March 31, 2025 • 25 mins
A mysterious traveler with grand ambitions finds shelter with a humble mountain family, leading to deep conversations about legacy and mortality before an unexpected avalanche changes everything. Hawthorne's tragic tale explores how quickly life's dreams can vanish and the ironic twist of fate that erases all evidence of their existence.
• Set in a dangerous mountain pass where a family lives beneath a threatening mountainside
• A nameless ambitious young traveler arrives seeking shelter and connection
• Family members share their humble dreams and future aspirations around the hearth
• The stranger reveals his burning desire for lasting recognition and legacy
• Grandmother expresses her unusual wish to see herself properly prepared after death
• Sudden avalanche destroys everything, tragically killing all who sought safety outside
• Cottage remains intact with fire still burning, as if expecting the family's return
• The ambitious guest vanishes without trace, his greatest fear of anonymity fulfilled
• Story becomes a lasting mountain legend despite the characters' forgotten identities
If you enjoyed this reading of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Ambitious Guest," please subscribe to Ron Reads for more classic short stories from history's greatest authors.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, are you tired?
You will be Welcome to RonReads, the boring book series.
We're going to read anotherNathaniel Hawthorne short story.
(00:24):
This one is called theAmbitious Guest.
One September night, a familyhad gathered around their hearth
and piled it high, with thedriftwood of mountain streams,
the dry cones of the pines andthe splintered ruins of great
(00:47):
trees that had come crashingdown the precipice.
Up, the chimney roared the fireand brightened the room with
its broad blaze.
The faces of the father andmother had a sober gladness.
The children laughed.
The eldest daughter was theimage of happiness at seventeen.
(01:11):
The aged grandmother who satknitting in the warmest place
was the image of happiness.
Grown old, they had found theherb heart's ease in the
bleakest spot of all New England.
This family were situated in thenotch of the White Hills, where
(01:35):
the wind was sharp throughoutthe year and pitilessly cold in
the winter.
Cold in the winter, givingtheir cottage all its fresh
inclemency before it descendedon the valley of the Saco.
They dwelt in a cold spot, anda dangerous one, for a mountain
(01:57):
towered above their heads, sosteep that the stones would
often rumble down its sides andstartle them at night.
At midnight, the daughter hadjust uttered some simple jest
that filled them all with mirth.
Then the wind came through thenotch and seemed to pause before
(02:20):
their cottage, rattling thedoor with a sound of wailing and
lamentation before it passedinto the valley.
For a moment it saddened them,though there was nothing unusual
in the tones.
But the family were glad againwhen they perceived that the
latch was lifted by sometraveler whose footsteps had
(02:43):
been unheard amid the drearyblast which heralded his
approach and wailed as he wasentering and went moaning away
from the door.
Though they dwelt in such asolitude, these people held
daily converse with the world.
With the world, the romanticpass of the notch is a great
(03:07):
artery through which thelifeblood of internal commerce
is continually throbbing betweenMaine On the one side, in the
green mountains, and the shoresof the St Lawrence on the other.
The stagecoach always drew upbefore the door of the cottage,
the wayfarer, with no companionbut his staff paused there to
(03:32):
exchange a word.
That the sense of lonelinessmight not utterly overcome him,
ere he could pass through thecleft of the mountain or reach
the first house in the valley.
And here the teamster on hisway to portland market would put
up for the night.
And if a bachelor might sit anhour beyond the usual bedtime
(03:58):
and steal a kiss from themountain maid at parting.
It was one of those primitivetab taverns where the traveler
pays only for food and lodgingbut meets with a homely kindness
beyond all price.
When the footsteps were heard,therefore, between the outer
door and the inner one, thewhole family rose up,
(04:19):
grandmother, children and all,as if about to welcome someone
who belonged to them and whosefate was linked with theirs.
The door was opened by a youngman.
His face at first wore themelancholy expression, almost
despondency, of one who travelsa wild and bleak road at
(04:39):
midnight and alone, but soonbrightened up when he saw the
kindly warmth of his reception.
Alone.
But soon brightened up when hesaw the kindly warmth of his
reception, he felt his heartspring forward to meet them all,
from the old woman who wiped achair with her apron to the
little child that held out itsarms to him.
One glance and smile placed thestranger on a footing of
(05:02):
innocent familiarity with theoldest daughter, eldest daughter
.
