Three hundred years are vanished,
And yet upon the hill
An old stone gateway rises,
To do her honor still;

And there, when Bregenz women
Sit spinning in the shade,
They see in quaint old carving
The Charger and the Maid.

And when, to guard old Bregenz,
By gateway, street, and tower,
The warder paces all night long,
And calls each passing hour,
"Nine," "ten,' 'eleven," he cries aloud,
And then (O crown of Fame!)

9966

When midnight pauses in the skies,

He calls the maiden's name!

Adelaide A. Procter.

THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER.

Hester Prynne went, one day, to the mansion of Governor Bellingham, with a pair of gloves which she had fringed and embroidered to his order. Lifting the iron hammer that hung at the portal, Hester Prynne gave a

summons.

"Is the worshipful Governor Bellingham within?"

"Yea, forsooth," replied the bond servant, "but he hath a godly minister or two with him, and likewise a leech. Ye may not see his worship now.

"Nevertheless, I will enter.'

Just then adown the vista of the garden avenue, a number of persons were seen approaching towards the house.

Governor Bellingham, in a loose gown and easy cap, walked foremost, and appeared to be showing off his estates, and expatiating on his projected improvements. The venerable pastor, John Wilson, with beard white. as the snowdrift, was seen over Governor Bellingham's shoulder. Behind the Governor and Mr. Wilson came two other guests; one the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale,

and in close companionship with him, old Roger Chillingworth, a person of great skill in physic. The Governor ascended one or two steps, and, throwing open the leaves of the great hall window, found himself close to little Pearl.

"What have we here?" said Governor Bellingham, looking with surprise at the scarlet little figure before him. "I profess I have never seen the like since my days of vanity, in old King James' time, when I was wont to esteem it a high favor to be admitted to a court mask. There used to be a swarm of these small apparitions in holiday time, and we called them children of the Lord of Misrule. But how got such a guest into my hall?”

"Ay, indeed!" cried good old Mr. Wilson. "What little bird of scarlet plumage may this be? Methinks I have seen just such figures when the sun has been shining through a richly painted window, and tracing out the golden and crimson images across the floor. But that was in the old land. Prithee, young one, who art thou, and what has ailed thy mother to bedizen thee in this strange fashion? Art thou a Christian child-ha? Dost know thy catechism? Or art thou one of those naughty elfs or fairies, whom we thought to have left behind us in merry old England?”

"I am mother's child, and my name is Pearl!"

"Pearl?-Ruby, rather!—or Coral-or Red Rose, at the very least, judging from thy hue! But where is this mother of thine? Ah! I see. This is the self-same child of whom we have had speech together; and behold here the unhappy woman, Hester Prynne, her mother!"

"Sayest thou so?" said the Governor. "She comes at a good time; and we will look into this matter forthwith. Hester Prynne, there hath been much question concerning thee, of late. The point hath been weightily discussed whether we, that are of authority and influence, do well discharge our consciences by trusting an immortal soul, such as there is in yonder child, to the guidance of one who hath stumbled and fallen, amid the pitfalls of this world. Speak thou, the child's own mother! Were it not, thinkest thou, for thy little one's temporal and eternal welfare that she be taken out of thy charge, and clad soberly, and disciplined strictly, and instructed in the truths of heaven and earth? What canst thou do for the child in this kind?"

"I can teach my little Pearl what I have learned from this!" answered Hester Prynne, laying her finger on the red token. "This badge hath taught me-it daily teaches me-it is teaching me at this moment-lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better, albeit they can profit nothing to myself."

"We will judge warily, and look well what we are about to do. Good Master Wilson, I pray you, examine this Pearl-since that is her name-and see whether she hath had such Christian nurture as befits a child of her age.

The old minister seated himself in an armchair, and made an effort to draw Pearl betwixt his knees. But the child, unaccustomed to the touch of any but her mother, escaped through the open window, and stood on the upper step, looking like a wild tropical bird of rich plumage, ready to take flight into the upper air.

"Pearl," said he, with great solemnity, "thou must take heed to instruction, that so, in due season, thou mayest wear in thy bosom the pearl of great price. Canst thou tell me, my child, who made thee?"

