Nathaniel Hawthorne

Septimius Felton Nathaniel Hawthorne

It was a day in early spring; and as that sweet, genial time of year and atmosphere calls out tender greenness from the ground, -beautiful flowers, or leaves that look beautiful because so long unseen under the snow and decay, -so the pleasant air and warmth had called out three young people, who sat on a sunny hill-side enjoying the warm day and one another. For they were all friends: two of them young men, and playmates from boyhood; the third, a girl, who, two or three years younger than themselves, had been the object of their boy-love, their little rustic, childish gallantries, their budding affections; until, growing all towards manhood and womanhood, they had ceased to talk about such matters, perhaps thinking about them the mor