It was a rough march of more than two slender arrow.

He darted instantly miles through the woods; but they re- into his house, and remained there, & lieved each other from time to time, good deal discomposed, until the arrival and never ceased advancing. A solemn of some of the peighbors. The next dirge moved above them, from arch to day, diligent search was made after arch of the dark forest, as if spirits in Poquandum, for many miles round, but the air were bearing, with funeral without so much as hearing of his paschants, some brother spirit to its tomb. sage. They came upon the clearing at last, and saw the green corn waiting in vain

CHAPTER XXI. forever the band of bim who had planted it. As they reached the cabin, a fox UNDER the impulse of a vigorous yelped at them from the edge of the lit constitution, Rachel had vibrated from tle spring, and then fled away into the the extremity of her delirium back to a gloom of the wilderness. The windows lucid mind. But the fever still reached had been in part broken, doubtless by eager hands at her; and more than wayfaring boys; but the panes which once she was again on the point of remained in place seemed to glare at reeling into utter frenzy. As she lay them with fitful, ghastly reflections. one night, tossing hotly from side to Mark shuddered as he laid down his side, a temptation of cool dark waters, sepulchral load amid this bodeful scene; at the bottom of the garden well, hauntand even Poquannum muttered, in his ed her incessantly. The house was own language, some hasty words, which still, and her overwearied watcher had sounded like an incantation. They suc- fallen asleep. She rose noiselessly, ceeded in forcing open one of the win. and, walking in the unsteady strength dows and lifting the body through it into of fever, passed down stairs and into the cabin. Finding a spade inside and the yard. From a full bucket, balanced an old hatchet, they tore up the floor in on the wooden curb, she drank until the one corner, and commenced digging a fire in her veins was followed by a tregrave. After two hours of labor in the mor, luxurious even in its deathlike half darkness, it was finished ; and then, chillness. In her feebleness she let the putting Mark's jacket upon More, they dripping vessel slip, and drenched her laid him in his sanctuary; while Po- night-dress from her feet to her shoulquannum drew the long knife from bis ders. She tottered back to her room, belt, and placed it on the dead man's Aung herself on her bed, and fell into breast, saying: “This for the strong the calmest slumber that had held her sagamore ; this for the great hunting for a week. grounds."

Thanks, probably, to this hydropathio Mark made no objection to what application, the fever rose to a crisis seemed to him a heathenish, and yet a the next day, and then sank rapidly most affectionate action. They covered into a healthy subsidence.

No one up the pale hunter, replaced the floor- knew what had produced the fortunate ing and left the cabin. As it was now change ; for Rachel, with that childish past midnight, the settler invited his cunning which often attends sickness, comrade to go home with him and share kept her own counsel, and reserved the bis hospitality • No,” said Poquan. well-bucket as a sweet, sure resource in num; “me sleep in woods - much case of the malady's return; often passgrief."

ing hours in thinking of it, as a travelTheu, with a peculiar glitter in his er remembers the basis to which he eye, he asked Mark where Sheriff Her- once escaped from burning deserts. rick lived, and made him describe exact- Slowly and with uncertain stops the ly the dwelling of that energetic officer knowledge of her father's death stole of justice. He offered no explanations, upon her. The fever, with its frenzy and, having learned what he wanted, and its weakness, had been a gentle shook hands with the young fellow, and friend which, in the mildest of all ways, disappeared among the cedars. That broke unto her the evil tidings. So night, Herrick's barn was burned to the feeble were both mind and body now, ground; and the sheriff himself, while that she only half felt the agony of her running about the flames, felt some- bereavement, even when she perfectly thing strike his thick bearskin cap. He knew it. She wept at times, but calmtook it off, and found it transfixed by a ly, with no more possibility of despairing

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madness. Oh, sickness! oh, pain! oh, exbortations. The recollection of all death! blandest of lovers are ye all to his former repulses seemed to have humanity, although yo seem to it so faded away in the intimacy which he terribly cruel !

had wrung out of her prosent circumShe was around the house in a month ; stances. He was as fascinated as ever, pale indeed, feeble and sorrowing; but and about as frank in showing his fasnot as one without hope. During the cination. On her part their interviews convalescence, as during the height of were hours of annoyance, fear, and alher illness, Mark and his mother were most loathing. She was relieved somealways near when she needed them. what at discovering, little by little, that Mark ran of errands, brought her fruit her aunt understood and sympathized and flowers; his mother watched the with her feelings. In fact, Mrs. Bowinvalid, made gruel for her, read to her. son liked Mark very sincerely; and, at The

