Last night, there came a frost, which has done great damage to my garden.... It is sad that Nature will play such tricks on us poor mortals, inviting us with sunny smiles to confide in her, and then, when we are entirely within her power, striking us to the heart.

Hawthorne frames a commonplace disappointment—the sudden frost that ruins a garden—as a miniature allegory of human vulnerability. Nature appears almost personified as a seducer: she “invites” trust with warmth and beauty, then abruptly reveals her indifference (or cruelty) by undoing what we have invested hope in. The passage captures a characteristic Hawthornian tension between outward loveliness and hidden peril, and it also reflects a moral-psychological insight: people are prone to read benevolence into favorable conditions, only to feel betrayed when circumstances change. The “poor mortals” phrasing underscores the asymmetry of power between human plans and forces beyond human control.