Nathaniel Hawthorne

Name: An Old Woman's Tale
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

An Old Woman's Tale

Summary

“An Old Woman's Tale”, is a work by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It explores elements such as Esther, shovel and David.

Quotes from An Old Woman's Tale (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

Nathaniel Hawthorne, An Old Woman's Tale

“ At length, without any vivid astonishment, they became conscious that a great many people were either entering the village or already in the street, but whether they came from the meeting-house, or from a little beyond it, or where the devil they came from, was more than could be determined. Certainly, a crowd of people seemed to be there, men, women, and children, all of whom were yawning and rubbing their eyes, stretching their limbs, and staggering from side to side of the road, as if but partially awakened from a sound slumber. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Nathaniel Hawthorne, An Old Woman's Tale

“ One moonlight summer evening, a young man and a girl sat down together in the open air. They were distant relatives, sprung from a stock once wealthy, but of late years so poverty-stricken, that David had not a penny to pay the marriage fee, if Esther should consent to wed. The seat they had chosen was in an open grove of elm and walnut trees, at a right angle of the road; a spring of diamond water just bubbled into the moonlight beside them, and then whimpered away through the bushes and long grass, in search of a neighboring millstream. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Nathaniel Hawthorne, An Old Woman's Tale

“ And wherever a recent edifice reared its white and flashy front on the foundation of an old one, there a gray-haired man might be seen to shake his staff in anger at it, while his aged dame and their offspring appeared to join in their maledictions, forming a fearful picture in the ghostly moon light. While these scenes were passing, the one figure in the rear of all the rest was descending the hollow towards the mill, and the eyes of David and Esther were drawn thence to a pair with whom they could fully sympathize. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Nathaniel Hawthorne, An Old Woman's Tale

“ But I am humble enough to own, that I do not deserve a listener half so well as that old toothless woman, whose narratives possessed an excellence attributable neither to herself, nor to any single individual. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Nathaniel Hawthorne, An Old Woman's Tale

“ They now separated to different parts of the village, with a readiness that implied intimate local knowledge, and it may be worthy of remark, that, though they were evidently loquacious among themselves, neither their footsteps nor their voices reached the ears of the beholders. Wherever there was a venerable old house, of fifty years’ standing and upwards, surrounded by its elm or walnut trees, with its dark and weather-beaten barn, its well, its orchard and stone-walls, all ancient and all in good repair around it, there a little group of these people assembled. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Nathaniel Hawthorne, An Old Woman's Tale

“ Sometimes they stood stock-still, with their hands over their brows to shade their sight from the moonbeams. As they drew near, most of their countenances appeared familiar to Esther and David, possessing the peculiar features of families in the village, and that general air and aspect by which a person would recognize his own townsmen in the remotest ends of the earth. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Nathaniel Hawthorne, An Old Woman's Tale

“ In the house where I was born, there used to be an old woman crouching all day long over the kitchen fire, with her elbows on her knees and her feet in the ashes. Once in a while she took a turn at the spit, and she never lacked a coarse gray stocking in her lap, the foot about half finished ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Nathaniel Hawthorne, An Old Woman's Tale

“ The two other figures, both clad in dark gray, showed the sobriety of Deacons; one was ridiculously tall and thin, like a man of ordinary bulk infinitely produced, as the mathematicians say; while the brevity and thickness of his colleague seemed a compression of the same man. These four talked with great earnestness, and their gestures intimated that they had revived the ancient dispute about the meeting-house steeple. The grave person in black spoke with composed solemnity, as if he were addressing a Synod; the short deacon grunted out occasional sentences, as brief as himself ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Nathaniel Hawthorne, An Old Woman's Tale

“ The gentleman next pointed to the shovel, appearing to inquire the purpose of his lady’s occupation; while she as evidently parried his interrogatories, maintaining a demure and sanctified visage as every good woman ought, in similar cases. Howbeit, she could not forbear looking askew, behind her spectacles, towards the spot of stubborn turf. ”

Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Quotes from An Old Woman's Tale (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

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