Footprints on the Sea-Shore (From "Twice Told Tales")Hawthorne, Nathaniel
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Footprints on the Sea-Shore (From "Twice Told Tales")
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Historical fiction, American; New England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories
It is a recess in the line of cliffs, walled round by a rough, high
precipice, which almost encircles and shuts in a little space of sand.
In front, the sea appears as between the pillars of a portal. In the
rear, the precipice is broken and intermixed with earth, which gives
nourishment not only to-clinging and twining shrubs, but to trees,
that gripe the rock with their naked roots, and seem to struggle hard
for footing and for soil enough to live upon. These are fir-trees;
but oaks hang their heavy branches from above, and throw down acorns
on the beach, and shed their withering foliage upon the waves. At
this autumnal season, the precipice is decked with variegated
splendor; trailing wreaths of scarlet flaunt from the summit downward;
tufts of yellow-flowering shrubs, and rose-bushes, with their reddened
leaves and glossy seed-berries, sprout from each crevice; at every
glance, I detect some new light or shade of beauty, all contrasting
with the stern, gray rock. A rill of water trickles down the cliff
and fills a little cistern near the base. I drain it at a draught,
and find it fresh and pure. This recess shall be my dining-hall.
And what the feast? A few biscuits, made savory by soaking them in
seawater, a tuft of samphire gathered from the beach, and an apple for
the dessert. By this time, the little rill has filled its reservoir
again; and, as I quaff it, I thank God morn heartily than for a civic
banquet, that he gives me the healthful appetite to make a feast of
bread and water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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