Nathaniel Hawthorne (b.1804, d.1864) was born in Salem, Mass. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1825. His earliest literary productions, written for periodicals, were published in two volumes—the first in 1837, the second in 1842—under the title of "Twice-Told Tales," "Mosses from an Old Manse," another series of tales and sketches, was published in 1845. From 1846 to 1850 he was surveyor of the port of Salem. In 1852 he was appointed United States consul for Liverpool. After holding this office four years, he traveled for some time on the continent. His most popular works are "The Scarlet Letter," a work showing a deep knowledge of human nature,"The House of the Seven Gables," "The Blithedale Romance." and "The Marble Faun," an Italian romance, which is regarded by many as the best of his works. Being of a modest and retiring disposition, Mr. Hawthorne avoided publicity. Most of his works are highly imaginative. As a prose writer he has no superior among American authors. He died at Plymouth, N. H., while on a visit to the White Mountains for his health.

[SCENE.—The corner of two principal streets. The Town Pump talking through its nose.]

Noon, by the north clock! Noon, by the east! High noon, too, by those hot sunbeams which fall, 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 the yearly 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 the town has. The overseers of the poor ought to make me their chairman, since I provide bountifully for the pauper, without expense to him that pays taxes. I am at the head of the fire department, and one of the physicians of the board of health. As a keeper or the peace, all water drinkers confess me equal to the constable. I perform some of the duties of the town clerk, by promulgating public notices, when they are pasted on my front.

To speak within bounds, I am chief person of the municipality, and exhibit, moreover, an admirable pattern to my brother officers by the cool, steady, upright, downright, and impartial discharge of my business, and the constancy with which I stand to my post. Summer or winter, nobody seeks me in vain; for all day long I am seen at the busiest corner, just above the market, stretching out my arms to rich and poor alike; and at night I hold a lantern over my head, to show where I am, and to keep people out of the gutters.

At this sultry noontide, I am cupbearer to the parched populace, for whose benefit an iron goblet is chained to my waist Like a dramseller on the public square, on a muster day, I cry aloud to all and sundry, in my plainest accents, and at the very tiptop of my voice. "Here it is, gentlemen! Here is the good liquor! Walk up, walk up, gentlemen, walk up, walk up! Here is the superior stuff! Here is the unadulterated ale of father Adam! better than Cognac, Hollands, Jamaica, strong beer, or wine of any price; here it is, by the hogshead or the single glass, and not a cent to pay. Walk up, gentlemen, walk up and help yourselves!"

It were a pity if all this outcry should draw no customers. Here they come. A hot day, gentlemen. Quaff and away again, so as to keep yourselves in a nice, cool sweat. You, my friend, will need another cupful to wash the dust out of your throat, if it be as thick there as it is on your cowhide shoes. I see that you have trudged half a score of miles to-day, and, like a wise man, have passed by the taverns, and stopped at the running brooks and well curbs. Otherwise, betwixt heat without and fire within, you would have been burnt to a cinder, or melted down to nothing at all—in the fashion of a jellyfish.

Drink, and make room for that other fellow, who seeks my aid to quench the fiery fever of last night's potations, which he drained from no cup of mine. Welcome, most rubicund sir! You and I have been strangers hitherto; nor, to confess the truth, will my nose be anxious for a closer intimacy, till the fumes of your breath be a little less potent.

Mercy on you, man! The water absolutely hisses down your red-hot gullet, and is converted quite into steam in the miniature Tophet, which you mistake for a stomach. Fill again, and tell me, on the word of an honest toper, did you ever, in cellar, tavern, or any other kind of dramshop, spend the price of your children's food for a swig half so delicious? Now, for the first time these ten years, you know the flavor of cold water. Good-by; and whenever you are thirsty, recollect that I keep a constant supply at the old stand.

Who next? Oh, my little friend, you are just let loose from school, and come hither to scrub your blooming face, and drown the memory of certain taps of the ferule, and other schoolboy troubles, in a draught from the Town Pump. Take it, pure as the current of your young life; take it, and may your heart and tongue never be scorched with a fiercer thirst than now.

There, my dear child, put down the cup, and yield your place to this elderly gentleman, who treads so tenderly over the paving stones that I suspect he is afraid of breaking them. What! he limps by without so much as thanking me, as if my hospitable offers were meant only for people who have no wine cellars.

Well, well, sir, no harm done, I hope! Go, draw the cork, tip the decanter; but when your great toe shall set you a-roaring, it will be no affair of mine. If gentlemen love the pleasant titillation of the gout, it is all one to the Town Pump. This thirsty dog, with his red tongue lolling out, does not scorn my hospitality, but stands on his hind legs, and laps eagerly out of the trough. See how lightly he capers away again! Jowler, did your worship ever have the gout?

