The Witch of Blackbird Pond / Ведьма с пруда Черных Дроздов. 10-11 классы Джордж Спир Элизабет

Chapter Twelve

School ended in mid-August, and a hundred new jobs waited to be done. Often Kit, Judith and Rachel worked side by side with Matthew in the fields until sunset, and there was not the time to visit Prudence and Hannah.

One sunny day Kit finally had a whole free afternoon. She was walking out the door when her aunt called her, “Where are you going, Kit?”

Kit looked down, not answering.

“Wait,” her aunt said then. “I don’t approve it at all. But I can’t help it either.” She went into the kitchen and brought a small package. It was a piece of apple pie. So Aunt Rachel had known! Kit hugged her aunt and went out. She had hoped to find Prudence at the Blackbird Pond, but instead, as she came around the corner of the cottage, she saw Nat Eaton. “Oh,” she exclaimed, confused, “I didn’t know the Dolphin was here again.”

Hannah stood in the doorway. “More company!” she said happily. “Come inside, you two.”

“Not yet,” Nat said. “The next job is to fix that old thatched roof.”

“Can I help?” Kit asked.

Nat’s eyebrow lifted. “Maybe you could,” he replied. “You can gather the grass while I cut.”

Together they went into the swamp to gather long grass. Then back at the cottage Kit surprised Nat by climbing the ladder on to the rooftop after him where they managed to fix the roof very quickly. When the job was done, they just sat on the roof and rested, looking at the sunny meadows and the river. This was the way Kit used to feel in Barbados. Light as air! For a long time neither of them spoke. “The river is so blue today,” she said finally. “Just like in Barbados.”

“Homesick?” asked Nat.

“Not here,” she answered. “Not when I’m in the meadow, or with Hannah.”

He turned to look at her. “How has it been, Kit?” he asked seriously. “I mean really. Are you sorry you came?”

She paused. “Sometimes I am. They’re good to me, but it’s very different here. I don’t seem to fit in, Nat. It’s these Puritans,” Kit said. “I’ll never understand them. Why do they want life to be so solemn?”

Nat stretched back. “If you ask me, it’s all that schooling and Latin. It takes the fun out of life, day after day. Books, now, that’s different. There’s nothing like a book to keep you company on a long voyage.”

“What sort of books?” Kit asked, surprised.

“I like the old logbooks best, and descriptions of voyages, but once there were some plays from England that were good reading.”

“There’s another thing I wanted to ask you about, Nat,” Kit said. “All this talk against England and the King – I don’t understand it. Why are they so disloyal to King James?”

“I suppose you couldn’t understand because you weren’t brought up here,” said Nat, looking suddenly serious. “There are two sides to loyalty, Kit. If the King respects our rights and keeps his word, then he will have our loyalty. But if he cancels the laws he has made, then we will be disloyal, too.”

“But that is treason!” cried Kit.

“What is treason, Kit? A man is loyal to the place he loves. We can’t always wait for orders from His Majesty in England. Besides, how can a king on a throne in England know what is best for the people in Wethersfield? A man is loyal to the soil he stands on.”

That would please Uncle Matthew, Kit thought. Nat was a New Englander, too, had she forgotten?

“Have you finished fixing the roof yet? It’s time for supper,” Kit heard Hannah call them.

“Supper?” Kit had not even noticed how late it was.

Nat helped her to climb down the ladder. “You will come often to see her, won’t you?” he asked her.

“Of course,” Kit replied. “I worry about her, sometimes, especially when she talks about her late husband as if he were still alive.”

“Oh, that! Don’t worry about it!” Nat laughed. “Hannah’s fine. I guess she is much older than we think, and she’s lived through a lot. She and her husband were in jail in Massachusetts. Then they were branded and sent out of the state.”

“My company always has to hurry off,” Hannah said to them. “Nat, and you, and now Prudence.”

“Who is Prudence?” asked Nat.

Kit told him about the reading lessons on the way back home. She didn’t, however, expect Nat to walk her this time all the way to her uncle’s house. Her family was sitting outside, so the supper must’ve been over. As Kit and Nat came near, William rose to his feet and stood watching them.

“Kit, where have you been?” Judith spoke up. “William has been waiting for so long.”

