"the ambitious guest" by nathaniel hawthorne

nathaniel hawthorne lived and wrote in the puritanical culture of 19th century new england. in the decade after he completed college, he spent most of his time in solitude writing his early short stories and a novel. when he was unable to support himself by writing, he tried several careers, but continued to write novels and short stories. although he visited england and italy, his best-known stories describe the gloom and loneliness of life in new england. he died in 1864.

one september night a family had gathered round their hearth, and piled it high with the driftwood of mountain streams, the dry cones of the pine, and the splintered ruins of great trees that had come crashing down the precipice. up the chimney roared the fire, and brightened the room with its broad blaze. the faces of the father and mother had a sober gladness; the children laughed; the eldest daughter was the image of happiness at seventeen; and the aged grandmother, who sat knitting in the warmest place, was the image of happiness grown old. they had found the "herb, heart's-ease," in the bleakest spot of all new england. this family was situated in the notch of the white hills, where the wind was sharp throughout the year, and pitilessly cold in the winter, —giving their cottage all its fresh inclemency before it descended on the valley of the saco. they dwelt in a cold spot and a dangerous one; for a mountain towered above their heads, so steep, that the stones would often rumble down its sides and startle them at midnight.

the daughter had just uttered some simple jest that filled them all with mirth, when the wind came through the notch and seemed to pause before their cottage—rattling the door, with a sound of wailing and lamentation, before it passed into the valley.

the family were glad again when they perceived that the latch was lifted by some traveller, whose footsteps had been unheard amid the dreary blast which heralded his approach, and wailed as he was entering, and went moaning away from the door.

the door was opened by a young man. his face at first wore the melancholy expression, almost despondency, of one who travels a wild and bleak road, at nightfall and alone, but soon brightened up when he saw the kindly warmth of his reception. he felt his heart spring forward to meet them all, from the old woman, who wiped a chair with her apron, to the little child that held out its arms to him. one glance and smile laced the stranger on a footing of innocent familiarity with the eldest daughter.

"ah, this fire is the right thing! " cried he; "especially when there is such a pleasant circle round it. i am quite benumbed; for the notch is just like the pipe of a great pair of bellows; it has blown a terrible blast in my face all the way from bartlett."

let us now suppose the stranger to have finished his supper of bear's meat; and, by his natural felicity of manner, to have placed himself on a footing of kindness with the whole family, so that they talked as freely together as if he belonged to their mountain brood.

this evening a prophetic sympathy impelled the refined and educated youth to pour out his heart before the simple mountaineers, and constrained them to answer him with the same free confidence. and thus it should have been. is not the kindred of a common fate a closer tie than that of birth?

the secret of the young man's character was a high and abstracted ambition. he could have borne to live an undistinguished life, but not to be forgotten in the grave.

when posterity should gaze back into the gloom of what was now the present, they would trace the brightness of his footsteps, brightening as meaner glories faded, and confess that a gifted one had passed from his cradle to his tomb with none to recognize him.

"as yet," cried the stranger—his cheek glowing and his eyes flashing with enthusiasm—"as yet, i have done nothing."

look at the examples in highlighted text in the passage. which example shows the influence that living in new england had on hawthorne's writing?

a. "ah, this fire is the right thing! ". .
b. one glance and smile laced . .
c. this family was situated in the notch . .
d. up the chimney roared . .