A RILL FROM THE TOWN PUMP-I.

[Nathaniel Hawthorne, the American novelist, and one of her foremost prose-writers, in addition to his longer works, wrote some very beautiful short sketches. This is taken from his Twice-Told Tales.] SCENE. The corner of two principal Streets. The Town Pump talking through its spout.

1. Noon, by the north clock! Noon, by the east! High noon, too, by these hot sunbeams, which fall, scarcely aslope, upon my head, and almost make the water bubble and smoke in the trough under my spout. Truly we public characters have a tough time of it! And among all the town-officers chosen at March meeting, where is he that sustains, for a single year, the burden of such manifold duties as are imposed, in perpetuity, upon the Town Pump?

2. The title of 'town-treasurer' is rightfully mine, as guardian of the best treasure that the town has. The overseers of the poor ought to make me their chairman, since I provide bountifully for the pauper, without expense to him that pays taxes. I am at the head of the fire-department, and one of the physicians to the board of health.

3. At this sultry noontide I am cupbearer to the parched populace, for whose benefit an iron goblet is

chained to my waist. I cry aloud to all and sundry in my plainest accents, and at the very tiptop of my voice: 'Here it is, gentlemen! Here is the good liquor! Here is the superior stuff! Here is the unadulterated ale of father Adam, better than Cognac, Hollands, Jamaica, strong beer, or wine of any price; here it is by the hogshead or the single glass, and nothing to pay! Walk up, gentlemen, and help yourselves.'

4. It were a pity if all this outcry should draw no customers. Here they come. A hot day, gentlemen! Quaff, and away again, so as to keep yourselves cool. You, my friend, will need another cupful, to wash the dust out of your throat, if it be as thick there as it is on your cow-hide shoes. I see that you have trudged half a score of miles to-day; and, like a wise man, have passed by the taverns, and stopped at the running brooks and well-curbs. Drink, and make room for that other fellow, who seeks my aid to quench the fiery fever of last night's potations, which he drained from no cup of mine.

5. Welcome, most rubicund sir! You and I have been great strangers hitherto. Fill again, and tell me, on the word of an honest toper, did you ever, in cellar, tavern, or any kind of a dram-shop, spend the price of your children's food for a drink half so delicious? Now, for the first time these ten years, you know the flavour of cold water. Good-bye; and, whenever you are thirsty, remember that I keep a constant supply at the old stand.

6. Who next?-O, my little friend, you are let

loose from school, and come hither to scrub your blooming face, and drown the memory of certain school-boy troubles, in a draught from the Town Pump. Take it, pure as the current of your young life. Take it, and may your heart and tongue never be scorched with a fiercer thirst than now!

7. There, my dear child, put down the cup, and yield your place to this elderly gentleman, who treads so tenderly over the stones that I suspect he is afraid of breaking them. What! he limps by without so much as thanking me, as if my hospitable offers were meant only for people who have no wine-cellars. Well, well, sir! no harm done, I hope!

8. This thirsty dog, with his red tongue lolling out, does not scorn my hospitality, but stands on his hind-legs, and laps eagerly out of the trough. See how lightly he capers away again!

9. Are you all satisfied? Then, my good friends, while my spout has a moment's leisure, I will delight the town with a few historical reminiscences. In far antiquity, beneath a darksome shadow of venerable boughs, a spring bubbled out of the leaf-strewn earth in the very spot where you now behold me on the sunny pavement. The water was as bright and clear, and deemed as precious, as liquid diamonds. The Indian sagamores drank of it from time immemorial, till the fearful deluge of fire-water burst upon the red men, and swept their whole race away from the cold fountains. Endicott and his followers came next, and often knelt down to drink, dipping their long beards in the spring. The richest goblet then was of birch bark.

H

10. Governor Winthrop drank here out of the hollow of his hand. The elder Higginson here wet his palm, and laid it on the brow of the first townborn child. For many years it was the wateringplace, and, as it were, the wash-bowl of the vicinity, whither all decent folks resorted, to purify their visages and gaze at them afterwards—at least, the pretty maidens did-in the mirror which it made. On Sabbath-days, whenever a babe was to be baptised, the sexton filled his basin here, and placed it on the communion-table of the humble meeting-house which partly covered the site of yonder stately brick one.

11. Thus one generation after another was consecrated to heaven by its waters, and cast its waxing and waning shadows into its glassy bosom, and vanished from the earth as if mortal life were but a flitting image in a fountain. Finally, the fountain vanished also. Cellars were dug on all sides, and cart-loads of gravel flung upon its source, whence oozed a turbid stream, forming a mud-puddle at the corner of two streets.

12. In the hot months, when its refreshment was most needed, the dust flew in clouds over the forgotten birthplace of the waters, now their grave. But in the course of time, a Town Pump was sunk into the source of the ancient spring; and when the first decayed, another took its place, and then another, and still another, till here stand I, gentlemen and ladies, to serve you with my iron goblet.

13. Drink and be refreshed! The water is pure and cold as that which slaked the thirst of the red

sagamore beneath the aged boughs, though now the gem of the wilderness is treasured under these hot stones, where no shadow falls but from the brick buildings. And be it the moral of my story, that, as the wasted and long-lost fountain is now known and prized again, so shall the virtues of cold water, too little valued since your fathers' days, be recognised by all.

su-pe'-ri-or hos-pi-tal'-i-ty im-posed', laid upon.

in per-pe-tu'-i-ty, in all time coming. pop'-u-lace, people.

un-a-dul'-ter-at-ed, pure; without

mixture of anything bad.

Cog'-nac, French brandy.
Hol'-lands, gin made in Holland.

Jam-ai'-ca, rum made in the island

of Jamaica.

com-mun'-ion foun'-tain

gen-er-a'-tion re-cog-nised'

re-min-is'-cen-ces, recollections of

past times.

an-ti'-qui-ty, ancient times.
sag'-a-mores, chiefs.

im-me-mor'-i-al, beyond the reach of
memory.
del'-uge, flood.

fire-wa'-ter, strong drink.
vi-cin'-i-ty, neighbourhood.

hogs'-head, a large measure contain- vis'-a-ges, faces.

EXERCISES.-1. Make nouns from the following adjectives: Poor, perpetual, popular, vain, turbid, moral.

2. Make nouns from the following nouns :

Globe (globule),

ring, flower, animal (animalcule), herb, circle (semicircle), sphere.

3. Make as many verbs as you can from the following verbs by changing the prefix: Include, import, produce, compose.