Kit looked from one person to the other and decided to tell them the truth. “I’ve been helping to fix Hannah Tupper’s roof,” she said. “I’m sorry that I didn’t realize how late it was. Aunt Rachel, this is Nathaniel Eaton, Captain Eaton’s son, from the Dolphin. He was fixing the roof, and I was assisting him.”

Nat and William looked at each other for a long time. Nat turned to Matthew Wood. “It was my fault, sir,” he said, with dignity. “I shouldn’t have accepted Kit’s help.” He looked back at William. Then Nat said goodbye and walked away.

“Why did you have to fix a roof for the Quaker woman?” shouted her uncle when Nat was gone.

“She lives all alone,” replied Kit. “And she needs help, Uncle Matthew.”

“She is a heretic, and she doesn’t attend Meeting! If she wants help, let her repent her sin. You will never go to that place again, Katherine! I forbid it!”

Depressed, Kit followed the family into the house. “Don’t worry, Kit,” Mercy whispered. “Hannah will be fine if she has that young sailor to help her. I liked his looks.”

Chapter Thirteen

Judith was walking with Kit along the street to gather the last of the corn in the meadow. “I just feel,” she said, “that something wonderful is going to happen at the corn party tonight because this time I’m going to make sure that something happens.”

“Do you mean John Holbrook?”

“Of course! You know that he is too shy to say anything. He hasn’t got a house like William, or any money to support me yet. That’s why he doesn’t speak. But I know how he feels, and I know how I feel, so…”

Kit was thoughtful. She knew that William was only waiting for the right time to speak, too. She had already decided what her answer would be. As William’s wife she could do what she wanted. There would be no more hard work. Besides, William admired her. Then why was she worried?

On the way home Kit visited the little house by Blackbird Pond but only for a few minutes. Hannah told her that Prudence had come to her once, but couldn’t wait for a lesson. When Kit was walking back home, to her surprise, she saw a familiar black hat in the distance. It was John Holbrook! “Judith went back home, but I stopped to see Hannah Tupper,” Kit told him.

“The Widow Tupper? Does your family know about it, Kit? She is a Quaker. I’m not against the Quakers, but this woman has a bad reputation. They say she practices witchcraft.”

“That’s just gossip!” Kit cried. “John, this is silly! Hannah is a good friend of mine.”

“Probably, but you know, Kit, there are some people in town who still remember how you jumped into the river. And now you’re friends with a witch… And witchcraft isn’t silly, Kit.”

“I know,” Kit agreed, “but if only you knew Hannah…” They walked together, and Kit tried to make John Holbrook understand the lonely woman in the meadow.

Finally, they came to the point where John would turn and go his way. “Well,” he said, “it’s been five months since we came here on the Dolphin. It has turned out well for you, Kit: a fine big house and a good young man like William. I hope you will be very happy.”

Kit turned red and looked down. She did not want to talk about William. “And you, John?” she asked instead. “Are you going to the corn party tonight?”

“Well,” he answered. “We’ll see. I don’t know. Will Mercy be there?”

“Mercy? No, I don’t think so. It’s too far away.”

“Then I think I’ll spend the evening at your house instead. I seldom have a chance to talk to her.”

Slowly Kit began to understand what he had just said. “Why should you want to talk to Mercy?”

His smiled, “Why do you think I come so often? It has always been Mercy, from the very beginning. Didn’t you guess that? Do you think I have a chance, Kit?”

“Oh, John!” Kit cried. “A chance? I’m so happy for you two!”

“But I have nothing to give her, nothing at all.”

“You’ll have your own church some day. Only there are so many things that Mercy can’t do…”

“Then I will do them for her,” he said quietly. “I don’t want a wife to serve me. For Mercy I could never do enough.”

“Then tell her, tonight, John,” she said, remembering Mercy’s shining eyes.

“Well,” he answered again. “We’ll see.”

Walking home Kit could hardly keep from dancing. She wanted to shout and sing. Mercy and John Holbrook! How right! How unbelievably right! Suddenly, she stopped. How could she have forgotten about Judith? What has she been planning for tonight? Well, if John doesn’t go to the corn party – then nothing can happen. And what if he’s there with Mercy? Maybe Kit should warn Judith? Oh, dear, Judith is going to feel terrible! But Kit knew that John wasn’t really suitable for Judith.

