Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1884-06-09
The Witch's Ring.


old village is Arlington. Half cen
fury behind the rest of the world, it
still sits between the green hills OF an
eastern state, with its elbows on its
knees, and its chin in its hands, mus
ing on bygone days, when old King
George held the land under his sway,
and when, as its old folks sagely re-
mark, things were not as they are
now. There are a great many old
people in Arlington; in fact, very
few die young, there.
The atmosphere is SO dreamy and
peaceful that excitement cannot ex-
list, and the wear and tear of the busy
world are unknown, or at most only
huns family over he hills, like the
buzzing of fly on a sunny pane on
a summer day. And so they sit still
in their chimney corners from year
to wear, and muse and dose and
dream, until they dream their lives
away, and take their final sleep. 1t
was to an old crone of this descrip-
ton that I was indebted for my ad
venture.
In the course of my ramblings
about the village, l chanced one day
to peer over a crumbling wall, and
discovered an old, disused burial
ground. The brown slabs were bro
ken, PROSTATE and scattered, with
only here and there a forlorn, un-
steady stone, standing wearily, and
waiting for the time to come when it,
too, might fall down and rest with
the sleepers beneath. Scrambling
over the low wall l stopped among
the grass, pushing away the tangled
masses of vines and leaves from the
faces of the slabs, that | might read
the inscriptions there. But suns and
storms of over one hundred years had
obliterated nearly all the letters, so
that only portions of names and dates
remained. Finally, down in a deep
corner of the enclosure, where the
weeds grew densest, and the shades
were darkest, found an old stone.
which, leaning forward, had protect
ed its face from the storms, and Oh
| the stone | read the words:
BARBARA CONWAIL.
BORN 1870, DIED 1880. AGE, 60 YEARS
: Hduing been laagfully e1ecuted for the prac
tice of aoitchcrGtt.
My curiosity was at once aroused.
l inquired of several persons as tc
the history of this woman, but with.
out success, for time. Finally
however, | found an old woman who
1 told me the history of Barbara Con.
wall, as it had been handed down tc
y her by her ancestors.
p. Living in an old stone house at The
edge of the villege, she was very
rarely seen-for no one ever crossed
her threshold-save when she wa.
e occasionally met by frightened par
c ty of children idling away Il summe
e afternoons holiday in the woods
when she would scowl and pass away
e STOPPING along over the fields, gath
ering herbs with which to brew be
= nightly potions. No one ever inter
fered with her, however, until sa,
0 year came to Arlington.
:. An epidemic broke out, and rageC
: with fury that nothing could with
:, stand. People began to mutter tha
u Barbara the witch was the cause O
, it. Passing the road she was stone
= by a party of boys, to whom sh
j." turned, and, shaking her bony hand
i shrieked that the curse was upo
IS them.
Two Of the lads sickened and die
in few days, and though score
;, were carried away in like manner, a
n especial import was attached to thei
d death. Barbara began to be watch
ed. They looked through her win
IS dows at midnight and found he
IS bending over a seething cauldror
's throwing in herbs, muttering cabalis
: tic words, and stirring the mixtur
with what they reported to be hu
man bone. Old Barbara was work
l, ing her charms.
r So when, one morning, man cam
S into town bruised and covered wit
% mud, and testified that as he rod
past old Barbara's house, at twelv
,- O'Clock the night before, he saw th
% arch fiend and the witch in converse
p ton upon the house-top, surrounde
k by flames, and laughing fiendishly
N the lurid glare, as they shook the
fists at the plague-stricken yillag
sleeping below, his tale found read
:; credence.
- The fact that he was an habitu;
j. drunkard, and had on more than on
h occasion rolled from his horse in
it drunken stupor, and passed the nigl
in ditch, dreaming wild dreams
I'd did not in the least detract from tt
u belief of the villagers in his accoul
of the scene. And when he relate
or how this pair of demons had pounce
n. upon him, and had first tortured an
h, then thrown him senseless into
ditch, their Indignation became III
a comfortable.
I'D Old Barbara was tried, condemned
- and hanged, though she proteste
~ her innocence to the last.
n. The little sum of money found
er her possession was used to buy tn
Ut OF1VpStOnp-9S no one wOIlid ola