Ah, this fires the right thing,he cried, especially when there
is such a pleasant circlearound it.
I'm quite benumbed, for thenotch is just like the pipe of a
great pair of bellows.
It has blown a terrible blastin my face all the way from
(05:26):
bartlett.
Then are you going towardsvermont, said the master of the
house.
Has he helped to make a lightknapsack?
To take a light knapsack offthe young man's shoulders?
I mean to have been at EthanCrawford's tonight, but a
(05:53):
pedestrian lingers along suchroads as this.
It's no matter, for when I sawthis good fire and all your
cheerful faces, I felt as if youhad kindled it on purpose for
me and were awaiting my arrival.
So I shall sit down among youand make myself at home.
So I shall sit down among youand make myself at home.
(06:20):
The frank-hearted stranger hadjust drawn his chair to the fire
when something like a heavyfootstep was heard, without
Rushing down the steep side ofthe mountain.
As with long and rapid strides,taking such a leap and passing
the cottage has to strike theopposite precipice.
(06:41):
The family held their breathbecause they knew the sound and
their guest was held by hisinstinct.
The old mountain has thrown astone at us, for we fear we
should forget him, said thelandlord, recovering himself.
He sometimes nods his head andthreatens to come down, but we
(07:04):
are old neighbors, and we agreetogether pretty well upon the
whole.
Besides, we have a sure placeof refuge.
Hard by, if he should becomingin good earnest.
Let us now suppose the strangerto have finished his supper of
bear's meat and, by his naturalfelicity of manner, to have
(07:26):
placed himself on a footing ofkindness with the whole family
so that they talked as freelytogether as if he belonged to
their mountain brood.
He was of a proud yet gentlespirit, haughty and reserved
among the rich and great, butever ready to stoop his head to
(07:46):
the lowly cottage door and belike a brother or son at the
poor man's fireside.
In the household of the notch,he found warmth and simplicity
of feeling, the pervadingintelligence of New England and
a poetry of native growth whichhad gathered, when they little
(08:10):
thought of it, in the mountainpeaks and chasms and at the very
threshold of their romantic anddangerous abode.
He had travelled far and alone.
His whole life, indeed, hadbeen a solitary path, for with
lofty caution of his nature, hehad kept himself apart from
(08:31):
those who might otherwise havebeen his companions.
The family too, thought so kindand hospitable, had that
consciousness of unity amongthemselves and separation from
the world at large which, inevery domestic circle, should
still keep a holy place where nostranger may intrude.
(08:51):
But this evening, a propheticsympathy impelled the refined
and educated youth to pour outhis heart before the simple
mountaineers and constrainedthem to answer him with the same
free confidence.
And thus it should have been.
Is not the kindred of a commonfate a closer tie than that of
(09:13):
birth?
Not the kindred of a commonfate a closer tie than that of
birth?
The secret of the young man'scharacter was a high and
abstracted ambition.
He could have been born to livean undistinguished life, but
not to be forgotten in the graveyearning.
(09:40):
Desire had been transformed tohope, and hope long cherished
had become like certainty that,obscurely as he journeyed now, a
glory was to beam on all hispathways, though not perhaps
while he was treading it.
But when posterity should gazeback into the gloom of what was
now present, they would tracethe brightness of his footsteps,
brightening as meaner gloriesfaded, and confess that a gifted
(10:06):
one had passed from his cradleto his tomb with none to
recognize him as yet, cried thestranger, his cheek glowing and
his eye flashing with enthusiasm.
As yet I have done nothing.
Were I to vanish from the earthtomorrow, none would know so
much of me as you that anameless youth came up at
(10:29):
nightfall from the valley of theSaco and opened his heart to
you in the evening and passedthrough the notch by sunrise and
was seen no more.
Not a soul would ask.
Who was he?
Whither did the wanderer go.
But I cannot die till I haveachieved my destiny.
Then let death come, I shallhave built my monument.
(10:53):
Then let death come, I shallhave built my monument.
There was a continual flow ofnatural emotion gushing forth
amid abstracted reverie, whichenabled the family to understand
this young man's sentiments,though so foreign from their own
(11:13):
.
With quick sensibility of theludicrous, he blushed at the
ardor into which he had beenbetrayed.
You laugh at me, said he,taking the eldest daughter's
hand and laughing himself.