That evening Judith looked lovely in her new blue dress. Kit was becoming impatient: they all had to leave quickly and leave Mercy sitting alone near the fireplace before John arrived.

But they were too late, as at that moment John Holbrook walked in through the door. Judith smiled at him.

“I’m so glad you’ve come,” she said. “Now we can all walk together.”

“I’m not going to the corn party,” John shook his head. “I think I’ll stay here with Mercy instead. There is something I want to speak to your father about.”

After his words Judith turned red. “Tonight? Really?” she whispered in joy and disbelief. “Oh, Father!” she cried. “You know what he wants to ask! Say yes, now, so we can go to the party together!”

Matthew Wood was shocked. “My daughter, what sort of talk is this?”

“Oh, Father, you must have guessed. John doesn’t need to tell you.”

Matthew Wood’s face softened, and when he turned to John he was smiling, “If you have agreed between you, then I can only give you my blessing. Perhaps you can teach this girl some manners.”

John stood silent, his face pale. He was so ashamed that he couldn’t say a word.

“Tell them! You’ve got to say something, John, right now!” Kit begged him silently.

John opened his mouth to say something to correct the mistake. Then, he looked at Judith. She seemed so happy that John stopped himself. Everyone in the room started congratulating him. Even Mercy came up slowly. “I am so glad for you both,” she said warmly. Only Kit could say nothing. Maybe she dreamed it all, she thought, watching Mercy. But she knew she had not dreamed the love in Mercy’s eyes that summer evening.

When the four of them went out together into the twilight, Judith took John’s arm. “You’ll never know,” she whispered. “You saved me, John. I had a plan…”

Kit was walking behind them, thinking. Now what? He can’t do this! But she knew that he could. John understood Mercy very well. He knew that never in her life could she take anything that Judith might want. If John hurt Judith now, Mercy would never forgive either him or herself.

Kit’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by William who stopped her on the way. “Wait a moment, Kit,” he said. “Let them go ahead. I want to talk to you.” His quiet voice and the look in his eyes warned her of what was coming. Oh, no! Not after all that has happened! She wanted to run away and hide. William’s question was not unexpected at all. Kit had thought that her answer was ready, but now she realized that it wasn’t. “Not tonight, please,” Kit whispered in panic.

“I didn’t plan to speak tonight,” William explained. “But just look at those two – they are so happy! Let me speak to your uncle.”

“Please, William,” Kit whispered. “Don’t speak to him yet.”

William looked at her, puzzled. “Why not? Don’t you want to marry me, Kit?”

She paused. “I hadn’t thought of getting married so soon.”

William was silent for a moment. “I won’t hurry you, Kit,” he said calmly. “The house won’t be finished before spring, anyway. I’ll wait for your answer.” Obviously, he was sure of her positive answer. As they walked on to the party, he held her hand.

Chapter Fourteen

In October the sun still filled the world with mild warmth, and a miracle for which Kit wasn’t prepared happened. The maple trees turned red, and the oaks along the road became yellow and bronze. Everywhere Kit walked there were beautiful new colors. No one had ever told her about autumn in New England. Every morning now she woke with excitement and a feeling that in October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible!

On one of such days Kit noticed her uncle standing not far from the house, looking thoughtfully toward the river. He did not notice her. He simply stood there, staring at the golden fields. Kit saw how her uncle bent down and took a handful of soil with reverence. At that moment he looked lonely and defiant.

Judith’s voice interrupted Kit’s thoughts. “Hurry up, Kit,” she called. “They say there’s a ship coming up the river! If we go now, we can watch it come in!”

“What ship?” Kit asked.

“Does that matter? It’s fun to see any ship come in, and there won’t be many more this autumn.”

But the moment the two girls reached the river, Kit recognized the Dolphin. How beautiful that ship was! How Kit would love to sail on the Dolphin again! She remembered the endless shining water and the salty wind that tangled her hair. She would give anything just to stand on the deck of the Dolphin, sailing into the open sea and toward Barbados!

Some time soon Kit saw Nat Eaton on the deck. He saw her too and just raised one hand to greet her. That wasn’t strange because Kit knew how busy Nat usually was, so she decided to wait.

“Come on, Kit, let’s go home,” said Judith after a while. “There’s nothing more to see.”

