— Who  next? — Oh,  my  little  friend,  you
are  let  loose  from  school  and  come  here  to  scrub  your
blooming  face  and  drown  the  memory  of  certain  taps  of
the  ferule,  and  other  school-boy  troubles,  in  a  draught
from  the  town-pump?  Take  it,  pure  as  the  current  of
your  young  life. Take  it,  and  may  your  heart  and  tongue
never  be  scorched  with  a  fiercer  thirst  than  now !  There,
my  dear  child!  put  down  the  cup  and  yield  your  place
to  this  elderly  gentleman  who  treads  so  tenderly  over  the
paving-stones  that  I  suspect  he  is  afraid  of  breaking
them. What !  he  limps  by  without  so  much  as  thanking
me,  as  if  my  hospitable  offers  were  meant  only  for  peo-
ple who  have  no  wine-cellars. — Well,  well,  sir,  no  harm
done,  I  hope?  Go  draw  the  cork,  tip  the  decanter;  but
when  your  great  toe  shall  set  you  a-roaring,  it  will  be  no
affair  of  mine. If  gentlemen  love  the  pleasant  titilla-
tion  of  the  gout,  it  is  all  one  to  the  town-pump. This
thirsty  dog  with  his  red  tongue  lolling  out  does  not
•  scorn  my  hospitality,  but  stands  on  his  hind  legs  and


NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE  247

laps  eagerly  out  of  the  trough. See  how  lightly  he
capers  away  again ! — Jowler,  did  your  worship  ever  have
the  gout?

Are  you  all  satisfied?  Then  wipe  your  mouths,  my
good  friends,  and  while  my  spout  has  a  moment's  leisure
I  will  delight  the  town  with  a  few  historical  remini-
scences. In  far  antiquity,  beneath  a  darksome  shadow
of  venerable  boughs,  a  spring  bubbled  out  of  the  leaf-
strewn  earth  in  the  very  spot  where  you  now  behold  me
on  the  sunny  pavement. The  water  was  as  bright  and
clear  and  deemed  as  precious  as  liquid  diamonds. The
Indian  sagamores  drank  of  it  from  time  immemorial  till
the  fatal  deluge  of  the  fire-water  burst  upon  the  red  men
and  swept  their  whole  race  away  from  the  cold  foun-
tains. Endicott  and  his  followers  came  next,  and  often
knelt  down  to  drink,  dipping  their  long  beards  in  the
spring. The  richest  goblet  then  was  of  birch-bark. Gov-
ernor Winthrop,  after  a  journey  afoot  from  Boston,
drank  here  out  of  the  hollow  of  his  hand. The  elder
Higginson  here  wet  his  palm  and  laid  it  on  the  brow  of
the  first  town-bom  child. 