You think my ambition asnonsensical, as if I were to
(11:34):
freeze myself to death on thetop of Mount Washington, only
that people might spy at me fromthe country round about.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And truly that would be a noble pedestal for a man's
statue it is better to sit hereby this fire answered the girl
blushing and be comfortable andcontented, though nobody thinks
about us and if my mind had beenturned that way, I might have
(12:03):
felt just the same.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It is strange, wife, how this talk has set my head
running on things that arepretty certain never to come to
pass.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Perhaps they may observed the wife.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Is the man thinking what he would do when he is a
widower?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
No, no, cried he, repelling the idea with
reproachful kindness.
When I think of your death,esther, I think of mine too, but
I was wishing we had a goodfarm in Bartlett or Bethlehem or
Littleton or some othertownship round the White
(12:56):
Mountains, but not where theycould tumble on our heads.
I should want to stand wellwith my neighbors and be called
squire and sent to the generalcourt for a term or two, for a
plain, honest man may do as muchgood there as a lawyer.
And when I should be grownquite an old man and you an old
(13:18):
woman, so as not to be longapart, I might die happy enough
in my bed and leave you allcrying around me.
A slate gravestone would suit meas well as a marble one.
Me, a slate gravestone wouldsuit me as well as a marble one
with just my name and age and averse of a hymn and something to
(13:42):
let people know that I lived anhonest man and died a Christian
.
There.
Now explained the stranger.
It is our nature to desire amonument, be it slate or marble
or pillar of granite, orglorious memory in the universal
heart of man.
We're in a strange way tonightsaid the wife with tears in her
(14:02):
eyes.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
They say it's a sign of something when folks' minds
go a-wondering.
So hark to the children.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
They listened accordingly.
The younger children had beenput to bed in another room, but
with an open door between, sothey could be heard talking
busily among themselves.
One and all seemed to havecaught the infection from the
fireside circle and were outvying each other's wild wishes
(14:32):
and childish projects of whatthey would do when they came to
be men and women.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
At length, a little boy, instead of addressing his
brothers and sisters, called outto his mother I'll tell you
what I wish mother "'I want youand father and grandmum and all
of us the stranger too "'tostart right away and go and take
a drink out of the basin of theflume'".
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Nobody could help laughing at the child's notion
of leaving a warm bed anddragging them from a cheerful
fire to visit the basin of theflume, a brook which tumbles
over the precipice and deepwithin the notch.
The boy had hardly spoken whena wagon rattled along the road
and stopped a moment before thedoor.
(15:24):
It appeared to contain two orthree men who were cheering
their hearts with the roughchorus of a song which resounded
in broken notes between thecliffs, whilst the singers
hesitated whether to continuetheir journey or put up here for
the night.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Father said the girl they are calling you by name.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
But the good man doubted whether they had really
caught him and was unwilling toshow himself too salacious of
game by inviting people topatronize his house his house.
(16:15):
He therefore did not hurry tothe door and, the lash being
soon applied, the travelersplunged into the notch, still
singing and laughing, thoughtheir music and mirth came back
drearily from the heart of themountain their mother cried the
boy again they have given us aride to the flume again they
laughed at the child'spernicious, pertinacious fancy
(16:40):
for a night ramble.
But it happened that a lightcloud passed over the daughter's
spirit.
She looked gravely into thefire and drew a breath that was
almost a sigh.
It forced its way in spite of alittle struggle to repress it.
Then, starting and blushing,she looked quickly around the
(17:02):
circle, as if they had caught aglimpse into her bosom.
The stranger asked what she hadbeen thinking of.
Nothing she answered she with adowncast smile.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Only I felt lonesome just then.
Oh, I have always had a gift offeeling what is in other
people's hearts.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Oh, oh.
I have always had a gift offeeling what is in other
people's hearts, of feeling whatis in other people's hearts,
said he half seriously.
Shall I tell the secrets ofyours, for I know what to think
when a young girl shivers by awarm hearth and complains of
lonesomeness at her mother'sside.
Shall I put these feelings intowords?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
They would not be a girl's feelings any longer if
they could be put into wordsreplied the mountain nymph,
laughing but avoiding his eye.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
All this was set apart.
Perhaps a germ of love wasspringing in their hearts, so
pure that it might blossom inparadise, since it could not be
matured on earth.
