Why does hester come to dread children according to the passage from chapter 5 of the scarlett letter? she grew to have a dread of children for they had imbibed from their parents a vague idea of something horrible in this dreary woman, gliding silently through the town , with never any companion but only one child. therefore, first allowing her to pass, they pursued her at distance with shrill cries, and the utterance of a word that had no distint purport to their own minds, but was none the less terrible to her, as proceeding from lips that babbled it unconsciously.