Litchfield enquirer., 1877-02-15

HI OAOoC Od1AGI6S Wltu Her OWL uduUS, dE- ranged her tray as if she were all the time thinking of something else. Finally she took down a pewter mug out of which her children once had drank, pour- ed 1t full of milk, and went down the passage again to the little wooden shut ter.
 Hark! the child was fretting, but the mother sang simple little song enough though strange one for witch:
 Hush, my babe; lie still and slumber!
 Holy angels guard thy bed,
 Heavenly blessings without number
 Gather round thy infant head. The listener waited till the voice ceas- ed, and then opening the window. said cautiously:
 i i've brought thee some milk, mis- tress g -s-s-- ---ls - ! ",
 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 little can stuck fast between the bars, and both were only bent on extricating it.
 Mistress Wilson had laid aside her wid- ow's cap for the night, and loosened her dark hair that fell like veil over her shoulders. The light from the lamp, that the jailers wife had set on the window ledge, shone on her white forehead and and downcast lids, with their delieately fringed lashes. while her slender fingers worked worked about the ,eRpAto draw it
 As it yielded at last she said, as if the unlocked for kindness awakened sudden hope, but in a voice that betrayed the coming tears:
 "Oh, Mistress Burns, wilt thou think of my baby sometimes when"-
 That was too much for the other. To l 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 contam- mated her? The closing window cut off the rest, as Mistress Burns snatched her lamp and sped away.
 ''Shalt be at the hanging?" asked her friends when they took leave, 'It IS very early in the morning." was 1 the doubtful answer.
 ] ''They say it is thus ordered that there may be not so great a crowd as hereto fore. It creates clamor and disturbance that IS unseenly in town so plainly un- der the judgments of Providence as this. Still, myself think to be there, for the last was prevented by my husbands cousin Increase Goodwin, with his wife and children and wifes sister who all came to see those ends that were hanged O Tuesday, so that was forced to stand at the kitchen fire and prepare a .mall meal for them while they amused them selves in the streets. This time, however, IS my turn, since no one is like to come before six o'clock in the morning. And surely It IS a comforting and edifying spectacle in the troublous times, to see Wrn the devil"
 ''Ay," said another of the women. ''and per chance she will confess in the end. as Hester Scott did at the sight of the gal lows. For Hester declared, as ye all know, not only that she herself had at- tended the witches Sabbath, but told of many that she had met in the devils con- With more cerGa1nLy Gnau -UA 1r...ua a>-,. son, who rode through the air with her cat on her shoulder. and boasted of how she was drawing in the Dalton child's blood from it's finger ends, and torment ing Mir, Williams son thrlce daily. It is an excellent thing when the witches con- fess. Only SO can full knowledge be ob- tained who among us is sold to Sa- tan,'
 Verify" said third, "Howbeit. to my thinking the judges act somewhat
 
 time to spread. One hundred and fifty demned, and only twenty hanged doubt the gentlemen would do better to proceed more quickly with the sentences, for so the jails are full to overfowing, and many escape detection, from the inn possibility of bringing them to trial. We'll we'll, we must be watchful in pray CT and tarry in patience till it pleaseth the Lord to look upon our affiiction. wish thee good night, mistress, and hope to meet thee tomorrow"
 There were many in the town that night who walked to weep and pray. In one house were some grieviously tormented; in another. member of the family had been torn from the midst of it, charged with practicing the devices of Satan, and dragged. accused of God and man, to imprisonment, condemnation and death. But one who sat in the Salem jail heard every hour of the night go by, till the watchman called for the last time his de- lusive cry of ''All's wellI' and the day had dawned-the day when a witch was to die.
 In Enoch Dalton's household also there was little sleep that night. Miriam, beset with entreaties and reproaches, an- swered in the sayings of the godly Cotton Mather, or with the line of Holy Writ, Thou shall not suffer a witch to live. The woman was like flint in her resolve, and words never so appealing had as much effect on her as the rushing break CTS on the cliffs of Marblehead that they cover for a moment with foam and spray, and falling back. leave as hard and bleak | and frownlhg as before. Enoch only. vnra hinocoI and pooo6 rooDo af last, alone, while Miriam lay down to take | a more felgned than real repose. She did him wrong. It was pure sen- timent of humanity, a manly instinct to help and protect hunted, defenceless woman, wbo, in her happier days. had gone in and out of his house on errands of neighborly kindness, that made him speak for Mistress. Wilson now. He was l not so far beyond his fellow-citizens in | cool headedness and understanding as to | repudiate the idea of witchcraft altogeth- | CT. How should he have been, when that storm of superstition that swept over the land carried with it men who stood as thinkers high above their fellows? Learn ed and godly men held discourses on the manifold arts of the evil one, by which he ensnared weak souls to do his bidding, and for aught that Enoch knew that might l De true. 4uoTo uIRut D0 W1GCuGS. OQlY | one who had shown naught but kindness to him and his, one to whose accusation jealousy was not stranger, his straight l forward shrew common sence told him was no witch. He was plain man who troubled himself little with what lay be- 1 yond him; it was Mir. Mather's business to make sermons and interpret, as it were; for God and the devil; it was his business to blow. and SOW, and reap, and mind' his household; and whatever questions came up there, in his own little sphere, he was capable to decide upon. His child was not bewthhed, but sick, and the Evil One had whispered more suggestions to hls wife than to Mistress Wilson. It was the phrase on every one's lips in those dark times, ''Satan is abroad" and Enoch believed it. Satan had entered his wife's heart Alas, yes. and possibly his own too, as he swore a never-dying mlnd-