Kit was about to turn away and go home, but then she heard Nat’s voice: “Mistress Tyler! Wait a moment!” Nat came toward her with a big package under his arm. “Good day to you, Mistress Wood,” he greeted Judith. Then he turned to Kit again. “Would you be kind to deliver this package for me?” The words were too formal and his tone was strangely indifferent. “This is some wool I got for Hannah,” he explained, giving her the package.

Kit took it reluctantly. “She’ll be waiting for you to come yourself.”

“I know, but my father wants us to leave now to catch the wind. Hannah might need this. If only you can spend some time away from your fashionable friends…”

Puzzled, Kit’s wanted to say something, but before she did, Nat went on and now there was mockery in his voice. “An interesting cargo we had on this trip. One item especially. Sixteen fine windows ordered from England by one William Ashby. They say he’s building a house for his bride. A posh young lady from Barbados, I hear, who wants only the best things. You should have mentioned it, Kit,” he added quietly.

“There’s nothing definite to mention yet,” Kit began.

“That order looks definite enough. May I congratulate you?” said Nat. Then, with a quick bow to Judith, he was gone.

“What? What was he talking about?” asked Judith. “Really, Kit, you know the strangest people. How did you even meet this sailor?”

“I told you he was the captain’s son,” Kit answered, trying to hide her angry tears.

“Well, anyway, I didn’t like his manners,” added Judith.

Another trouble awaited them at home. Aunt Rachel was standing in the doorway looking anxiously at the road. “There is no peace for the poor man,” she said sadly. “Matthew has gone to a meeting just now. They say someone came from Hartford with news this morning, and there’s a gathering in the town. I think it is something to do with that Governor Andros of Massachusetts, who wants to take the charter away. Oh dear, Matthew will be so upset!”

“Then let’s make him a good dinner,” suggested Judith. “Don’t worry, Mother. The men will take care of the government.”

Matthew Wood did not come home for the good meal they had made. Late in the afternoon he walked slowly into the kitchen looking ill.

“What is it, Matthew?” Rachel asked. “Has something terrible happened?”

“Only what we have expected,” he answered gravely. “Governor Treat and the council have been avoiding it for almost a year. Now Sir Andros has sent a message that he is coming from Boston. He will arrive in Hartford on Monday to take over as royal governor in Connecticut. Make a fire in the company room, Rachel. Some people will want to come and talk here tonight.”

One more bit of news reached them before the night. Captain Eaton had missed the wind, and the Dolphin stayed just off Wright’s Island. Kit was meanly glad. She hoped they would have a good long wait, maybe even till winter. Kit decided not to deliver Nat’s package herself till the Dolphin was on its way toward Saybrook.

Chapter Fifteen

“It’s the death of our freedom! It’s the end of all we’ve worked for!” shouted the men in the company room. Kit wasn’t really thinking about the future of the Connecticut colony, but she was curious about one thing. Some time ago William had come, greeted the women, and then knocked on the company room door. Surprisingly, he had been let in, and since then he stayed behind that closed door. “What is William doing in there?” Kit asked. “Why would Uncle Matthew let him in?”

“Didn’t you know?” Judith replied. “William now shares Father’s ideas.”

“How did you know that?” Kit stared at her. “I never heard him say anything about it.”

“Maybe you just weren’t listening.”

It was true, sometimes, when William and Judith were talking about the house, it was difficult for Kit to pay attention. But she knew she would have remembered anything as important as this. Was William ashamed to tell her that he had turned against the King? Or did he think she was too stupid to understand?

“Governor Andros says that signed papers mean nothing to him! We will have to beg new grants for land that we’ve bought and already paid for!” the voices shouted in the company room. Now they could also hear Matthew’s voice, cold and steady. “Whatever happens,” he was saying, “we do not want any shooting here in Connecticut.”

“Why not?” asked another voice. “Should we give up our freedom like Rhode Island?”

“It would only mean pointless bloodshed,” Matthew said clearly.

Finally, about an hour later, a silent group of men came out of the company room. When the visitors had gone, Matthew sat down heavily into a chair. Rachel tried to comfort him. “I know it is a disappointment,” she said. “But will it really change our lives so much? We all will still be together in this house and not lose our rights.”

Her husband shook his head sadly, “That’s not it. Everything we have built here in Connecticut will be destroyed. Our council and our courts will have no real power. If only we could somehow keep the charter itself. This man has no right to take it from us.”