Your pardon, good people! I must interrupt my stream of eloquence, and spout forth a stream of water to replenish the trough for this teamster and his two yoke of oxen, who have come all the way from Staunton, or somewhere along that way. No part of my business gives me more pleasure than the watering of cattle. Look! how rapidly they lower the watermark on the sides of the trough, till their capacious stomachs are moistened with a gallon or two apiece, and they can afford time to breathe, with sighs of calm enjoyment! Now they roll their quiet eyes around the brim of their monstrous drinking vessel. An ox is your true toper.

I hold myself the grand reformer of the age. From my spout, and such spouts as mine, must flow the stream that shall cleanse our earth of a vast portion of its crime and anguish, which have gushed from the fiery fountains of the still. In this mighty enterprise, the cow shall be my great confederate. Milk and water!

Ahem! Dry work this speechifying, especially to all unpracticed orators. I never conceived till now what toil the temperance lecturers undergo for my sake. Do, some kind Christian, pump a stroke or two, just to wet my whistle. Thank you, sir. But to proceed.

The Town Pump and the Cow! Such is the glorious partnership that shall finally monopolize the whole business of quenching thirst. Blessed consummation! Then Poverty shall pass away from the land, finding no hovel so wretched where her squalid form may shelter itself. Then Disease, for lack of other victims, shall gnaw his own heart and die. Then Sin, if she do not die, shall lose half her strength.

Then there will be no war of households. The husband and the wife, drinking deep of peaceful joy, a calm bliss of temperate affections, shall pass hand in hand through life, and lie down, not reluctantly, at its protracted close. To them the past will be no turmoil of mad dreams, nor the future an eternity of such moments as follow the delirium of a drunkard. Their dead faces shall express what their spirits were, and are to be, by a lingering smile of memory and hope.

Drink, then, and be refreshed! The water is as pure and cold as when it slaked the thirst of the red hunter, and flowed beneath the aged bough, though now this gem of the wilderness is treasured under these hot stones, where no shadow falls, but from the brick buildings. But, still is this fountain the source of health, peace, and happiness, and I behold, with certainty and joy, the approach of the period when the virtues of cold water, too little valued since our father's days, will be fully appreciated and recognized by all.

納撒尼爾·霍桑（1804～1864年），出身于馬薩諸塞州的薩勒姆。1825年，他畢業于堡多因學院。他最早的文學作品是為期刊寫的，出版了兩冊，第一冊在1837年出版，第二冊在1842年出版，題目是《陳腐的語言》。他的另一部寓言和小品集《牧師家的苔蘚》于1845年出版。1846年到1850年，他擔任薩勒姆港口的檢查員。1852年，他被任命為利物浦美國領事。任職四年后，他在美洲旅游了一段時間。他最著名的作品有《紅字》，這一部作品深刻展現了人的本性。還有《七山墻的房子》、《布里瑟戴爾傳奇》和《大理石牧羊人》——意大利言情小說，很多人認為這是霍桑最好的一部作品。為人謙遜、不善言辭的霍桑先生不喜歡拋頭露面。他的大部分作品極具想象力，作為一位散文作家，他在美國作家中享有盛譽。在訪問白山時，他于新罕布什爾州的普雷毛斯逝世。

（場景——在兩條主街道的街角，鎮上的水泵說著話。）

北邊的時鐘敲響了12聲，東邊的時鐘也敲響了12聲！到正午了，炎熱的陽光幾乎從我的頭頂直射下來，鼻子下邊水槽里的水冒起了煙，都快被驕陽煮沸冒泡了。真是的，我們這些公眾人物的日子真不好過。每年的會議中選出的城鎮官員中，有誰能像我這個水泵一樣，在這里肩負重任，哪怕堅持一年時間！

“鎮財務保管員”這一職位理所當然應該屬于我。監督窮人的人應該選我做他們的主席，因為我免費為窮人供應物品。我應該是消防部門的負責人，是衛生所的主治醫師之一。作為和平的守護者，所有飲水的人都應該承認我與警員的地位是平等的。當政府頒布的公共啟示貼在我的面前時，我在執行政府官員的職責。

保守地說，我是鎮上的主要人物，我的冷靜、穩重、正直、坦率、公正為鎮上的官員樹立了好榜樣。無論是酷夏還是寒冬，我都不會拒絕人們的請求。白天，我站在商場邊繁忙的街角處，伸出自己的胳膊，對窮人和富人一視同仁。晚上，我頭頂著電燈，時刻提醒人們我的位置，免得他們掉進水槽。

在這個悶熱的正午，我為干渴的人們斟滿一杯杯甘露，我的腰間掛著一只鐵杯，就像在公共場所的賣酒郎一樣，我用自己樸實的聲音沖著熙熙攘攘的人群高聲叫賣：“喂，先生們，這里有好酒，過來，先生，過來，這里有上等的好酒，天父亞當沒有在里邊摻雜任何雜物！比白蘭地、杜松子、牙買加甜酒還要好，比任何價錢的葡萄酒都好。這里有一大桶，先生們，來享用吧，一分錢都不收！”