For women worship such gentledignity as his, and the proud,
contemplative yet kindly soul isoften captivated by a
(18:22):
simplicity like hers.
But while they spoke softly andhe was watching the happy
sadness, but while they spokesoftly and he was watching the
(18:45):
happy sadness, the lightsomeshadows, the shy yearnings of a
maiden's nature, the windthrough the notch took a deeper.
Who, in old Indian times, hadtheir dwelling among these
mountains and made their heightsand recesses a sacred region.
There was a wail along the road,as if a funeral were passing.
To chase away the gloom, thefamily threw pine branches on
(19:09):
the fire till the dry leavescrackled and the flame arose,
discovering once again a sceneof peace and humble happiness.
The light hovered about themfondly and caressed them all.
There were little faces ofchildren peeping from their bed
apart and here, the father'sframe of strength, a mother's
(19:30):
subdued and careful mane, thehigh-browed youth, the budding
girl and the good oldgrand-ma'am, grandum, still
knitting in the warmest place.
The aged woman looked up fromher task and, with fingers ever
busy, was the next to speak everbusy was the next to speak.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Old folks have their notions, she said, as well as
young ones.
You've been wishing andplanning and letting your heads
run on one thing and another.
Do you set my mind a-wanderingtoo?
Now, what should an old womanwish for when she can go but a
(20:14):
step or two before she comes toher grave children?
It will haunt me night and dayI tell you what is it mother?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
what is it mother?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
cried the husband and wife at once, then the old
woman, with an air of mysterywhich drew the circle closer
around the fire, finer sort thanshe had worn since her wedding
day.
But this evening an oldsuperstition had strangely
(20:53):
recurred to her.
It used to be said in heryounger days that if anything
were amiss with a corpse, ifonly the ruff were not smooth or
the cap did not set right thecorpse in the coffin and beneath
the clods would strive to putup its cold hands and arrange it
.
The bare thought made hernervous.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Don't talk so, grandmother said the girl
shuddering.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Now continued the old woman with a singular
earnestness, yet smilingstrangely at her own folly.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
I want one of you, my children, when your mother is
dressed and in the coffin, Iwant one of you to hold a
looking-glass over my face.
Who knows, but I may take aglimpse at myself and see
whether it's all right.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Old and young.
We dream of graves andmonuments, murmured the stranger
youth.
I wonder how mariners feel whenthe ship is sinking and they
unknown and undist her hearersthat a sound abroad in the night
, rising like the roar of ablast, had grown broad, deep and
(22:16):
terrible.
Before the fainted group wereconscious of it, the house and
all within it trembled.
The foundations of the earthseemed to be shaken, as if this
awful sound were the peal of thelast trump.
Young and old exchanged onewild glance and remained an
(22:39):
instant, pale, affrighted,without utterance or power to
move.
Then came the shriek burstsimultaneously from all their
lips.
The slide.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
The slide.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
The simplest words must be intimate but do not
portray the unutterable horrorof the catastrophe.
The victims rushed from theircottage and sought refuge in
what they deemed a safer spotwhere, in contemplation of such
an emergency, a sort of barrierhad been reared.
(23:16):
Alas, they had quitted theirsecurity and fled right into the
pathway of destruction.
Down came the whole side of themountain in a cataract of ruin.
Just before it reached thehouse, the stream broke into two
branches, shivered not a windowthere, but overwhelmed the
(23:38):
whole vicinity, blocked up theroad and annihilated everything
in its dreadful course.
Long ere the thunder of thegreat slide had ceased to roar
among the mountains.
The mortal agony had beenendured and the victims were at
peace.
Their bodies were never found.
The next morning, the lightsmoke was seen stealing from the
(24:01):
cottage chimney up themountainside.
Within, the fire was yetsmoldering on the hearth.
Within, the fire was yetsmoldering on the hearth, and
the chairs in a circle round it,as if the inhabitants had but
gone forth to view thedevastation of the slide and
would shortly return to thankheaven for their miraculous
(24:21):
escape.
All had left separate tokens.
All had left separate tokens bywhich those who had known the
family were made to shed a tearfor each who was not, who has
not heard their name.
The story has been told far andwide and will forever be a
legend of these mountains.
Poets have sung their fate.
