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Title: John Inglefield’s Thanksgiving
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Release Date: September 18, 2003 [eBook #9241]
[Most recently updated: May 16, 2022]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
Produced by: David Widger
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN INGLEFIELD’S THANKSGIVING ***
John Inglefield’s Thanksgiving
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
On the evening of Thanksgiving day, John Inglefield, the blacksmith, sat in his
elbow-chair, among those who had been keeping festival at his board. Being the
central figure of the domestic circle, the fire threw its strongest light on
his massive and sturdy frame, reddening his rough visage, so that it looked
like the head of an iron statue, all aglow, from his own forge, and with its
features rudely fashioned on his own anvil. At John Inglefield’s right
hand was an empty chair. The other places round the hearth were filled by the
members of the family, who all sat quietly, while, with a semblance of
fantastic merriment, their shadows danced on the wall behind then. One of the
group was John Inglefield’s son, who had been bred at college, and was
now a student of theology at Andover. There was also a daughter of sixteen,
whom nobody could look at without thinking of a rosebud almost blossomed. The
only other person at the fireside was Robert Moore, formerly an apprentice of
the blacksmith, but now his journeyman, and who seemed more like an own son of
John Inglefield than did the pale and slender student.
Only these four had kept New England’s festival beneath that roof. The
vacant chair at John Inglefield’s right hand was in memory of his wife,
whom death had snatched from him since the previous Thanksgiving. With a
feeling that few would have looked for in his rough nature, the bereaved
husband had himself set the chair in its place next his own; and often did his
eye glance thitherward, as if he deemed it possible that the cold grave might
send back its tenant to the cheerful fireside, at least for that one evening.
Thus did he cherish the grief that was dear to him. But there was another grief
which he would fain have torn from his heart; or, since that could never be,
have buried it too deep for others to behold, or for his own remembrance.
Within the past year another member of his household had gone from him, but not
to the grave. Yet they kept no vacant chair for her.
While John Inglefield and his family were sitting round the hearth with the
shadows dancing behind them on the wall, the outer door was opened, and a light
footstep came along the passage. The latch of the inner door was lifted by some
familiar hand, and a young girl came in, wearing a cloak and hood, which she
took off, and laid on the table beneath the looking-glass. Then, after gazing a
moment at the fireside circle, she approached, and took the seat at John
Inglefield’s right hand, as if it had been reserved on purpose for her.
“Here I am, at last, father,” said she. “You ate your
Thanksgiving dinner without me, but I have come back to spend the evening with
you.”
Yes, it was Prudence Inglefield. She wore the same neat and maidenly attire
which she had been accustomed to put on when the household work was over for
the day, and her hair was parted from her brow, in the simple and modest
fashion that became her best of all. If her cheek might otherwise have been
pale, yet the glow of the fire suffused it with a healthful bloom. If she had
spent the many months of her absence in guilt and infamy, yet they seemed to
have left no traces on her gentle aspect. She could not have looked less
altered, had she merely stepped away from her father’s fireside for half
an hour, and returned while the blaze was quivering upwards from the same
brands that were burning at her departure. And to John Inglefield she was the
very image of his buried wife, such as he remembered her on the first
Thanksgiving which they had passed under their own roof. Therefore, though
naturally a stern and rugged man, he could not speak unkindly to his sinful
child, nor yet could he take her to his bosom.
“You are welcome home, Prudence,” said he, glancing sideways at
her, and his voice faltered. “Your mother would have rejoiced to see you,
but she has been gone from us these four months.”
“I know it, father, I know it,” replied Prudence, quickly.
“And yet, when I first came in, my eyes were so dazzled by the firelight,
that she seemed to be sitting in this very chair!”
By this time the other members of the family had begun to recover from their
surprise, and became sensible that it was no ghost from the grave, nor vision
of their vivid recollections, but Prudence, her own self. Her brother was the
next that greeted her. He advanced and held out his hand affectionately, as a
brother should; yet not entirely like a brother, for, with all his kindness, he
was still a clergyman, and speaking to a child of sin.
“Sister Prudence,” said he, earnestly, “I rejoice that a
merciful Providence hath turned your steps homeward, in time for me to bid you
a last farewell. In a few weeks, sister, I am to sail as a missionary to the
far islands of the Pacific. There is not one of these beloved faces that I
shall ever hope to behold again on this earth. O, may I see all of them--yours
and all--beyond the grave!”
A shadow flitted across the girl’s countenance.
“The grave is very dark, brother,” answered she, withdrawing her
hand somewhat hastily from his grasp. “You must look your last at me by
the light of this fire.”
