None so ready as she to
give of her little substance to every demand of poverty, even
though the bitter-hearted pauper threw back a gibe in requital
of the food brought regularly to his door, or the garments
wrought for him by the fingers that could have embroidered a
monarch's robe. None so self-devoted as Hester when pestilence
stalked through the town. In all seasons of calamity, indeed,
whether general or of individuals, the outcast of society at
once found her place. She came, not as a guest, but as a
rightful inmate, into the household that was darkened by
trouble, as if its gloomy twilight were a medium in which she
was entitled to hold intercourse with her fellow-creature. There
glimmered the embroidered letter, with comfort in its unearthly
ray. Elsewhere the token of sin, it was the taper of the sick
chamber. It had even thrown its gleam, in the sufferer's bard
extremity, across the verge of time. It had shown him where to
set his foot, while the light of earth was fast becoming dim,
and ere the light of futurity could reach him. In such
emergencies Hester's nature showed itself warm and rich--a
well-spring of human tenderness, unfailing to every real demand,
and inexhaustible by the largest.
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