(24:42):
There were circumstances whichled some to suppose that a
stranger had been received intothe cottage on this awful night
and had shared the catastropheof all its inmates.
Others denied that there weresufficient grounds for such a
conjecture.
His dream of earthlyimmortality.
(25:10):
His name and person, utterlyunknown.
His history, his way of life,his plans?
A mystery never to be solved.
His death and his existence?
Equally a doubt.
Whose was the agony of thatdeath moment?
This has been the AmbitiousGuest by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
(25:33):
You've been listening to RonReed's Another Boring Book.
Thank you for listening.
Hello, are you tired?
You will be Welcome to RonReads, the boring book series.
We're going to read anotherNathaniel Hawthorne short story.
(00:24):
This one is called theAmbitious Guest.
One September night, a familyhad gathered around their hearth
and piled it high, with thedriftwood of mountain streams,
the dry cones of the pines andthe splintered ruins of great
(00:47):
trees that had come crashingdown the precipice.
Up, the chimney roared the fireand brightened the room with
its broad blaze.
The faces of the father andmother had a sober gladness.
The children laughed.
The eldest daughter was theimage of happiness at seventeen.
(01:11):
The aged grandmother who satknitting in the warmest place
was the image of happiness.
Grown old, they had found theherb heart's ease in the
bleakest spot of all New England.
This family were situated in thenotch of the White Hills, where
(01:35):
the wind was sharp throughoutthe year and pitilessly cold in
the winter.
Cold in the winter, givingtheir cottage all its fresh
inclemency before it descendedon the valley of the Saco.
They dwelt in a cold spot, anda dangerous one, for a mountain
(01:57):
towered above their heads, sosteep that the stones would
often rumble down its sides andstartle them at night.
At midnight, the daughter hadjust uttered some simple jest
that filled them all with mirth.
Then the wind came through thenotch and seemed to pause before
(02:20):
their cottage, rattling thedoor with a sound of wailing and
lamentation before it passedinto the valley.
For a moment it saddened them,though there was nothing unusual
in the tones.
But the family were glad againwhen they perceived that the
latch was lifted by sometraveler whose footsteps had
(02:43):
been unheard amid the drearyblast which heralded his
approach and wailed as he wasentering and went moaning away
from the door.
Though they dwelt in such asolitude, these people held
daily converse with the world.
With the world, the romanticpass of the notch is a great
(03:07):
artery through which thelifeblood of internal commerce
is continually throbbing betweenMaine On the one side, in the
green mountains, and the shoresof the St Lawrence on the other.
The stagecoach always drew upbefore the door of the cottage,
the wayfarer, with no companionbut his staff paused there to
(03:32):
exchange a word.
That the sense of lonelinessmight not utterly overcome him,
ere he could pass through thecleft of the mountain or reach
the first house in the valley.
And here the teamster on hisway to portland market would put
up for the night.
And if a bachelor might sit anhour beyond the usual bedtime
(03:58):
and steal a kiss from themountain maid at parting.
It was one of those primitivetab taverns where the traveler
pays only for food and lodgingbut meets with a homely kindness
beyond all price.
When the footsteps were heard,therefore, between the outer
door and the inner one, thewhole family rose up,
(04:19):
grandmother, children and all,as if about to welcome someone
who belonged to them and whosefate was linked with theirs.
The door was opened by a youngman.
His face at first wore themelancholy expression, almost
despondency, of one who travelsa wild and bleak road at
(04:39):
midnight and alone, but soonbrightened up when he saw the
kindly warmth of his reception.
Alone.
But soon brightened up when hesaw the kindly warmth of his
reception, he felt his heartspring forward to meet them all,
from the old woman who wiped achair with her apron to the
little child that held out itsarms to him.
One glance and smile placed thestranger on a footing of
(05:02):
innocent familiarity with theoldest daughter, eldest daughter
.
Ah, this fires the right thing,he cried, especially when there
is such a pleasant circlearound it.
I'm quite benumbed, for thenotch is just like the pipe of a
great pair of bellows.
It has blown a terrible blastin my face all the way from
(05:26):
bartlett.
Then are you going towardsvermont, said the master of the
house.
Has he helped to make a lightknapsack?
To take a light knapsack offthe young man's shoulders?
I mean to have been at EthanCrawford's tonight, but a
(05:53):
pedestrian lingers along suchroads as this.