While this was passing, the twin-girl-the rosebud that had grown on the same
stem with the castaway--stood gazing at her sister, longing to fling herself
upon her bosom, so that the tendrils of their hearts might intertwine again. At
first she was restrained by mingled grief and shame, and by a dread that
Prudence was too much changed to respond to her affection, or that her own
purity would be felt as a reproach by the lost one. But, as she listened to the
familiar voice, while the face grew more and more familiar, she forgot
everything save that Prudence had come back. Springing forward, she would have
clasped her in a close embrace. At that very instant, however, Prudence started
from her chair, and held out both her hands, with a warning gesture.
“No, Mary,--no, my sister,” cried she, “do not you touch me.
Your bosom must not be pressed to mine!”
Mary shuddered and stood still, for she felt that something darker than the
grave was between Prudence and herself, though they seemed so near each other
in the light of their father’s hearth, where they had grown up together.
Meanwhile Prudence threw her eyes around the room, in search of one who had not
yet bidden her welcome. He had withdrawn from his seat by the fireside, and was
standing near the door, with his face averted, so that his features could be
discerned only by the flickering shadow of the profile upon the wall. But
Prudence called to him, in a cheerful and kindly tone:--
“Come, Robert,” said she, “won’t you shake hands with
your old friend?”
Robert Moore held back for a moment, but affection struggled powerfully, and
overcame his pride and resentment; he rushed towards Prudence, seized her hand,
and pressed it to his bosom.
“There, there, Robert!” said she, smiling sadly, as she withdrew
her hand, “you must not give me too warm a welcome.”
And now, having exchanged greetings with each member of the family, Prudence
again seated herself in the chair at John Inglefield’s right hand. She
was naturally a girl of quick and tender sensibilities, gladsome in her general
mood, but with a bewitching pathos interfused among her merriest words and
deeds. It was remarked of her, too, that she had a faculty, even from
childhood, of throwing her own feelings, like a spell, over her companions.
Such as she had been in her days of innocence, so did she appear this evening.
Her friends, in the surprise and bewilderment of her return, almost forgot that
she had ever left them, or that she had forfeited any of her claims to their
affection. In the morning, perhaps, they might have looked at her with altered
eyes, but by the Thanksgiving fireside they felt only that their own Prudence
had come back to them, and were thankful. John Inglefleld’s rough visage
brightened with the glow of his heart, as it grew warm and merry within him;
once or twice, even, he laughed till the room rang again, yet seemed startled
by the echo of his own mirth. The grave young minister became as frolicsome as
a school-boy. Mary, too, the rosebud, forgot that her twin-blossom had ever
been torn from the stem, and trampled in the dust. And as for Robert Moore, he
gazed at Prudence with the bashful earnestness of love new-born, while she,
with sweet maiden coquetry, half smiled upon and half discouraged him.
In short, it was one of those intervals when sorrow vanishes in its own depth
of shadow, and joy starts forth in transitory brightness. When the clock struck
eight, Prudence poured out her father’s customary draught of herb-tea,
which had been steeping by the fireside ever since twilight.
“God bless you, child!” said John Inglefield, as he took the cup
from her hand; “you have made your old father happy again. But we miss
your mother sadly, Prudence, sadly. It seems as if she ought to be here
now.”
“Now, father, or never,” replied Prudence.
It was now the hour for domestic worship. But while the family were making
preparations for this duty, they suddenly perceived that Prudence had put on
her cloak and hood, and was lifting the latch of the door.
“Prudence, Prudence! where are you going?” cried they all, with one
voice.
As Prudence passed out of the door, she turned towards them, and flung back her
hand with a gesture of farewell. But her face was so changed that they hardly
recognized it. Sin and evil passions glowed through its comeliness, and wrought
a horrible deformity; a smile gleamed in her eyes, as of triumphant mockery, at
their surprise and grief.
“Daughter,” cried John Inglefield, between wrath and sorrow,
“stay and be your father’s blessing, or take his curse with
you!”
For an instant Prudence lingered and looked back into the fire-lighted room,
while her countenance wore almost the expression as if she were struggling with
a fiend, who had power to seize his victim even within the hallowed precincts
of her father’s hearth. The fiend prevailed; and Prudence vanished into
the outer darkness. When the family rushed to the door, they could see nothing,
but heard the sound of wheels rattling over the frozen ground.
That same night, among the painted beauties at the theatre of a neighboring
city, there was one whose dissolute mirth seemed inconsistent with any sympathy
for pure affections, and for the joys and griefs which are hallowed by them.
Yet this was Prudence Inglefield. Her visit to the Thanksgiving fireside was
the realization of one of those waking dreams in which the guilty soul will
sometimes stray back to its innocence. But Sin, alas! is careful of her
bond-slaves; they hear her voice, perhaps, at the holiest moment, and are
constrained to go whither she summons them. The same dark power that drew
Prudence Inglefleld from her father’s hearth--the same in its nature,
though heightened then to a dread necessity--would snatch a guilty soul from
the gate of heaven, and make its sin and its punishment alike eternal.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN INGLEFIELD’S THANKSGIVING ***
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