When the girls were upstairs in bed, Kit finally shared her thoughts. “Do they know,” she whispered, “how powerful the Royal Fleet is? They will be defeated in no time.”

“I don’t think there’ll be any fighting,” said Judith. “It’s just that men like Father don’t like dictators. But Dr. Bulkeley says that the charter was never as free as they have made it. He thinks the men of Connecticut have taken advantage of the King’s generosity. Anyway, I agree with Mother. I don’t think it will change our lives much. Men always make a fuss about such things.”

“I’d love to see this Governor Andros,” said Kit. “They say he used to be a captain in Barbados.”

“Maybe we will see him,” replied Judith, blowing out the candle.

The next afternoon many curious Wethersfield citizens came to the bank of the river, waiting to see Governor Andros. Kit and Judith witnessed the arrival of an escort from Hartford, led by Captain Talcott, one of the Wethersfield men who had sometimes joined the meetings in her uncle’s company room. Captain Talcott felt the anger and disapproval of the crowd. “There will be no demonstration,” he announced. “The governor comes here under orders from His Majesty.”

At that moment the first horsemen appeared on the opposite shore. “There he is!” excited voices cried. The party from Boston got on the ferryboats and crossed the wide river to the shore at Wethersfield. There were more than seventy men, all tall and handsome. Governor Andros sat elegantly on his horse. He was a gentleman, an officer of the King, a knight! Who were these farmers to question his royal right? The Hartford escort greeted the Boston delegation. The people of Wethersfield kept a respectful silence. They all knew that this powerful man was on his way to meet with their council and would hold their very lives in his hand.

It was a sad and silent evening in Matthew Wood’s household. Kit and the girls were in bed for some time when someone knocked loudly on the door. Matthew went to open it, and to Kit’s astonishment she heard William’s voice. “It’s safe, sir!” he said. “The charter’s safe, where he can never find it!”

“Thank God!” cried Matthew. “You were at the meeting, William?”

“Yes, sir. Since four o’clock.”

“And the charter?”

“It was there, all the time, in the middle of the table. Sir Edmond made a long speech. It got stuffy in the room, and, finally, someone opened a window. The wind blew out the candles. In this momentary darkness the charter disappeared. They looked everywhere for it, all over the room, and never found it.”

“Was the governor angry?”

“He didn’t show it. He knew the paper wasn’t going to be found. But he chose to ignore it.”

“Yes,” said Matthew gravely. “He had the power in his hands without it.”

“Governor Treat read a statement, and they all signed it. The Colony of Connecticut is annexed to Massachusetts. Governor Treat will be appointed Colonel of Militia.”

“And Gershom Bulkeley?”

“He will be appointed a Justice of the Peace.”

“Hmm,” said Matthew. “The charter – do you know what happened to it?”

William paused. “No sir,” he answered. “The room was dark.”

“Then how do you know it is safe?”

“It is safe, sir,” William repeated confidently. Kit understood that William knew perfectly well where that charter was.

“There are hard times ahead for Connecticut,” said Matthew, who understood it too, “but some day, when the hard times have passed, we will bring our charter out of hiding and begin again, and we will show the world what it means to be free men. Thank you for coming, William.”

Lying in her bed in the dark, Kit knew she had witnessed serious insubordination to the King. Yet in her heart she was glad for her uncle’s small victory. Now she understood for the first time why her aunt had crossed the ocean with that fierce man. In his struggle for freedom Matthew Wood was magnificent. Kit had to admit it – she was proud of him.

Chapter Sixteen

“There will be no Thanksgiving this week,” announced Matthew gravely when he came home the next day. “Here in Connecticut we cannot have our own holidays anymore. Besides, a terrible thing happened last night. There was a band of sailors from a trading ship. I am sorry to tell you, Katherine, that your friend William Ashby was their only victim. The band put devilish pumpkin lanterns with candles inside them in the window frames of his house that are waiting for the new panes. Luckily, the three band leaders have been captured. I hope they will be severely punished.”

Thursday Lecture day, the day of public punishment, was only two days away. Somehow, Kit already knew whom she would see there. By Thursday noon Kit couldn’t keep her mind on her work. An hour before meeting time, she quietly got out of the house and went to the Meeting House alone. She saw them all at once: there in the stocks were the three Dolphin men, and none of them showed any sign of repentance. Nat and the other sailors were cheerfully exchanging insults with some younger boys standing nearby. Kit came forward so that Nat could see her, but he pretended not to have recognized her. Suddenly, she felt tears running down her face.