It's no matter, for when I sawthis good fire and all your
cheerful faces, I felt as if youhad kindled it on purpose for
me and were awaiting my arrival.
So I shall sit down among youand make myself at home.
So I shall sit down among youand make myself at home.
(06:20):
The frank-hearted stranger hadjust drawn his chair to the fire
when something like a heavyfootstep was heard, without
Rushing down the steep side ofthe mountain.
As with long and rapid strides,taking such a leap and passing
the cottage has to strike theopposite precipice.
(06:41):
The family held their breathbecause they knew the sound and
their guest was held by hisinstinct.
The old mountain has thrown astone at us, for we fear we
should forget him, said thelandlord, recovering himself.
He sometimes nods his head andthreatens to come down, but we
(07:04):
are old neighbors, and we agreetogether pretty well upon the
whole.
Besides, we have a sure placeof refuge.
Hard by, if he should becomingin good earnest.
Let us now suppose the strangerto have finished his supper of
bear's meat and, by his naturalfelicity of manner, to have
(07:26):
placed himself on a footing ofkindness with the whole family
so that they talked as freelytogether as if he belonged to
their mountain brood.
He was of a proud yet gentlespirit, haughty and reserved
among the rich and great, butever ready to stoop his head to
(07:46):
the lowly cottage door and belike a brother or son at the
poor man's fireside.
In the household of the notch,he found warmth and simplicity
of feeling, the pervadingintelligence of New England and
a poetry of native growth whichhad gathered, when they little
(08:10):
thought of it, in the mountainpeaks and chasms and at the very
threshold of their romantic anddangerous abode.
He had travelled far and alone.
His whole life, indeed, hadbeen a solitary path, for with
lofty caution of his nature, hehad kept himself apart from
(08:31):
those who might otherwise havebeen his companions.
The family too, thought so kindand hospitable, had that
consciousness of unity amongthemselves and separation from
the world at large which, inevery domestic circle, should
still keep a holy place where nostranger may intrude.
(08:51):
But this evening, a propheticsympathy impelled the refined
and educated youth to pour outhis heart before the simple
mountaineers and constrainedthem to answer him with the same
free confidence.
And thus it should have been.
Is not the kindred of a commonfate a closer tie than that of
(09:13):
birth?
Not the kindred of a commonfate a closer tie than that of
birth?
The secret of the young man'scharacter was a high and
abstracted ambition.
He could have been born to livean undistinguished life, but
not to be forgotten in the graveyearning.
(09:40):
Desire had been transformed tohope, and hope long cherished
had become like certainty that,obscurely as he journeyed now, a
glory was to beam on all hispathways, though not perhaps
while he was treading it.
But when posterity should gazeback into the gloom of what was
now present, they would tracethe brightness of his footsteps,
brightening as meaner gloriesfaded, and confess that a gifted
(10:06):
one had passed from his cradleto his tomb with none to
recognize him as yet, cried thestranger, his cheek glowing and
his eye flashing with enthusiasm.
As yet I have done nothing.
Were I to vanish from the earthtomorrow, none would know so
much of me as you that anameless youth came up at
(10:29):
nightfall from the valley of theSaco and opened his heart to
you in the evening and passedthrough the notch by sunrise and
was seen no more.
Not a soul would ask.
Who was he?
Whither did the wanderer go.
But I cannot die till I haveachieved my destiny.
Then let death come, I shallhave built my monument.
(10:53):
Then let death come, I shallhave built my monument.
There was a continual flow ofnatural emotion gushing forth
amid abstracted reverie, whichenabled the family to understand
this young man's sentiments,though so foreign from their own
(11:13):
.
With quick sensibility of theludicrous, he blushed at the
ardor into which he had beenbetrayed.
You laugh at me, said he,taking the eldest daughter's
hand and laughing himself.
You think my ambition asnonsensical, as if I were to
(11:34):
freeze myself to death on thetop of Mount Washington, only
that people might spy at me fromthe country round about.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And truly that would be a noble pedestal for a man's
statue it is better to sit hereby this fire answered the girl
blushing and be comfortable andcontented, though nobody thinks
about us and if my mind had beenturned that way, I might have
(12:03):
felt just the same.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It is strange, wife, how this talk has set my head
running on things that arepretty certain never to come to
pass.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Perhaps they may observed the wife.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Is the man thinking what he would do when he is a
widower?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
No, no, cried he, repelling the idea with
reproachful kindness.
