"Wni you tell me when and where, and give all the
circumstances connected with the matter ?"

" Well, Goody Parsons come to my house one time when
my wife and I was both to home, and we got to talking
about one thing and another, when my wife, says she,
'Mary — Widow Marshfield says you'v'e took a child to
bring up, but he's so small he'll never make much Hugh-
and-cry." (A titter all about the room, and a nod from the
widow which meant, " Pretty good — ^wasn't it.") " Well,
this made Mary mad, and says she to my wife — Widow
Marshfield has been grudging every chUd that's been born
in the plantation, because her girl didn't have any ; and as
soon as she had one, it died, and her cow died at the same
time, and died a' bellering, 'cause she thought the child
was her'n." (" Sharp shooting," whispered Deacon Chapia
to Mr. Moxon, the widow meanwhile assuming an air of
charming imperturbation, and the magistrate drawing his
hand slowly down over his mouth, as if he rather enjoyed
it.) "And then she went on, Mary did, and said that
widow Marshfield was suspected for a witch when she
lived in Windsor, and, for aU she knew, the child and the
cow were bewitched when they died, and that was what
aUed them. I told her she ought to be ashamed of herself
to talk so about a respectable woman, and that I didn't
believe a word of it ; but she stuck to what she said, and
when I asked her what she knew about it, she said it was
known all over Windsor that the Devil had a private room
in her house, where he met all the witches once a week, to
have a grand feast and lay out his work ; and she didn't
see any reason why she shouldn't have dealings with him



302 THE BAY PATH.