young fellow soon contrived to get all events, had no idea of asking Rachel sight of More's letter. Of course he to break a betrothal, even to please an looked grave, very grave, indeed, over elder; while, as she understood better it; but he could not help being pleased the object of Noyse's pretendedly paswith its advice on the score of that mar- toral visits, she began to regard him riage ; and he did what most other with a quiet growing disfavor. But not young men of any spirit would have even to her, as yet, did Rachel dare hint done in the circumstances; that is, he her sombre suspicions that the minisurged quietly, but very earnestly, the ter's soul was stained with the blood of policy of an early wedding. Mrs. her father and of Martha Carrier. Bowson soberly acquiesced ; and even The other reason why it was not Rachel expressed no serious opposition. pleasant for Mark to visit the Bowsons She used to run across the garden very was, that the deacon was very bearish to often now, and take supper at the Stan. bim, and tried to snub him on all possiton's—much oftener, indeed, than Mark ble occasions. This poor man, naturcame to her uncle's, and that for divers ally so kindly and cheerful, had grown excellent reasons.

One of these rea- surly with superstition, had lost flesh, sons was, that at home she was perse- and was almost always melancholy. He cuted by frequent visits from Elder constantly hung around Noyse for Noyse. This guilty, this miserable crumbs of comfort or counsel; had, in man, had fallen altogether from his fact, become a mere dog to him, and first estate of fair Christianity, and had wagged his tail or barked as he directbecome an utter hypocrite-cowardly ed. He abused Mark as a Sadducee and wretched, it is true, but none the an opposer of the law and of the elders. less knavish and perverse. It is proba- He said there was no depending on ble that he scarcely ever prayed now these young men; for they might take except in public; for prayer must have to dicing; drinking, swearing, at any grown to him an insupportable self-ac- day; and he was not at all sure but that cusation. Ho preached almost alto- Mark had already gamed it with Beelgether against witchcraft, or those zebub. But Pastor Noyse was a safe grosser sins of which alone he felt that

person to trust one's soul with-Shephe was not guilty. Yet he raved some- herd Noyse would be a famous guide times at his own apostasy, and wanted to through this valley of death. curse Rachel, Mark, and the dead More, Sometimes he tried to carry the match as the stumbling-blocks over which he by snarling; sometimes by fawning, had fallen.

whining and downright whimpering. When he came to visit the girl, it He plagued her insupportably, too, by was with a face of brazen sanctimoni- his conversation about her father. ousness which visored the corruption “ Brother More! ob, Brother More !" within.

He was like that dead knight he would repeat, moaning and shaking of the ballad, who walked about in his head. “What a dreadful thing! It complete armor, attended feasts and isn't the hanging, so much ; it's that tournaments, and seemed to be living

What a horrible thing even while the worms were feeding up- to sell one's soul to the devil!” on him. Rachel could not refuse to see My father was not a sorcerer,” Rahim; he was the shepherd of souls; it chel replied, her pale cheek Aushing was his duty to attend on the sick ; it into a bright hectic. was her duty to hear his counsels and "Oh, that's past hope,” sighed Bow

woeful sorcery.

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son. “ The court settled that beyond And off she went to the neighbors, dubitation. I've talked to Elder Noyse declaring that “if ever a man looked like about it, time and again; and all he a wizard, John Bowson was that man. could do was to groan; time and again He'd got to be monstrous goggle-eyed, I've heard him : he hadn't a word of that was sarten." comfort for me."

Sarah, in the mean time, was explainRachel generally ended such dia- ing to the deacon that, " Beelzebub had logues by covering up her face and healed Goody Barker's face, and washed bursting into tears. Occasionally then her gownd with popish holy water." the old kindness of Bowson's nature Goody Bowson often suffered from would light up, and he would try to the devils, as, on account of her age console the poor heart that he had tor- and imbecility, she richly deserved. tured. Two or three times, indeed, he Chairs were twitched away from under pulled out his small brown handkerchief, her, letting her down upon the floor in well stained with snuff, and wept copi- a style 'which made her antique bones ously in her company. It was pitiable rattle, and shook her out of shape for to see how the once brisk, and generally several minutes. Sarah then had conconsible man had been pushed by su- vulsions, which rolled her backwards perstition into a premature dotage. and forwards over the old lady, to the

