| | 1 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Add | | | Title: | The Ambitious Guest  | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ONE September night a family had gathered round their hearth, and
piled it high with the driftwood of mountain streams, the dry cones of
the pine, and the splintered ruins of great trees that had come
crashing down the precipice. Up the chimney roared the fire, and
brightened the room with its broad blaze. The faces of the father and
mother had a sober gladness; the children laughed; the eldest daughter
was the image of Happiness at seventeen; and the aged grandmother, who
sat knitting in the warmest place, was the image of Happiness grown
old. They had found the ``herb, heart's-ease,'' in the bleakest spot
of all New England. This family were situated in the Notch of the
White Hills, where the wind was sharp throughout the year, and
pitilessly cold in the winter,—giving their cottage all its fresh
inclemency before it descended on the valley of the Saco. They dwelt
in a cold spot and a dangerous one; for a mountain towered above their
heads, so steep, that the stones would often rumble down its sides and
startle them at midnight. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
|
