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Dhe Uiverside Witerature Series
A WONDER-BOOK
BOR=GiRiS AND BOYS
BY
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY Boston: 4 Park Street; New York: i1 East Seventeenth Street Chicago: 158 Adams Street
Che Viivergide JBress, Cambridge
Hoveuton, Mirriin & Co. are the only authorized publishers of the works of LonerE.tow, WaHIrtiER, LoweLL, Hotmes, EMER- son, THOREAU, and HawTHoRNE. All editions which lack the imprint or authorization of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. are issued without the consent and contrary to the wishes of the authors or their heirs.
Copyright, 1851, By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
Copyright, 1873, By ROSE HAWTHORNE LATHROP
Copyright, 1883, Br HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
Ali rights reserved.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company.
CONTENTS.
—j——
A WONDER-BOOK FOR GIRLS AND BOYS.
PAGH Intropuctory Norr 5 ; . © : 6 : ; 9 PREFACE . : A : 3 = 5 5 ‘ ‘ : 13 THE GORGON’S HEAD. TaNGLEWooD Porcu.— Introductory to “The Gorgon’s Head ” ae, : : 5 A é 5 : ‘ ee 5 THE Eee s Heap - 6 . 21
TaNGLEWoop Porcu. — After the Story . - ° - 49
THE GOLDEN TOUCH. SHapow Broox. — Introductory to “The Golden Touch”. 51
THE GoLpEN ToucH. 5 : 4 é > 55 SHapow Broox. — After the Story A 5 c . -
THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN. TaneLEwoop Pray-Room. — Introductory to “The Paradise
of Children ” ‘ ‘ : A 5 ; 4 4 eS THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN. . : 4 a 82 TanGLEwoop Piay-Room. — After the Siory . a UH
THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES. TanGLEwoop Frresipx.— Introductory to “The Three
Golden Apples” . : : - : : . e . 103 Tue THREE GOLDEN APPLES . : . a : 109 TaNGLEWooD FiresipE. — After the Story ote Lod
THE MIRACULOUS PITCHER. Tuer Hir1t-Sipz. — Introductory to “ The Miraculous Pitcher” 13€ Tue MrracuLous PircHER . : : Tue Hiti-Sipe.— After the Story .- ace oie we LOL
v1 CONTENTS
PAGE
THE CHIMARA. . Baxp-Summit. — Introductory to “The Chimera” . - 163 THE CHIMHRA i c : : . ‘ ° : 166 Baxrp-Summir. — After the Story . 5 4 0 0 =6Cle_s«d2:'988
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
—_o— THE WONDER-BOOK.
_ Even from the data to be obtained by a perusal of his works, the general reader will be likely to infer ~ that Hawthorne took a vital interest in child-life; and in his published Note-Books are found many brief memoranda which indicate his disposition to write for children. After he married and had begun to rear a family of his own, this interest of his in the ear- liest developments of mind and character became, nat- urally, much more active. He was accustomed to ob- serve his children very closely. There are private manuscripts still extant, which present exact records of what his young son and elder daughter said or did, from hour to hour ; the father seating himself in their play-room and patiently noting all that passed.
To this habit of watchful and sympathetic scrutiny we may attribute in part the remarkable felicity, the fortunate ease of adaptation to the immature under- standing, and the skilful appeal to fresh imaginations, which characterize his stories for the young. Natural tact and insight prompted, faithful study from the real assisted, these productions.
While still living at Lenox, and soon after publish- ing “The House of the Seven Gables,” he sketched as follows, in a letter to Mr. James T. Fields, May 23,
10 INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
1851, his plan for the work which this note accom panies : —
“‘T mean to write, within six weeks or two months next ensuing, a book of stories made up of classical myths. The subjects are: The Story of Midas, with his Golden Touch, Pandora’s Box, The Adventure of Hercules in quest of the Golden Apples, Bellerophon and the Chimera, Baucis and Philemon, Perseus and Medusa; these, I think, will be enough to make up a volume. As a framework, I shall have a young col- lege-student telling these stories to his cousins and brothers and sisters, during his vacations, sometimes at the fireside, sometimes in the woods and dells. Un- less I greatly mistake, these old fictions will work up admirably for the purpose ; and I shall aim at substi- tuting a tone in some degree Gothic or romantic, or any such tone as may best please myself, instead of the classic coldness which is as repellant as the touch of marble.”
With such precision as to time did he carry out this scheme, that on the 15th of July he wrote the Preface to the completed volume. It was unusual, however, for him to work with such rapidity, or indeed to write at all in the summer season; and this exertion, com- ing so soon after his work upon the romance, may have had something to do with increasing a languor which he had already begun to feel, and inducing him to remove from Lenox in the autumn. While he re- mained in Berkshire he had more or less literary com- panionship, which is alluded to in the Note-Books and also in the closing chapter- of the ‘“ Wonder-Book,” where he likewise refers thus to himself : —
“+ Have we not an author for our next neighbor ?’ asked Primrose. ‘That silent man, who lives in the
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 11
old red house near Tanglewood Avenue, and whom we sometimes meet, with two children at his side, in the woods or at the lake. I think I have heard of his hay- ing written a poem, or a romance, or an arithmetic, or a school-history, or something of that kind.’ ”
The manuscript of the “ Wonder-Book” is the only one of Hawthorne’s completed books which, in its original form, is owned by any member of his family. The book was written on thin blue paper of rather large size, and on both sides of the pages. Scarcely a correction or an erasure occurs, from the beginning to the end; and wherever an alteration was made, the after-thought was evidently so swift that the author did not stop to blot, for the word first written is merely smeared into illegibility and another substituted for it. It appears to be certain that, although Hawthorne meditated long over what he intended to do and came rather slowly to the point of publication, yet when the actual task of writing was begun it proceeded rapidly and with very little correction; and in most cases probably very little re-drafting was done. His private correspondence exhibits the same easy flow of composi- tion, in sentences of notable finish; offering a marked contrast, for example, to the habit of the historian Motley, who even in his letters expunged words on every page.
The ‘“ Wonder-Book ” proved to be a financial as well as literary success, and was presently translated
and published in Germany. GPL Te e
PREFACE.
——4——
THE author has long been of opinion that many of the classical myths were capable of being rendered into very capital reading for children. In the little volume here offered to the public, he has werked up half a dozen of them, with this end in view. freedom of treatment was necessary to his plan; but it will be observed by every one who attempts to ren- der these legends malleable in his intellectual furnace, that they are marvellously independent of all tempo- rary modes and circumstances. They remain essen- tially the same, after changes that would affect the identity of almost anything else.
He does not, therefore, plead guilty to a sacrilege, in having sometimes shaped anew, as his fancy dic- tated, the forms that have been hallowed by an antiq- uity of two or three thousand years. No epoch of time can claim a copyright in these immortal fables. They seem never to have been made; and certainly, so long as man exists, they can never perish ; but, by their in- destructibility itself, they are legitimate subjects for every age to clothe with its own garniture of manners and sentiment, and to imbue with its own morality. In the present version they may have lost much of their classical aspect (or, at all events, the author has not been careful to preserve it), and have, perhaps, assumed a Gothic or romantic guise.
14 PREFACE.
In performing this pleasant task, — for it has beer really a task fit for hot weather, and one of the most agreeable, of a literary kind, which he ever undertook, — the author has not always thought it necessary to write downward, in order to meet the comprehension of children. He has generally suffered the theme to soar, whenever such was its tendency, and when he himself was buoyant enough to follow without an ef- fort. Children possess an unestimated sensibility to whatever is deep or high, in imagination or feeling, so long as it is simple, likewise. It is only the artificial and the complex that bewilder them.
Lenox, July 15, 1851.
THE GORGON’S HEAD.
TANGLEWOOD PORCH. INTRODUCTORY TO “THE GORGON’S HEAD.”
BENEATH the porch of the country-seat called Tam glewood, one fine autumnal morning, was assembled a merry party of little folks, with a tall youth in the midst of them. They had planned a nutting expedi- tion, and were impatiently waiting for the mists to roll up the hill-slopes, and for the sun to pour the warmth of the Indian summer over the fields and pastures, and into the nooks of the many-colored woods. There was a prospect of as fine a day as ever gladdened the as- pect of this beautiful and comfortable world. As yet, however, the morning mist filled up the whole length and breadth of the valley, above which, on a gently sloping eminence, the mansion stood.
This body of white vapor extended to within less than a hundred yards of the house. It completely hid everything beyond that distance, except a few ruddy or yellow tree-tops, which here and there emerged, and were glorified by the early sunshine, as was likewise the broad surface of the mist. Four or five miles off to the southward rose the summit of Monument Moun. ' tain, and seemed to be floating on a cloud. Some fifs
16 TANGLEWOOD PORCH.
teen miles farther away, in the same direction, ap- peared the loftier Dome of Taconic, looking blue and indistinct, and hardly so substantial as the vapory sea that almost rolled over it. The nearer hills, which bordered the valley, were half submerged, and were specked with little cloud-wreaths all the way to their tops. On the whole, there was so much cloud, and so little solid earth, that it had the effect of a vision.
The children above-mentioned, being as full of life as they could hold, kept overflowing from the porch of Tanglewood, and scampering along the gravel-walk, or rushing across the dewy herbage of the lawn. I can hardly tell how many of these small people there were ; not less then nine or ten, however, nor more than a dozen, of all sorts, sizes, and ages, whether girls or boys. They were brothers, sisters, and cousins, to- gether with a few of their young acquaintances, who had been invited by Mr. and Mrs. Pringle to spend some of this delightful weather with their own chil- dren, at Tanglewood. I am afraid to tell you their names, or even to give them any names which other children have ever been called by; because, to my cer- tain knowledge, authors sometimes get themselves into great trouble by accidentally giving the names of real persons to the characters in their books. For this rea- son, I mean to call them Primrose, Periwinkle, Sweet Fern, Dandelion, Blue Eye, Clover, Huckleberry, Cow- slip, Squash-Blossom, Milkweed, Plantain, and Butter- cup; although, to be sure, such titles might better suit a group of fairies than a company of earthly chil- dren. |
It is not to be supposed that these little folks were to be permitted by their careful fathers and mothers, uncles, aunts, or grandparents, to stray abroad into
TANGLEWOOD PORCH. a
the woods and fields, without the guardianship of some particularly grave and elderly person. Oh no, indeed! In the first sentence of my book, you will recollect that I spoke of a tall youth, standing in the midst of the children. His name— (and I shall let you know his real name, because he considers it a great honor to have told the stories that are here to be printed) — his name was Eustace Bright. He was a student at Williams College, and had reached, I think, at this period, the venerable age of eighteen years; so that he felt quite like a grandfather towards Periwinkle, Dandelion, Huckleberry, Squash-Blossom, Milkweed, and the rest, who were only half or a third as vener- able as he. A trouble in his eyesight (such as many students think it necessary to have, nowadays, in order to prove their diligence at their books) had kept him from college a week or two aiter the beginning of the term. But, for my part, I have seldom met with a pair of eyes that looked as if they could see farther or better than those of Eustace Bright.