He still kept that troublesome little imminent risk of smothering her or monkey, Sarah Carrier, and listened to squeezing out her brains. A few minher chatterings as if they were the song utes afterward, the little wretch had of Deborah. He neither controlled her, some pins to vomit up, or some fork to por allowed her to be controlled; and pull out of her ears. These manifestait seemed as if the family would be tions generally happened in the evenharried out of the house by her number. ing, which was a particularly favorable less pranks; only now and then the girl time to imps of darkness, because the relapsed of herself into quiet, wearied economy of the period rarely allowed by an unchecked monotony of mischief. candles. Mrs. Bowson afterwards calculated that When the devils were not plaguing £30 would not cover what Sarah cost Goody Bowson, and when nobody would them in the way of burnt clothing, torn read the “Remarkables" to her, she led, linen, broken crockery and damaged perhaps, the calmest existence in Salem; furniture. Even the deacon sometimes for, curiously enough, she took no inlent a hand to swell this list of house- terest in the present witch manifestahold expenses extraordinary. Having tions, and was only disturbed by those read how Luther threw an inkstand at that had disturbed her years ago. She the devil with good effect, he watched dozed a good deal in her great chair, his opportunity, and let drive with a occasionally waking up to mumble a very, large one, at a certain spectre psalm-tune. She went to bed when the which was punching and pricking the bens did, and slept all night as calmly unlucky Sarah. A sharp crash followed : as they. She seemed to be almost a looking-glass scattered in fragments; equally unconscious with those featband the crimson rug underneath received ered bipeds, of the human tragedy & grimy drenching. The girl screamed which was enacting about her; and certhat Goody Barker's face was wounded, tainly no contrast could be more strikand her cap and gown stained in like ing than the difference between her manner; upon which the deacon darted stagnant life and the surrounding temout of the house, and ran half a mile to

a

pest of wrath, lamentation, and horror. catch the bag before she could wash Surely she was not much to be pitied; herself and otherwise repair damages. idiocy at that time was, in some sort, & Goody Barker sat in her door spinning, blessing. her wrinkled old phiz unscratched, and Frisk, all this while, was a more unher cap and short-gown as clean as happy dog than ever. He was super

He stared at her wildly, shook naturally tormented to such a degree, his head at her devilish cunning, then that he used to run from Sarah Carrier walked home short-winded, and with as from Old Hundred. He was either & monstrous sideache. “Fiddle-dee- keener-eyed, or more of a Sadducee dee!" said the Goody, as she gazed than tho rest of the family, for he did after him in wonder. “What a plague not believe a whit that it was Beelzebub possesses the deacon ?"

who teazed him; he was dogmatically

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persuaded that it was nobody but that sly had been, from the first, one pure and Sarah. He kept perpetually on the look- atrocious delusion; a tragedy as barren out for her, and, at her approach, either in result as it bad been frightful in inciscampered off with his tail between bis dent-without meaning, without provolegs, or sought a sneaking refuge under cation, and without benefit. She rechairs and tables. Before whining to membered how she had sometimes spobe let into the house, he always took ken earnest words in its defense, and the precaution to sniff at the door- wept bitterly over those utterances of crack; and if by this means he discov- mistaken sincerity. The thought made ered her presence within, he made no her very humble, and very forgiving whimpering request for admittance, but toward those who had believed more quietly packed himself away to the forvently, and who still believed. They, fields or the stable. Nothing could be on their part, attributed her meek simore absurd than the obstinacy with lence to a consciousness that her family which this ridiculous brute held that had deserved its great affliction, so that Sarah was the only witch who troubled they were inclined to comfort her pathe peace of the household. He was tronizingly, and to warn her with seevidently an atheist, if not an entire verity. Mrs. Curwin and Mrs. Parris disbeliever in the devil, and, doubtless, met her one day as she was walking homedeserved hanging as much as any of ward with Rachel. “ Well, Mistress the wretches on whom Stoughton had Bowson, how do you feel after your passed sentence.

tribulations ?" said the tall, prim lady In spite of some suspicions which of the justice. Rachel gasped, and then Rachel had concerning Sarah, and in compressed her lips, while poor sister spite of the annoyances which the child's Ann helplessly burst into tears. “What! tricks constantly occasioned, she treated not subdued yet ?" cried Mrs. Curwin, her with gentleness. “We are both in reproachful amazement.

