a military muster, or a fire.  A great conflagration attracted him in a peculiar manner, and he is remembered, while a young man in Salem, to have been often seen looking on, from some dark corner, while the fire was raging.  When General Jackson, of whom he professed himself a partisan, visited Salem in 1833, he walked out to the boundary of the town to meet him,—­not to speak to him, but only to look at him.  When he came home at night he said he found only a few men and boys collected, not enough people, without the assistance he rendered, to welcome the General with a good cheer.  It is said that Susan, in the “Village Uncle,” one of the “Twice-Told Tales,” is not altogether a creation of his fancy.  Her father was a fisherman living in Salem, and Hawthorne was constantly telling the members of his family how charming she was, and he always spoke of her as his “mermaid.”  He said she had a great deal of what the French call espieglerie.  There was another young beauty, living at that time in his native town, quite captivating to him, though in a different style from the mermaid.  But if his head and heart were turned in his youth by these two nymphs in his native town, there was soon a transfer of his affections to quite another direction.  His new passion was a much more permanent one, for now there dawned upon him so perfect a creature that he fell in love irrevocably; all his thoughts and all his delights centred in her, who suddenly became indeed the mistress of his soul.  She filled the measure of his being, and became a part and parcel of his life.  Who was this mysterious young person that had crossed his boyhood’s path and made him hers forever?  Whose daughter was she that could thus enthrall the ardent young man in Salem, who knew as yet so little of the world and its sirens?  She is described by one who met her long before Hawthorne made her acquaintance as “the prettiest low-born lass that ever ran on the greensward,” and she must have been a radiant child of beauty, indeed, that girl!  She danced like a fairy, she sang exquisitely, so that every one who knew her seemed amazed at her perfect way of doing everything she attempted.  Who was it that thus summoned all this witchery, making such a tumult in young Hawthorne’s bosom?  She was “daughter to Leontes and Hermione,” king and queen of Sicilia, and her name was Perdita!  It was Shakespeare who introduced Hawthorne to his first real love, and the lover never forgot his mistress.  He was constant ever, and worshipped her through life.  Beauty always captivated him.  Where there was beauty he fancied other good gifts must naturally be in possession.  During his childhood homeliness was always repulsive to him.  When a little boy he is remembered to have said to a woman who wished to be kind to him, “Take her away!  She is ugly and fat, and has a loud voice.”

When quite a young man he applied for a situation under Commodore Wilkes on the Exploring Expedition, but did not succeed in obtaining an appointment.  He thought this a great misfortune, as he was fond of travel, and he promised to do all sorts of wonderful things, should he be allowed to join the voyagers.