When I think of your death,esther, I think of mine too, but
I was wishing we had a goodfarm in Bartlett or Bethlehem or
Littleton or some othertownship round the White
(12:56):
Mountains, but not where theycould tumble on our heads.
I should want to stand wellwith my neighbors and be called
squire and sent to the generalcourt for a term or two, for a
plain, honest man may do as muchgood there as a lawyer.
And when I should be grownquite an old man and you an old
(13:18):
woman, so as not to be longapart, I might die happy enough
in my bed and leave you allcrying around me.
A slate gravestone would suit meas well as a marble one.
Me, a slate gravestone wouldsuit me as well as a marble one
with just my name and age and averse of a hymn and something to
(13:42):
let people know that I lived anhonest man and died a Christian
.
There.
Now explained the stranger.
It is our nature to desire amonument, be it slate or marble
or pillar of granite, orglorious memory in the universal
heart of man.
We're in a strange way tonightsaid the wife with tears in her
(14:02):
eyes.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
They say it's a sign of something when folks' minds
go a-wondering.
So hark to the children.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
They listened accordingly.
The younger children had beenput to bed in another room, but
with an open door between, sothey could be heard talking
busily among themselves.
One and all seemed to havecaught the infection from the
fireside circle and were outvying each other's wild wishes
(14:32):
and childish projects of whatthey would do when they came to
be men and women.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
At length, a little boy, instead of addressing his
brothers and sisters, called outto his mother I'll tell you
what I wish mother "'I want youand father and grandmum and all
of us the stranger too "'tostart right away and go and take
a drink out of the basin of theflume'".
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Nobody could help laughing at the child's notion
of leaving a warm bed anddragging them from a cheerful
fire to visit the basin of theflume, a brook which tumbles
over the precipice and deepwithin the notch.
The boy had hardly spoken whena wagon rattled along the road
and stopped a moment before thedoor.
(15:24):
It appeared to contain two orthree men who were cheering
their hearts with the roughchorus of a song which resounded
in broken notes between thecliffs, whilst the singers
hesitated whether to continuetheir journey or put up here for
the night.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Father said the girl they are calling you by name.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
But the good man doubted whether they had really
caught him and was unwilling toshow himself too salacious of
game by inviting people topatronize his house his house.
(16:15):
He therefore did not hurry tothe door and, the lash being
soon applied, the travelersplunged into the notch, still
singing and laughing, thoughtheir music and mirth came back
drearily from the heart of themountain their mother cried the
boy again they have given us aride to the flume again they
laughed at the child'spernicious, pertinacious fancy
(16:40):
for a night ramble.
But it happened that a lightcloud passed over the daughter's
spirit.
She looked gravely into thefire and drew a breath that was
almost a sigh.
It forced its way in spite of alittle struggle to repress it.
Then, starting and blushing,she looked quickly around the
(17:02):
circle, as if they had caught aglimpse into her bosom.
The stranger asked what she hadbeen thinking of.
Nothing she answered she with adowncast smile.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Only I felt lonesome just then.
Oh, I have always had a gift offeeling what is in other
people's hearts.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Oh, oh.
I have always had a gift offeeling what is in other
people's hearts, of feeling whatis in other people's hearts,
said he half seriously.
Shall I tell the secrets ofyours, for I know what to think
when a young girl shivers by awarm hearth and complains of
lonesomeness at her mother'sside.
Shall I put these feelings intowords?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
They would not be a girl's feelings any longer if
they could be put into wordsreplied the mountain nymph,
laughing but avoiding his eye.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
All this was set apart.
Perhaps a germ of love wasspringing in their hearts, so
pure that it might blossom inparadise, since it could not be
matured on earth.
For women worship such gentledignity as his, and the proud,
contemplative yet kindly soul isoften captivated by a
(18:22):
simplicity like hers.
But while they spoke softly andhe was watching the happy
sadness, but while they spokesoftly and he was watching the
(18:45):
happy sadness, the lightsomeshadows, the shy yearnings of a
maiden's nature, the windthrough the notch took a deeper.
Who, in old Indian times, hadtheir dwelling among these
mountains and made their heightsand recesses a sacred region.
