The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1877-07-04

lifting that the worshipful and reverend
gentleman should be received in decent
quarters midway hating place be-
tween the narrow walls of a dungeon and
eternity's illimitabIe space. The room
was made secure by iron gratings, and
locks and bolts innumerable, and it had
a small barred window opening on a pas
sage and provided with shutter pushed
to and fro at will from the outside, by
means of which the occupant could be
observed.
Mistress Burns opened this shutter a
little way, and then several pairs of eyes
peered in through the crack.
The witch was walking slowly up and
down, clad in a widows garb that she
had worn since all hope was lost of her
husbands return from sea. She held in
her arms her child that she had been
allowed to have once more before her
DEATH not so much because of her earnest
prayer as to see if the Dalton babe expe-
rienced i'll effects. 1t was a beautiful
little creature that laid its curly head
upon her shoulder, and in passing to and
fro before the tallow candle, forgotten
when her inquisitors departed, she
never failed to look down at the bloom
upon its cheeks, just visible in that dim
light.
1t vas hardly to be supposed that the
witch's bret had been very tenderly cared
for during her long confinement, but new
ertheIess, she clasped it again with
JOY, as fresh and lovely as rose. If
the proof of her evil doings lay in the
fact that her child throve while others
peaked and pinned, then indeed her guilt
was plain.
"She kisses the babe" whispered the
woman at the window.
Gay, she makes as though she were
very fond of it; but know not whether
to think she is or no.
81 verify think she is, said the jailor's
wife, ''for there can none come nigh her
but she'll beg and pray them to care for
she importuned the worti Y gentleman ia
most unseemly manner, and wept and
wrung her hands until they were tain to
tell her the parish would care for it cen
though it be witch's babe.
"Mistress Burns" came a somewhat
| deep but clear voice that made them all
start, 81 pray thee, give me some milk
for the child"
The little creature had begun to be un-
easy and to fret, for sharing its mother
confinement it was condemned to her fare
of bread and water, which had proven in
no way to its taste.
"Wouldst give it to herr" consulted the
jailor's wife.
NAY, wherefore ?" said one. "Let hel
find charm to still it"
| Nd Wilson M
step toward the window, clapped the
window shutter to in all haste.
"Let her not breathe on us, for then
we are all witched doubt she is very
dangerous tonight"
The women fled back in alarm to the
festive candle light and the evening en-
tertair ment of cake and cider with
which the hostess was presently to treat
them. But she, retiring to the pantry
to bring in those dainties with her own
hands, arranged her tray as if she were
all the time thinking of something else.
Finally she took down pewter mug out
of which her children once had drunk
poured it full of the milk, and went
down the passage again to the little
wooden shutter.
Hank! the child was fretting, but the
mother sang simple little song enough,
though a strange one for witch:
Hush. my baby; lie still and slumberi
Holy angels guard thy bed,
Heavenly blessings without number
Gather round thy infant head
The listener waited till the voice
ceased and then opening the window
said, cautiously:
1--WE brought you some milk mis-
tress."
The witch was there in an instant
with thankful exclamation on her lips,
and this time the other forgot to be
alarmed at her vicinity, for the car
stuck fast between the bars, and both
were only bent in extricating it:
Mistress Wilson had laid aside hel
widows cap for the night, and loosened
her dark hair that fell like a veil over
her shoulders. The light from the
lamp, that the jailor's wife had set OF
the window ledge, shone on her white
forehead and downcast lids, with theil
delicately fringed lashes, while her slen
der fingers worked about the cup tt
draw it through.
AS it yielded at last, she said, as i
the unlocked for kindness awakened {
sudden hope, but in voice that betray
ed the coming tears:
ooh, Mistress Burns, wilt thou think
of nv boy sometimes when"
This was too much for the other. IL
her excited fancy, the deep violet blue
eyes shone with mysterious light, and
who could tell but the breath from those
sorrow speaking lips had already contain
mated her? The closing window cut of
the rest as Mistress Burns snatched hel
lamp and sped away.
'Shalt be at the hanging" asked hel
friends when they took leave.
"It is very early in the morning" wa!
the doubtful answer.
"They say it is thus ordered tina
there may not be so great a crowd a!
heretofore. It creates clamor and dis
turbance that is unseemly III a town 81
plainly under the judgment of Provi
dence as this Still, myself think t.
be there, for the last was prevented by
my husbands cousin, Increase Goodwin
with his wife and children and wife's sis
ter who all came to see those ends tha
were hanged on Tuesday, so / was com
PEELED to stand at the kitchen fire anC
prepare small meal for them while
they amused themselves in the streets
This time, however, is my turn, since ne
one is likely to come before six o'clock in
the morning And surely it is a com
forting and edifying spectacle in the
} troublous time to see the wretches giver
over to their father, the devil
cay" said another of the women
"and perchance she will confess in th'
end, as Hester Scott did at sight of thu
J gallows. For Hester declared, as We al
: know, not only that she herself had at
! tended the witches Sabbath, but told 0
many she had met in the DEVILS congre
cation, and spoke of none forsoOth, will