“ Well, orphans," she used to say: "You have truly,” remarked the elder's wife, “it lost your mother, and I have lost my do seem like a waste of the Lord's prefather, both of us in the same way. cious chastisements to pour 'em out on We'll be good friends together. By us ungrateful creeters." Mrs. Bowson and-by, when we get out of all these was going to listen with her accustomed troubles, and I can keep house, then you resignation ; but Rachel haughtily brishall live with me." With which kind dled up, and bidding the ladies goodof talk Sarah was very much pleased, afternoon, pulled her aunt away. and repaid it by pestering Rachel as The terror was still at its height in little us possible. Nor did she play the colony, notwithstanding that, for the many tricks directly on Mrs. Bow- present, there were no more courts nor son; only it would not do for that executions. The reaction against Jugpotable housekeeper to set her at any gernaut had begun; but it was as yet kind of work; for in such a case the very limited and very feeble, although devils interfered, and brought mugs and it grew stronger when that respectable platters to swift destruction. Of course gentleman, Justice Dudley Bradstreet, the good woman was annoyed by these of Andover, was committed. A propos impoverishing occurrences; but, per- of this circumstance, Elder Higginson haps, after all, they served her a very preached anew against the delusion; friendly turn. The upsetting of a table said he feared that the prosecutions had would, sometimes, startle her out of woe- been a bloody mistako, and lamented ful recollections of her murdered brother; that he had not withstood them boldly and the smell of the deacon's best bea- from the beginning. ver, roasting on the kitchen fire, re- Mark, also, was not so occupied with minded her to be thankful that fate had bis private affairs but that he could spare as yet spared the deacon. She was a time and thought to the championship sanctified spirit, and the angels watched which More had left him. He stoutly over her. The little plagues of life, defended the dead hunter's character instead of aggravating her great burden, from the charge of witchcraft. To the only helped to lighten it. One reflec- epithet of Sadducee he retorted by calltion, however, filled her with unmiti- ing his opponents the Pharisees; and gated sorrow. She was thoroughly this sarcasm, being a biblical one, had converted from the witchcraft credences a good run, and greatly enraged those now, and believed that the excitement at whom it was directed. He wrote a

memorial also, which he afterwards

pre

be abused by Satan's legerdemains. I sented to the General Court, and caused know not whether some remarkable to be printed at his own expense. affronts unto the devils, by our disbeCotton Mather is very severe upon bim lieving of those testimonies whose whole for this, and calls him " a bejesuited force and strength is from them alone, varlet, and a choak-weed of Christiani- may not put a period to the progress of ty."

a direful calamity, begun upon us in At an earlier day, Mark would have the accusation of so many persons, suffered for these impertinences; but whereof, I hope, some are yet clear Giant Witchcraft was getting a little from the great transgression laid to stiff in the joints now, like Giant Pope their charge.” in the Pilgrim's Progress. Even Elder Sensible, cautious Elder Hale, when Hale of Beverly showed fight when he it came the turn of his own family! I found that the afflicted were unreasona- honor him for setting store by Mrs. bly determined on banging his excellent Hale's neck; and only wish that he had wife. “ Brethren," said he, in his bet- been equally careful not to dress chokter-late-than-nover sermon,

ers for other people's windpipes. not be too cautious in matters of this The General Court met in October, importance. In cases of witchcraft, all and discussed lengthily the rights and proceedings thereabout ought to be man- reasons of Juggernaut. The representaged with an exceeding tenderness to- atives did not quite fulfill the unfortuward those that may be complained of; Date More's anticipations. They reespecially if they have been formerly of fused to condemn the late trials; they an unblemished reputation. It is an un- adopted English law as authority for doubted and a notorious thing that a de- future prosecutions; they, however, mon may, by God's permission, appear delayed the legal colonial court until even to ill purposes, in the shape of January, 1693; and that was all the coman innocent, yea, and a virtuous person; fort that the Assembly of Massachusetts nor can we esteem alterations in the could conscientiously grant to Salem. sufferers, made by a look or touch of So onward crept the autumn towards the accusers, to be an infallible evi- winter, in a state of mind sufficiently dence of guilt; but frequently liable to dismal and hopeless.

We can

AN OBSERVATION UPON THE “NEW YORK OBSERVER."

As Putnam has decided opinions and

" religious" newspaper, that we always expresses them strongly, it does not listen to what the religious" press wonder that dissent from those opin- says of us, with curiosity and interest; ions should be often stated as strongly. for we know, of course, that, as a class, Nor, as its readers are well aware, does the " religious" newspapers are, at it quarrel with any criticism. But gross once, more hampered by the peculiarimisstatements of fact, intended to

ties of position, and, probably, more ininjure the reputation of the Magazine, Auential than any other of the qualichallenge attention, and shall always ty of that influence, we do not speak. promptly receive it; and we choose this But no thoughtful observer of the times place as more conspicuous than the gen- and the country fails to see that, in eral “ Editorial Notes." For we are anx- their various ways, the “

“religious" ious that nobody should entertain ene- newspapers “exploit" the religious mies unawares, nor suddenly discover sentiment of the community; and that, that the Monthly which was taken in by not infrequently, when manly and fair the reader, for its general interest and argument is wanting, they have revalue to him, should have taken the course to the most dangerous and odireader in, by treating flippantly or ous of all weapons in discussion-apfalsely topics which are justly and peals to sectarianism and superstition. universally precious.

Are we quite wrong, in saying, that Let us say, frankly, as we are about just what Archbishop Hughes did at to comment upon the misstatement of a the Tabernacle, when he denounced the