Quotation from: Wuthering Heights

Written by: Emily Bronte


One time I passed the old gate, going out of my way, on a journey
to Gimmerton. It was about the period that my narrative has
reached: a bright frosty afternoon; the ground bare, and the road
hard and dry. I came to a stone where the highway branches off on
to the moor at your left hand; a rough sand-pillar, with the
letters W. H. cut on its north side, on the east, G., and on the
south-west, T. G. It serves as a guide-post to the Grange, the
Heights, and village. The sun shone yellow on its grey head,
reminding me of summer; and I cannot say why, but all at once a
gush of child's sensations flowed into my heart. Hindley and I
held it a favourite spot twenty years before. I gazed long at the
weather-worn block; and, stooping down, perceived a hole near the
bottom still full of snail-shells and pebbles, which we were fond
of storing there with more perishable things; and, as fresh as
reality, it appeared that I beheld my early playmate seated on the
withered turf: his dark, square head bent forward, and his little
hand scooping out the earth with a piece of slate. 'Poor Hindley!'
I exclaimed, involuntarily. I started: my bodily eye was cheated
into a momentary belief that the child lifted its face and stared
straight into mine! It vanished in a twinkling; but immediately I
felt an irresistible yearning to be at the Heights. Superstition
urged me to comply with this impulse: supposing he should be dead!
I thought - or should die soon! - supposing it were a sign of
death! The nearer I got to the house the more agitated I grew; and
on catching sight of it I trembled in every limb. The apparition
had outstripped me: it stood looking through the gate. That was
my first idea on observing an elf-locked, brown-eyed boy setting
his ruddy countenance against the bars. Further reflection
suggested this must be Hareton, MY Hareton, not altered greatly
since I left him, ten months since.

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Old Dominion University CS Dept
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Part of a series of experiments in web preservation under the direction of Michael L. Nelson, Ph.D.