要是這么大聲吆喝都沒吸引來一個顧客，那可就太遺憾了。今天真是一個大熱天，他們來了。先生，暢飲之后再走，那樣可以讓你出一身爽快的汗。你呀，我的朋友，你需要再來一杯，沖洗一下滿是灰塵的喉嚨，它好像比你的鞋還臟。我看今天你已經走了六七里地了，你是個聰明的人，沒有去酒館，而是停在了路邊的水槽旁。否則，你早就被烤成了煤渣，或是像水母一樣化掉。

喝吧，給別人也留點地方，他需要我的幫忙，幫他平息昨晚酒精在體內點燃的火。先生，歡迎您，您看起來紅光滿面，雖然我們素昧平生，但您慢慢喝吧，直到您的呼吸平靜一些。

可憐的人，我同情你。水在你燥熱的喉嚨里流下時發出嘶嘶的響聲，似乎瞬間變成了蒸汽，你的胃太受委屈了。再喝一點吧，然后，像誠實的嗜酒徒一樣，把你的一切告訴我吧，你曾經是否在地窖、酒館或是其他什么賣酒的地方，用本來要給孩子買食物的錢換了一口美酒喝？現在，應該是你十年來第一次嘗到水的甘甜吧！再見，無論什么時候，只要你感到口渴，別忘了，我會一直在原地等你。

下一個是誰呢？哦，我的小朋友，你剛剛放學，來鎮里的水泵邊擦擦你粉紅的臉蛋吧，忘掉學校的教鞭和其他同學帶給你的煩惱吧。喝吧，它就像你年輕的生命一樣純凈。喝吧，讓你的心靈和舌頭不再受到干燥的折磨。

親愛的孩子，放下你的水杯，給那位老人讓一點位置吧，看，他小心翼翼地從那邊的臺階上走下來，我猜他是害怕踩壞了鋪路石吧！什么！他那么輕蔑地從我的身邊走過，就好像我那么熱情的邀請只是對沒有酒窖的人有意義一樣。

好吧！好吧！先生，沒什么，我希望。去吧，拔掉木塞，舉起酒瓶！但如果你的大腳趾疼痛難忍的時候，那可跟我沒關系。如果先生們喜歡用水珠撓癢，那么鎮子里的水泵都是一樣的。這只口渴的狗，伸出了它那紅通通的舌頭，它沒有蔑視我熱情的邀請，急切地用后腿將水槽中的水撥起層層水花。看，它輕快地跳著走了。

善良的人們，請你們原諒，我得斷流一會兒了，我要為這位趕車人和他的兩頭牛噴出一個水柱來。他們從斯道恩頓或是別的什么地方趕過來，我最喜歡做的就是飲牛了。看，它們喝得多快，水槽的底都露出來了。直到胃里大概裝了兩加侖的水，它們才有工夫呼吸，它們高興地嘆著氣。這會兒，它們的眼睛安靜地巡視著水槽四周，原來，牛才是真正的飲水者。

我認為自己是這個時代偉大的改革者，水龍頭——像我這樣的水龍頭，才能流出可以洗滌世界上罪惡和苦難的清水。在這一方面，只有奶牛和我才是同盟者，牛奶和水。

哎，這樣高談闊論的演說讓我口干舌燥，尤其我還算不上一個熟練的演說家。我從未想到，做這樣的演講不喝水會如此難受。有哪位好心的人，幫我按一下泵，我只要潤潤喉就行。先生，謝謝您，但請不要停下來。

鎮上的水泵和奶牛，這是個光榮的聯盟，他們驅趕走了人們的干渴，這是多么神圣的成就！貧窮從世界上消失，它再也找不到一個簡陋的容身之地；疾病，再也找不到受害者，它不斷折磨著自己的心智，直到死去；罪惡，即使沒有死，它也失去了一半的力量。

家庭不再有戰爭，丈夫和妻子心平氣和地享受著寧靜的生活，他們平靜、幸福地愛戀著對方，攜手共度一生，最后心滿意足地躺下，繼續享受二人之間的甜蜜。對他們來說，過去的夢并不是夾雜著暴風雨的噩夢，而將來也不會有像醉漢酒醒一樣的時刻。死去之后，他們的臉上帶著揮之不去并且充滿希望和記憶的笑容。

喝吧，盡情地喝吧！水是那么純凈冰涼，就像它剛剛流過紅色獵人的喉嚨，從蒼老的樹枝上流下，可是現在，這種原始的野性只能在紅熱的石頭下感受到了，這里只有石頭建筑投下的影子。但這里仍然是健康、和平、幸福的源泉，盡管從我們的父輩開始，水已經開始不受重視，但我能樂觀地肯定，冰涼的水會永遠受到人們的贊嘆和珍惜的。