| A FLOOD OF SUNSHINE Such was the sympathy of Nature—that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by higher truth—with the bliss of these two spirits! Love, whether newly-born, or aroused from a death-like slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world. Had the forest still kept its gloom, it would have been bright in Hester's eyes, and bright in Arthur Dimmesdale's!
Hester looked at him with a thrill of another joy.
"Thou must know Pearl!" said she. "Our little Pearl! Thou hast seen her—yes, I know it!—but thou wilt see her now with other eyes. She is a strange child! I hardly comprehend her! But thou wilt love her dearly, as I do, and wilt advise me how to deal with her!"
"Dost thou think the child will be glad to know me?" asked the minister, somewhat uneasily. "I have long shrunk from children, because they often show a distrust—a backwardness to be familiar with me. I have even been afraid of little Pearl!"
"Ah, that was sad!" answered the mother. "But she will love thee dearly, and thou her. She is not far off. I will call her. Pearl! Pearl!"
"I see the child," observed the minister. "Yonder she is, standing in a streak of sunshine, a good way off, on the other side of the brook. So thou thinkest the child will love me?"
Hester smiled, and again called to Pearl, who was visible at some distance, as the minister had described her, like a bright-apparelled vision in a sunbeam, which fell down upon her through an arch of boughs. The ray quivered to and fro, making her figure dim or distinct—now like a real child, now like a child's spirit—as the splendour went and came again. She heard her mother's voice, and approached slowly through the forest.
Pearl had not found the hour wearisomely while her mother sat talking with the clergyman. The great black forest—stern as it showed itself to those who brought the guilt and troubles of the world into its bosom—became the playmate of the lonely infant, as well as it knew how. Sombre as it was, it put on the kindest of its moods to welcome her. It offered her the partridge-berries, the growth of the preceding autumn, but ripening only in the spring, and now red as drops of blood upon the withered leaves. These Pearl gathered, and was pleased with their wild flavour. The small denizens of the wilderness hardly took pains to move out of her path. A partridge, indeed, with a brood of ten behind her, ran forward threateningly, but soon repented of her fierceness, and clucked to her young ones not to be afraid. A pigeon, alone on a low branch, allowed Pearl to come beneath, and uttered a sound as much of greeting as alarm. A squirrel, from the lofty depths of his domestic tree, chattered either in anger or merriment—for the squirrel is such a choleric and humorous little personage, that it is hard to distinguish between his moods—so he chattered at the child, and flung down a nut upon her head. It was a last year's nut, and already gnawed by his sharp tooth. A fox, startled from his sleep by her light footstep on the leaves, looked inquisitively at Pearl, as doubting whether it were better to steal off, or renew his nap on the same spot. A wolf, it is said—but here the tale has surely lapsed into the improbable—came up and smelt of Pearl's robe, and offered his savage head to be patted by her hand. The truth seems to be, however, that the mother-forest, and these wild things which it nourished, all recognised a kindred wilderness in the human child. And she was gentler here than in the grassy-margined streets of the settlement, or in her mother's cottage. The Bowers appeared to know it, and one and another whispered as she ed, "Adorn thyself with me, thou beautiful child, adorn thyself with me!"—and, to please them, Pearl gathered the violets, and anemones, and columbines, and some twigs of the freshest green, which the old trees held down before her eyes. With these she decorated her hair and her young waist, and became a nymph child, or an infant dryad, or whatever else was in closest sympathy with the antique wood. In such guise had Pearl adorned herself, when she heard her mother's voice, and came slowly back.
Slowly—for she saw the clergyman! |
|
|
|
UN TORRENTE DE LUZ Tal fue la simpata de la Naturaleza con la felicidad de estos dos espritus. El amor, ya brote por vez primera, o surja de cenizas casi apagadas, siempre tiene que crear un rayo de sol que llena el corazn de esplendores tales, que se esparcen en todo el mundo interior. Si la selva hubiera conservado aun su triste obscuridad, habra parecido sin embargo brillante a los ojos de Ester, y brillante igualmente a los de Arturo Dimmesdale.