“Kit,” Nat finally whispered, “get away from this place! Quick!”

But Kit only stepped closer. “This is horrible, Nat!” she cried out. “I can’t stand to see you like this! Is there anything I can do? Are you hungry?”

“I’m quite comfortable, thank you,” he told her. “You can stop pretending now. Anyway, it was worth it. You should have seen Sir William’s face that evening.”

He was impossible! She turned and walked away. At the door of the Meeting House she stopped to read a notice which said that three sailors would stay in the stocks from one hour before the Lecture till one hour after. They would also pay a fine and would never be allowed to come to Wethersfield again. Kit’s courage evaporated. She simply couldn’t go into that Meeting House and sit there, listening to the Lecture together with her family. She had to talk to someone, and there was only one person who could understand her. Anyway, it’s a good chance to bring Hannah the wool, Kit decided. She briefly stopped by the house to pick the package. The family had already left for the Lecture, and even Mercy didn’t see Kit.

At the Blackbird Pond Kit gave Hannah the wool and told her the whole story. “And now Nat is banned from Wethersfield! He won’t be able to leave the ship or to come to see you anymore!” cried Kit.

“Well, that is a shame,” Hannah agreed with a little sly smile. Kit had to smile, too: why hadn’t she remembered that since eight years old Nat had always somehow found his way to Blackbird Pond? Hannah knew that nothing could keep Nat from coming again. As always, here in this house, all things looked much simpler.

“This William Ashby,” Hannah said thoughtfully. “Is the young man courting you, Kit?”

“Well… Yes, I guess.” Why hadn’t she ever told Hannah about William?

Hannah’s kind eyes studied the girl’s face. “Do you plan to marry him?” she asked gently. “Do you love him?”

“I don’t know. How can I tell, Hannah? He is good, and he likes me. Besides, if I don’t marry him, how shall I ever escape from my uncle’s house?”

“Bless you, child!” said Hannah softly. “But just remember that there will be no escape at all if there is no love.”

There was a knock at the door and in came Prudence. She had brought some news about the three sailors. “Nat won’t be able to come to see you,” she told Hannah. “They took them to the Dolphin. But Nat waved goodbye to me.”

Soon they began their reading lesson. Kit had chosen the Psalms to start with, and slowly Prudence was reading out the lines. Then Kit took out a copybook, a small bottle of ink, and a quill pen. “Now I will teach you to write, Prudence. Watch me.” She opened the copybook and wrote the child’s name on the first line. “Now let’s see if you can copy that.” The girl did and was astonished by her own work. Kit and Hannah exchanged a warm smile, but for the first time Kit felt real fear. “Hannah,” she said softly, “I am afraid to go on like this. What would happen if they found us out?”

Before Hannah answered, Prudence looked up. “Don’t say I can’t come, Kit!” she said. “I don’t care what they do to me. I can stand anything, if only you let me come!”

“Of course you can come,” said Kit, hugging the child. “We’ll find an answer, somehow.”

It was getting dark, and Kit and Prudence had to go home. If only they could live a simple life here, in this cottage, together with the older woman and her cats. Later Kit would remember this idyllic picture many times. Was there some premonition? Did she somehow know that this was the last afternoon the three of them would ever spend together in the small cottage?

At home Aunt Rachel greeted Kit gravely. “You’re very late, Kit. It was wrong of you to stay away from Lecture. Your uncle was very angry. By the way, John Holbrook is here to say goodbye to you and Mercy.”

“Goodbye? What has happened, Aunt Rachel? Where is John going?” asked Kit, shocked.

“John has enlisted in the militia. They are sent to help some towns in Massachusetts with the Indian attacks, and John volunteered to go with them. They need a doctor, and John has learned a lot of medicine this year.”

“But why now?”

“I think it was his way of breaking with Dr. Bulkeley who favors Governor Andros and the new government,” explained Rachel. “John just couldn’t stand it any longer.”

“That’s not fair!” cried Judith. “I think it’s just his stubbornness!”

Mercy spoke too now, “I think you should be proud of him.”