There was a wail along the road,as if a funeral were passing.
To chase away the gloom, thefamily threw pine branches on
(19:09):
the fire till the dry leavescrackled and the flame arose,
discovering once again a sceneof peace and humble happiness.
The light hovered about themfondly and caressed them all.
There were little faces ofchildren peeping from their bed
apart and here, the father'sframe of strength, a mother's
(19:30):
subdued and careful mane, thehigh-browed youth, the budding
girl and the good oldgrand-ma'am, grandum, still
knitting in the warmest place.
The aged woman looked up fromher task and, with fingers ever
busy, was the next to speak everbusy was the next to speak.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Old folks have their notions, she said, as well as
young ones.
You've been wishing andplanning and letting your heads
run on one thing and another.
Do you set my mind a-wanderingtoo?
Now, what should an old womanwish for when she can go but a
(20:14):
step or two before she comes toher grave children?
It will haunt me night and dayI tell you what is it mother?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
what is it mother?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
cried the husband and wife at once, then the old
woman, with an air of mysterywhich drew the circle closer
around the fire, finer sort thanshe had worn since her wedding
day.
But this evening an oldsuperstition had strangely
(20:53):
recurred to her.
It used to be said in heryounger days that if anything
were amiss with a corpse, ifonly the ruff were not smooth or
the cap did not set right thecorpse in the coffin and beneath
the clods would strive to putup its cold hands and arrange it
.
The bare thought made hernervous.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Don't talk so, grandmother said the girl
shuddering.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Now continued the old woman with a singular
earnestness, yet smilingstrangely at her own folly.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
I want one of you, my children, when your mother is
dressed and in the coffin, Iwant one of you to hold a
looking-glass over my face.
Who knows, but I may take aglimpse at myself and see
whether it's all right.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Old and young.
We dream of graves andmonuments, murmured the stranger
youth.
I wonder how mariners feel whenthe ship is sinking and they
unknown and undist her hearersthat a sound abroad in the night
, rising like the roar of ablast, had grown broad, deep and
(22:16):
terrible.
Before the fainted group wereconscious of it, the house and
all within it trembled.
The foundations of the earthseemed to be shaken, as if this
awful sound were the peal of thelast trump.
Young and old exchanged onewild glance and remained an
(22:39):
instant, pale, affrighted,without utterance or power to
move.
Then came the shriek burstsimultaneously from all their
lips.
The slide.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
The slide.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
The simplest words must be intimate but do not
portray the unutterable horrorof the catastrophe.
The victims rushed from theircottage and sought refuge in
what they deemed a safer spotwhere, in contemplation of such
an emergency, a sort of barrierhad been reared.
(23:16):
Alas, they had quitted theirsecurity and fled right into the
pathway of destruction.
Down came the whole side of themountain in a cataract of ruin.
Just before it reached thehouse, the stream broke into two
branches, shivered not a windowthere, but overwhelmed the
(23:38):
whole vicinity, blocked up theroad and annihilated everything
in its dreadful course.
Long ere the thunder of thegreat slide had ceased to roar
among the mountains.
The mortal agony had beenendured and the victims were at
peace.
Their bodies were never found.
The next morning, the lightsmoke was seen stealing from the
(24:01):
cottage chimney up themountainside.
Within, the fire was yetsmoldering on the hearth.
Within, the fire was yetsmoldering on the hearth, and
the chairs in a circle round it,as if the inhabitants had but
gone forth to view thedevastation of the slide and
would shortly return to thankheaven for their miraculous
(24:21):
escape.
All had left separate tokens.
All had left separate tokens bywhich those who had known the
family were made to shed a tearfor each who was not, who has
not heard their name.
The story has been told far andwide and will forever be a
legend of these mountains.
Poets have sung their fate.
(24:42):
There were circumstances whichled some to suppose that a
stranger had been received intothe cottage on this awful night
and had shared the catastropheof all its inmates.
Others denied that there weresufficient grounds for such a
conjecture.
His dream of earthlyimmortality.
(25:10):
His name and person, utterlyunknown.
His history, his way of life,his plans?
A mystery never to be solved.
His death and his existence?
Equally a doubt.
Whose was the agony of thatdeath moment?
This has been the AmbitiousGuest by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
(25:33):
You've been listening to RonReed's Another Boring Book.
Thank you for listening.
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