| 1 | Two decades later, she's still going strong. | |
| 2 | A peace accord was signed, but little changed. | |
| 3 | During those months the city is deserted. But the poor remain, and the sky. | |
| 4 | Had the forest still kept its gloom, it would have been bright in Hester's eyes, and bright in Arthur Dimmesdale's! | |
| 5 | Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author's minds, ages ago. |