Ester le dirigi una mirada llena de la luz de una nueva alegra.
—Tienes que conocer a Perla,—le dijo,—nuestra Perlita! T la has visto,—s, yo lo s,—pero la vers ahora con otros ojos. Es una nia singular. Apenas la comprendo. Pero t la amars tiernamente, como yo, y me aconsejars acerca del modo de manejarla.
—Crees que la nia se alegrar de conocerme?—pregunt el ministro visiblemente inquieto.—Siempre me he alejado de los nios, porque con frecuencia demuestran cierta desconfianza, una especie de encogimiento en entrar en relaciones familiares conmigo. Yo he temido siempre a Perla!
—Eso era triste,—respondi la madre,—pero ella te amar tiernamente y t la amars tambin. No se encuentra muy lejos. Voy a llamarla. Perla! Perla!
—Desde aqu la veo,—observ el ministro.—All est, en medio de la luz del sol, al otro lado del arroyuelo. De modo que crees que la nia me amar?
Ester sonri y llam de nuevo a Perla que estaba visible a cierta distancia, como el ministro haba dicho, y semejaba una brillante visin iluminada por un rayo de sol que caa sobre ella al travs de las ramas de los rboles. El rayo se agitaba de un lado a otro, haciendo que la nia pareciera ms o menos confusa, ya como una criatura humana, ora como una especie de espritu, a medida que el esplendor desapareca y retornaba. Oy la voz de su madre, y se dirigi a ella cruzando lentamente la selva.
Perla no haba hallado largo ni fastidioso el tiempo, mientras su madre y el ministro estuvieron hablando. La gran selva, que tan sombra y severa se presentaba a los que all traan la culpa y las angustias del mundo, se convirti en compaera de los juegos de esta solitaria nia. Se dira que, para divertirla, haba adoptado las maneras ms cautivadoras y halageas: le ofreci bayas exquisitas de rojizo color, que la nia recogi, deleitndose con su agreste sabor. Los pequeos moradores de aquella soledad apenas se apartaban del camino de la nia. Cierto es que una perdiz, seguida de diez perdigones, se adelant hacia ella con aire amenazador, pero pronto se arrepinti de su fiereza y se volvi tranquila al lado de su tierna prole, como dicindoles que no tuvieran temor. Un pichn de paloma, que estaba solo en una rama baja, permiti a Perla que se le acercase, y emiti un sonido que lo mismo poda ser un saludo que un grito de alarma. Una ardilla, desde lo alto del rbol en que tena su morada, charlaba en son de clera o de alegra, porque una ardilla es un animalito tan colrico y caprichoso que es muy difcil saber si est iracundo o de buen humor, y le arroj una nuez a la cabeza. Una zorra, a la que sobresalt el ruido ligero de los pasos de la nia sobre las hojas, mir con curiosidad a Perla como dudando qu sera mejor, si alejarse de all, o continuar su siesta como antes. Se dice que un lobo,—pero aqu ya la historia ha degenerado en lo improbable,—se acerc a Perla, olfate el vestido de la nia e inclin la feroz cabeza para que se la acariciara con su manecita. Sin embargo, lo que parece ser la verdad es que la selva, y todas estas silvestres criaturas a que daba sustento, reconocieron en aquella nia un ser humano de una naturaleza tan libre como la de ellas mismas.
Tambin la nia desplegaba aqu un carcter ms suave y dulce que en las calles herbosas de la poblacin, o en la morada de su madre. Las flores parecan conocerla, y en un susurro le iban diciendo cuando cerca de ellas pasaba: "Adrnate conmigo, linda nia, adrnate conmigo;"—y para darles gusto, Perla cogi violetas, y anmonas, y columbinas, y algunos ramos verdes, y se adorn los cabellos, y se rode la cintura, convirtindose en una ninfa infantil, en una tierna drada, o en algo que armonizaba con el antiguo bosque. De tal manera se haba adornado cuando oy la voz de su madre y se diriga a ella lentamente.
Lentamente, s, porque haba visto al ministro. |
English version
Versin en espaol
