She
rose startled as soon as I entered the room.
"Elsie," said I, "I am come to take you home."
"Home? Why, I AM at home, am I not? What do you mean?"
"No. This is no longer your home. You have deceived me. You are
a Mormon. I know all. You have become a convert to that apostle
of hell, Brigham Young, and you cannot live with me. I love you
still, Elsie, dearly; but--you must go and live with your father."
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Minister's Black Veil
A PARABLE[1]
[1] Another clergyman in New England, Mr. Joseph Moody, of York,
Maine, made himself remarkable by the same eccentricity that is
here related of the Reverend Mr. Hooper. In his case, however,
the symbol had a different import. In early life he had
accidentally killed a beloved friend, and from that day till
the hour of his own death, he hid his face from men.
The sexton stood in the porch of Milford meeting-house, pulling
busily at the bell-rope. The old people of the village came
stooping along the street. Children, with bright faces, tripped
merrily beside their parents, or mimicked a graver gait, in the
conscious dignity of their Sunday clothes.
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