Now, Pearl knew well enough who made her. But that perversity which all children have more or less, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold portion, now took thorough possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss. After putting her finger in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door.

"This is awful!” said the Governor. "Here is a child of three years old, and she cannot tell who made her! Without question she is equally in the dark as to her soul, its present depravity and future destiny! Methinks, gentlemen, we need inquire no further.

Hester caught hold of Pearl and drew her forcibly into her arms, confronting the old Puritan magistrate with almost a fierce expression. Alone in the world, cast off by it, and with this sole treasure to keep her heart alive, she felt that she possessed indefeasible rights against the world, and was ready to defend them to the death.

"God gave me the child!" she cried. "He gave her in requital of all things else which ye had taken from me.

She is my happiness-she is my torture, none the less. Pearl keeps me here in life. Pearl punishes me, too. Ye shall not take her; I will die first.

"My poor woman," said the old minister, "the child. shall be well cared for-far better than thou canst do it.

"God gave her into my keeping," repeated Hester Prynne, raising her voice almost to a shriek. "I will not give her up!" And here by a sudden impulse she turned to the young clergyman. "Speak thou for me! Thou wast my pastor, and hadst charge of my soul, and knowest me better than these men can. I will not lose the child. Speak for me. Thou knowest-for thou hast sympathies which these men lack-thou knowest what is in my heart, and what are a mother's rights, and how much the stronger they are when that mother has but her child and the scarlet letter. Look thou to it. I will not

lose the child. Look to it!"

"There is

The young minister at once came forward. truth in what she says, truth in what Hester says, and in the feeling which inspires her. God gave her the child, and gave her, too, an instinctive knowledge of its nature and requirements-but seemingly so peculiar-which no other mortal can possess. And, moreover, is there not a quality of awful sacredness in the relation between this mother and this child? This child hath come from the hand of God, to work in many ways upon her heart, who pleads so earnestly and with such bitterness of spirit, the right to keep her. It was meant for a blessing, for the one blessing of her life. It was meant for a retribution, too; a torture to be felt at many an unthought-of moment, a pang, a sting, an ever-recurring agony in the midst of a troubled joy. And may it not be that this boon was meant to keep the mother's soul alive, and to preserve her from blacker depths of sin into which Satan might else have sought to plunge her? Therefore, it is good for this poor, sinful woman that she hath an infant immortality to teach her, by the Creator's sacred pledge, that if she bring the child to heaven, the child also will bring its parent thither. For Hester Prynne's sake, then, and no less for the poor child's sake, let us leave them as Providence has seen fit to place them.

"There is a weighty import in what my young brother hath spoken," added the Reverend Mr. Wilson.

"What

say you, worshipful Master Bellingham? pleaded well for the poor woman?"

Hath he not

"Indeed, hath he," answered the magistrate, "and hath adduced such arguments that we will even leave the matter as it now stands. Care must be had, nevertheless, to put the child to due and stated examinations in the catechism, at thy hands or Master Dimmesdale's. Moreover, at the proper season, the tithing-men must take heed that she go both to school and to meeting.

The affair being so satisfactorily concluded, Hester Prynne, with Pearl, departed from the house. As they descended the steps, the lattice of a chamber window was thrown open, and forth into the sunny day was thrust the face of Mistress Hibbins.

"Hist! hist!" said she, while her ill-omened physiognomy seemed to cast a shadow. "Wilt thou go with us to-night? There will be a merry company in the forest, and I well-nigh promised the Black Man that comely Hester Prynne should make one.

"Make my excuse to him, so please you, answered Hester, with a triumphant smile. "I must tarry at home and keep watch over my little Pearl. Had they taken her from me, I would willingly have gone with thee into the forest, and signed my name in the Black Man's book too, and that with my own blood."

"We shall have thee there anon,

said the witch-lady. Nathaniel Hawthorne.

AUX ITALIENS.

At Paris it was, at the opera there;

And she looked like a queen in a book that night,
With the wreath of pearl in her raven hair,
And the brooch on her breast so bright.

Of all the operas that Verdi wrote,

The best, to my taste, is the Trovatoré; And Mario can soothe, with a tenor note, The souls in purgatory.