and good old Deacon Gookin seized his arms and led him to the

communion of your race. Ye have found thus young your

sheet of flame, the fiend worshippers were seen; t

ds; how many a woman, eager for widows' weeds, has given her husband a drink at bedtime and let him sleep his last sleep in her bosom; how beardless youths have made haste to inherit their fathers' wealth; and how fair damsels - blush not, sweet ones - have dug little graves in the garden, and bidden me, the sole guest to an infant's funeral. By the sympathy of your human hearts for sin ye shall scent out all the places - whether in church, bedch

rches, the wretched man beheld his Faith, and the wif

nature could yet mourn for our miserable race. "Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now

iend worshippers, in one

perchance, a liquid flame? Herein did the shape of evil dip his hand and prepare to lay the mark of baptism upon their foreheads, that they might be partakers of the mystery of sin, more conscious of the secret guilt of others, both in deed

usband, "look up to heaven,

ening to a roar of the wind which died heavily away through the forest. He staggered against the rock, and felt

on Gookin was at domestic worship, and the holy words of his prayer were heard through the open window. "What God doth the wizard pray to?" quoth Goodman Brown. Goody Cloyse, that excellent old Christian, stood in the early sunshine at her own lattice, catechizing a little girl who had brought her a pint of morning's milk. Goodman Brown snatched away the child as from

in the forest and only dreamed

om the pulpit with power and fervid eloquence, and, with his hand on the open Bible, of the sacred truths of our religion, and of saint-like lives and triumphant deaths, and of future bliss or misery unutterable, then did Goodman Brown turn pale, dreading lest the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer and his hearers. Often, waking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith; and at mornin