index-figure

Updated: May 21, 2025

We saw him, first, as the baby in Goodwife Massey's arms, when the primeval trees were flinging their shadow over Roger Conant's cabin; we have seen him, as the boy, the youth, the man, bearing his humble part in all the successive scenes, and forming the index-figure whereby to note the age of his coeval town.

Nathaniel Hawthorne - Main Street: (From: "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales")