The Threefold Destiny (From "Twice Told Tales")

It tells the story of Ralph Cranfield, a world traveler who returns to his native New England Village after failing to discover the three things fancy had convinced him he would find in his travels: 1) a true love wearing a heart-shaped jewel, 2) a buried treasure indicated by a pointing hand, and 3) an old man with a staff who would announce to Ralph his destiny as a ruler over humankind. Hawthorne’s tale shows how these three things are revealed to Ralph in a homely, familiar fashion—without any obvious influence of “faery”—back in the wanderer’s own backyard. “Happy they who read the riddle without a weary world-search,” Hawthorne tells us, “or a lifetime spent in vain!”