| | 1 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Great Carbuncle  | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | AT nightfall, once in the olden time, on the rugged side of one of
the Crystal Hills, a party of adventurers were refreshing
themselves, after
a toilsome and fruitless quest for the Great Carbuncle. They had
come
thither,
not as friends nor partners in the enterprise, but each, save one
youthful
pair, impelled by his own selfish and solitary longing for this
wondrous
gem. Their feeling of brotherhood, however, was strong enough to
induce
them to contribute a mutual aid in building a rude hut of branches,
and
kindling a great fire of shattered pines, that had drifted down the
head-long current of the Amonoosuck, on the lower bank of which
they
were to
pass the night. There was but one of their number, perhaps, who had
become so estranged from natural sympathies, by the absorbing spell
of the
pursuit, as to acknowledge no satisfaction at the sight of human
faces, in
the remote and solitary region whither they had ascended. A vast
extent of
wilderness lay between them and the nearest settlement, while a
scant
mile above their heads was that black verge where the hills throw
off their
shaggy mantle of forest trees, and either robe themselves in clouds
or
tower naked into the sky. The roar of the Amonoosuck would have
been
too awful for endurance if only a solitary man had listened, while
the
mountain stream talked with the wind. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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