THE SAINT PAULS 80462 MAGAZINE VOL. X.-JANUARY TO JUNE, 1872 STRAHAN & CO., PUBLISHERS 1872 Ir was a day in early spring; and as that sweet, genial time of year and atmosphere calls out tender greenness from the ground— beautiful flowers, or leaves that look beautiful because so long unseen under the snow and decay-so the pleasant air and warmth had called out three young people, who sat on a sunny hill-side, enjoying the warm day, and one another. For they were all friends; two of them young men, and playmates from boyhood; the third, a girl who, two or three years younger than themselves, had been the object of their boy-love, their little rustic, childish gallantries, their budding affections; until, growing all towards manhood and womanhood, they had ceased to talk about such matters, perhaps thinking about them the more. These three young people were neighbours' children, dwelling in houses that stood by the side of the great Lexington road, along a ridgy hill that rose abruptly behind them, its brow covered with a wood, and which stretched, with one or two breaks and interruptions, into the heart of the village of Concord, the county town. It was in the side of this hill that, according to tradition, the first settlers of the village had burrowed in caverns, which they had dug out for their shelter, like swallows and woodchucks. As its slope was towards the south, and its ridge and crowning woods defended them from the fierce northern blasts and snowdrifts, it was an admirable situation for the fierce New England winter; and the temperature was milder, by several degrees, along this hill-side, than on the unprotected This work, the last written by the author, is printed as he left it. The retention of the passages within brackets (e. g., page 16), which show how Mr. Hawthorne intended to amplify some of the descriptions and develop more fully one or two of the character-studies, will not be regretted by appreciative readers.-EDITOR. |