Explore "Twice-Told Tales" by Nathaniel Hawthorne on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(SCENE, _the corner of two principal streets_,[1] _the_ TOWN-PUMP _talking through its nose_.)
Noon by the north clock! Noon by the east! High noon, too, by these hot sunbeams, which full, scarcely aslope, upon my head and almost make the water bubble and smoke in the trough under my nose. Truly, we public characters have a tough time of it! And among all the town-officers chosen at March meeting, where is he that sustains for a single year the burden of such manifold duties as are imposed in perpetuity upon the town-pump? The title of "town-treasurer" is rightfully mine, as guardian of the best treasure that the town has.