Read "Fanshawe" by Nathaniel Hawthorne online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"The seeds by nature planted Take a deep root in the soil, and though for a time The trenchant share and tearing harrow may Sweep all appearance of them from the surface, Yet with the first warm rains of spring they'll shoot, And with their rankness smother the good grain. Heaven grant, it mayn't be so with him. " RICHES.
The scene of this tale must now be changed to the little inn, which at that period, as at the present, was situated in the vicinity of Harley College. The site of the modern establishment is the same with that of the ancient; but everything of the latter that had been built by hands has gone to decay and been removed, and only the earth beneath and around it remains the same. The modern building, a house of two stories, after a lapse of twenty years, is yet unfinished. On this account, it has retained the appellation of the "New Inn," though, like many who have frequented it, it has grown old ere its maturity. Its dingy whiteness, and its apparent superfluity of windows (many of them being closed with rough boards), give it somewhat of a dreary look, especially in a wet day.