The Vision of the Fountain (From "Twice Told Tales")

In Short

This short story tells of a young boy sent to live in a distant country village who sees a beautiful girl's face mirrored in a secluded spring. The vision vanishes instantly, leaving him haunted by romantic fantasy and despair through the passing autumn. On his final night in the village, while sitting in a pitch-black parlor with his host's family, a sudden burst of firelight unmasks the mysterious figure as a real local girl returning from school. The tale endures for its whimsical, gentle ribbing of youthful romantic idealism and the soft line between imagination and reality.

The Story

The narrative opens with a fifteen-year-old boy arriving in a secluded country village far from his home. Wandering into an oak wood on a warm September morning, he stumbles upon a clear spring illuminated by a solitary sunbeam. As he muses on the mythical idea of a water nymph emerging from the basin to tend the spring, he leans over the water. Reflected beneath his own image, he sees the face of a fair young girl with golden hair and a merry expression. Before he can react, the apparition vanishes as suddenly as it appeared, leaving him to wonder whether she was a creature of his own imagination, a woodland goddess, a fairy, or a living girl who had crept up behind him.

Overcome by the encounter, the boy returns to the spring that afternoon, only to find a large frog lurking beneath a stone. Weeks and months pass as he searches the woods, hills, and village paths at dawn, noon, and sunset, but the girl is nowhere to be found. Kept secret from everyone, his longing drives him into a deep inner life. He retreats into a private fantasy world, writing a mental romance in which he casts himself as the hero, imagining rivals, dramatic twists, and intense passions of jealousy and despair.

In mid-January, the youth receives a summons to return to his family home. Visiting his favorite haunts one last time before his departure, he finds the spring completely frozen over and the surrounding landscape blanketed in snow. That evening, he gathers in the darkened parlor of the old clergyman with whom he has been staying. The family sits around a hearth lit only by a smoldering, flameless heap of ground bark, communicating quietly in the dimness.

When a consumptive daughter speaks to a guest named Rachel, a sweet, low voice replies that instantly stirs the narrator's heart. Straining his eyes through the dark, he feels an inexplicable familiarity. Suddenly, a dry piece of pine catches fire, casting a bright, ruddy glow across the room. In that flash of light, he beholds the girl from the fountain sitting right before him, her features rosy, warm, and laughing with the very same dimpled expression he remembered. A single glance passes between them before the heap of bark collapses, plunging the room back into darkness and ending the vision.

The narrator concludes by breaking the mystery for his readers: Rachel was simply the village squire's daughter, who had departed for boarding school the morning after he arrived and returned the day before he left.

How It Unfolds

The discovery at the spring A fifteen-year-old boy wanders into a shady oak forest and discovers a sparkling, rock-rimmed spring illuminated by a single sunbeam. While daydreaming about the water spirits that might tend such a spot, he gazes into the pool and sees the distinct reflection of a golden-haired girl smiling beside his own image.

The vanishing and the obsession The face vanishes in an instant, leaving the youth uncertain if the figure was a spirit, a trick of fancy, or a real person. He haunts the spring and the surrounding countryside for months in vain, sinking into an internal fantasy world where he manufactures elaborate romantic dramas around his lost vision.

The frozen farewell Summoned home in January, the boy visits the woodland spring one last time, finding its waters frozen solid and the landscape buried in winter snow. He prepares for his early morning departure by gathering with his host, an economical village clergyman, and the rest of the family in their pitch-black parlor.

The hearthside revelation Sitting in the dark room lit only by smoldering bark, the boy hears a strange girl named Rachel speak, instantly kindling his memory. A stray piece of pine blazes up on the hearth, illuminating the room and revealing that Rachel is the very girl from the spring, who has just returned home from boarding school.

The People

• The Narrator: A sensitive, highly imaginative fifteen-year-old youth residing away from home in a rural village. He wants to find the magical girl whose image he saw in a spring, and his intense idealization turns his everyday existence into an internal melodrama. By the end, he learns to laugh at his own youthful tendency to turn ordinary love into high romance.
• Rachel: The daughter of the local village squire. She is a cheerful young student whose sudden appearance at the spring on her way out of town sets the plot in motion. Though she spends most of the story absent at boarding school, her actual presence is warm, mirthful, and thoroughly real rather than supernatural.
• The Village Clergyman and Family: The narrator's hosts, living modestly off a small salary. They gather in near-total darkness around a smoldering fire to save on fuel, creating the atmospheric backdrop for the final revelation.

In Its Own Voice

"Reclining on the border of grass, where the dewy goddess should have been, I bent forward, and a pair of eyes met mine within the watery mirror."

The narrator describes the exact moment his solitary daydream in the woods transforms into a startling romance.

"I withdrew into an inner world, where my thoughts lived and breathed, and the Vision in the midst of them."

Following the girl's disappearance, the youth retreats entirely into his own mind, nursing an obsessive fantasy through autumn and winter.

"Suddenly, the dry pine caught; the fire blazed up with a ruddy glow; and where the darkness had been, there was she,--the Vision of the Fountain!"

The dramatic turning point arrives in the clergyman's parlor when the hearth lights up to reveal the true identity of his long-lost vision.

What It's Really About

The story examines the boundary between romantic imagination and mundane reality, exploring how easily a youthful mind constructs elaborate mythologies out of brief encounters. By contrasting the ethereal water nymph of the narrator's daydreams with a schoolgirl returning home for winter break, the narrative gently parodies the melodramatic tendencies of romantic love. It demonstrates how isolation and longing can cause an individual to live entirely inside their own head, inventing grand passions out of thin air. Ultimately, it suggests that human connection is far sweeter when rooted in real life rather than idealization.

Why Read It Today

This brief tale will appeal to readers who enjoy gentle humor, reflective narrators, and atmospheric descriptions of classic New England landscapes. It offers a warm, lighthearted glimpse into the missteps of teenage infatuation, capturing the exact feeling of falling in love with an idea rather than a person. The narrative moves at a pleasant pace, using vivid imagery of woodland springs and dark winter parlors to build its quiet suspense.

Readers should expect the older style of 19th-century prose, complete with formal vocabulary, romantic theatricality, and direct addresses to "sweet readers." Rather than presenting a complex historical plot, it functions as a lightweight, character-driven sketch that delivers a satisfying punchline. It stays with you as a cozy reminder of how easily our minds paint everyday occurrences with the colors of magic.