“Well, I’m not,” answered Judith. “Now John won’t get his own church, and he can never get married or build a house!” Tears were running down her cheeks.

“He will come back,” Rachel comforted her. “It will be only a few weeks.”

Mercy spoke thoughtfully again. “Try to understand, Judith,” she said slowly. “Sometimes it isn’t that a man doesn’t care. Sometimes he has to prove something to himself. I don’t think John wanted to go away. I think, somehow, that he had to.”

Chapter Seventeen

Five days after John Holbrook’s departure Judith fell ill. Her mother put her to bed, thinking it was just the broken heart fever. However, in two more days the alarm spread all over Wethersfield. Sixteen children and young people had a mysterious fever, and nothing seemed to help them. On the fourth day Kit also felt chilly and dizzy. Her fever was short, however. Barbados fruit and sunshine made her young body strong. Now poor Mercy was seriously ill and coughing violently, too, staying in something between sleeping and waking. Fear settled in Matthew Wood’s household. On the fourth morning of Mercy’s illness Matthew didn’t go to work, but just sat at the table, reading the Bible. The young doctor, called for the third time, stood helplessly at Mercy’s bed. Then Rachel spoke to her husband, “Matthew, do you think that Dr. Bulkeley might know something to help her? He is so skilled.”

“I said that man would never come into my house,” Mathew answered her angrily.

At noon there was a sudden knock at the door. “Let me in. I’ve something to say,” announced the voice and in came the Reverend Bulkeley. “Matthew,” he said, “you’re so stubborn. But this is no time for politics. Your Mercy has always been like my own daughter. Let me see her, Matthew. Let me do what I can, with God’s help, to save her.”

Matthew silently agreed. Dr. Bulkeley’s presence brought new hope to their house. “I have a theory,” he told them. “I’ve read something. Cook me some onions.”

When the onions were cooked, Dr. Bulkeley put them on a napkin and onto Mercy’s chest. As soon as the onions cooled, he replaced them with a new portion, which Kit had been helping Rachel to make for many hours. Late in the afternoon the exhausted doctor left to help other patients.

Then without warning a new fear came. In the evening there was another knock on the door. Matthew Wood opened it, and there stood a little crowd of local people. “There’s illness everywhere!” shouted the angry voices. “Three young people are already dead! We’ll all die! Let’s stop it! Come with us! It’s the witchcraft! We’re going for the witch!”

“Who’s the witch?” asked Matthew.

“The Quaker woman who lives by Blackbird Pond! She’s been a curse on this town for years with her witchcraft! She’s with the devil!”

“This is nonsense,” said Matthew Wood. “No old woman or witchcraft could bring a plague like this. I won’t help you with any witch-hunt.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” a woman’s voice cried suddenly. “You have a witch in your own household! Ask your niece where she spends her time!”

Suddenly Matthew Wood turned red with anger. “Be gone from my house!” he shouted. “My niece is a good God-fearing girl! How dare you all?” There was a silence. Then the crowd turned and walked away to knock on other people’s doors.

When the angry crowd was gone, Kit asked, “What will they do to her? She’s just a poor helpless old woman! Will they harm her?”

“This is Connecticut,” answered Matthew gravely. “They will go by the law. I suppose they will have a trial. If she can prove herself innocent, she will be safe.”

“But what will they do with her tonight?”

“How do I know? This is none of your business, girl,” answered Uncle Matthew angrily.

“Go and get some rest, Kit,” suggested Rachel.

Kit looked from one to the other. They were not going to do anything. Upstairs, in her own room, she stood thinking. She would have to get to Hannah. No matter what happened, she could not stay here and leave Hannah to face that crowd alone. If only she could get there in time to warn her! Kit took her coat and crept down the stairs, then through the back door into the garden, and then she started running along the road. In the Meeting House Square the crowd was gathering: there were about twenty men and a few women, carrying torches. Kit ran on, unnoticed.

The misty meadows were peaceful and still. In the dark Kit found the path easily. Ahead she saw the Blackbird Pond and a slight glow in Hannah’s window. The door was not locked. Inside, Hannah was sitting in her chair, asleep. Kit touched the woman’s shoulder gently. “Hannah,” she said. “This is Kit. Wake up! We need to go, quickly.”

“What is it?” Hannah asked. “Is it a flood?”