TWICE-TOLD TALES by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE PHILADELPHIA: DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER, 23 SOUTH NINTH STREET 1889 CONTENTS THE GRAY CHAMPION SUNDAY AT HOME THE WEDDING-KNELL THE MINISTER’S BLACK VEIL THE MAYPOLE OF MERRY MOUNT THE GENTLE BOY MR. HIGGINBOTHAM’S CATASTROPHE LITTLE ANNIE’S RAMBLE WAKEFIELD A RILL FROM THE TOWN PUMP THE GREAT CARBUNCLE THE PROPHETIC PICTURES DAVID SWAN SIGHTS FROM A STEEPLE THE HOLLOW OF THE THREE HILLS THE TOLL-GATHERER’S DAY THE VISION OF THE FOUNTAIN FANCY’S SHOW-BOX DR. HEIDEGGER’S EXPERIMENT LEGENDS OF THE PROVINCE HOUSE: I. HOWE’S MASQUERADE II. EDWARD RANDOLPH’S PORTRAIT III. LADY ELEANORE’S MANTLE IV. OLD ESTHER DUDLEY THE HAUNTED MIND THE VILLAGE UNCLE THE AMBITIOUS GUEST THE SISTER-YEARS SNOWFLAKES THE SEVEN VAGABONDS THE WHITE OLD MAID PETER GOLDTHWAITE’S TREASURE CHIPPINGS WITH A CHISEL THE SHAKER BRIDAL NIGHT-SKETCHES ENDICOTT AND THE RED CROSS THE LILY’S QUEST FOOTPRINTS ON THE SEASHORE EDWARD FANE’S ROSEBUD THE THREEFOLD DESTINY Twice-Told Tales THE GRAY CHAMPION There was once a time when New England groaned under the actual pressure of heavier wrongs than those threatened ones which brought on the Revolution. James II., the bigoted successor of Charles the Voluptuous, had annulled the charters of all the colonies and sent a harsh and unprincipled soldier to take away our liberties and endanger our religion. The administration of Sir Edmund Andros lacked scarcely a single characteristic of tyranny—a governor and council holding office from the king and wholly independent of the country; laws made and taxes levied without concurrence of the people, immediate or by their representatives; the rights of private citizens violated and the titles of all landed property declared void; the voice of complaint stifled by restrictions on the press; and finally, disaffection overawed by the first band of mercenary troops that ever marched on our free soil. For two years our ancestors were kept in sullen submission by that filial love which had invariably secured their allegiance to the mother-country, whether its head chanced to be a Parliament, Protector or popish monarch. Till these evil times, however, such allegiance had been merely nominal, and the colonists had ruled themselves, enjoying far more freedom than is even yet the privilege of the native subjects of Great Britain.