Children with bright faces tripped merrily beside their parents or mimicked a graver gait in the conscious dignity of their Sunday clothes . Spruce bachelors looked sidelong at the pretty maidens , and fancied that the Sabbath sunshine made them prettier than on week-days . When the throng had mostly streamed into the porch , the sexton began to toll the bell , keeping his eye on the Reverend Mr. Hooper 's door . The first glimpse of the clergyman 's figure was the signal for the bell to cease its summons . -LSB- Footnote 1 : Another clergyman in New England , Mr. Joseph Moody , of York , Maine , who died about eighty years since , made himself remarkable by the same eccentricity that is here related of the Reverend Mr. Hooper . In his case , however , the symbol had a different import . In early life he had accidentally killed a beloved friend , and from that day till the hour of his own death he hid his face from men . -RSB- `` But what has good Parson Hooper got upon his face ? '' cried the sexton , in astonishment . All within hearing immediately turned about and beheld the semblance of Mr. Hooper pacing slowly his meditative way toward the meeting-house . With one accord they started , expressing more wonder than if some strange minister were coming to dust the cushions of Mr. Hooper 's pulpit . `` Are you sure it is our parson ? '' inquired Goodman Gray of the sexton . `` Of a certainty it is good Mr. Hooper , '' replied the sexton . `` He was to have exchanged pulpits with Parson Shute of Westbury , but Parson Shute sent to excuse himself yesterday , being to preach a funeral sermon . '' The cause of so much amazement may appear sufficiently slight . Mr. Hooper , a gentlemanly person of about thirty , though still a bachelor , was dressed with due clerical neatness , as if a careful wife had starched his band and brushed the weekly dust from his Sunday 's garb . There was but one thing remarkable in his appearance . Swathed about his forehead and hanging down over his face , so low as to be shaken by his breath , Mr. Hooper had on a black veil . On a nearer view it seemed to consist of two folds of crape , which entirely concealed his features except the mouth and chin , but probably did not intercept his sight further than to give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things .
With this gloomy shade before him good Mr. Hooper walked onward at a slow and quiet pace , stooping somewhat and looking on the ground , as is customary with abstracted men , yet nodding kindly to those XXXXX his parishioners who still waited on the meeting-house steps .
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