Page images
PDF
EPUB

"This token which I have worn so long," said Faith, laying her tremulous finger on the Heart, "is the assurance that you may!"

"Faith! Faith!" cried Cranfield, clasping her in his arms, "you have interpreted my wild and weary dream!"

Yes, the wild dream was wake at last. To find the mysterious treasure, he was to till the earth around his mother's dwelling, and reap its products! Instead of warlike command, or regal or religious sway, he was to rule over the village children! And now the visionary Maid had faded from his fancy, and in her place he saw the playmate of his childhood! Would all who cherish such wild wishes but look around them, they would oftenest find their sphere of duty, of prosperity, and happiness, within those precincts and in that station where Providence itself has cast their lot. Happy they who read the riddle without a weary world search, or a lifetime spent in vain!

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed]

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY Boston: 4 Park Street; New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street Chicago: 28 Lakeside Building

The Riverside Press, Cambridge

Copyright, 1850,

BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

Copyright, 1878,

BY KOSE HAWTHORNE LATHROP

Copyright, 1883,

BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.

All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.

BIOGRAPHICAL STORIES.

BENJAMIN WEST. SIR ISAAC NEWTON. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

OLIVER CROMWELL. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. QUEEN CHRISTINA.

« PreviousContinue »