John Greenleaf Whittier

“ Unto no whiter soul than hers.
"Let Goody Martin rest in peace;
I never knew her harm a fly,
And witch or not, God knows--not I.
"I know who swore her life away;
And as God lives, I'd not condemn
An Indian dog on word of them."
The broadest lands in all the town,
The skill to guide, the power to awe,
Were Harden's; and his word was law.
None dared withstand him to his face,
But one sly maiden spake aside
"The little witch is evil-eyed!
"Her mother only killed a cow,
Or witched a churn or dairy-pan;
But she, forsooth, must charm a man!"
V. In the Shadow. ”

“ Susanna Martin, an aged woman of Amesbury, Mass., was tried and executed for the alleged crime of witchcraft. Her home was in what is now known as Pleasant Valley on the Merrimac, a little above the old Ferry way, where, tradition says, an attempt was made to assassinate Sir Edmund Andros on his way to Falmouth (afterward Portland) and Pemaquid, which was frustrated by a warning timely given. Goody Martin was the only woman hanged on the north side of the Merrimac during the dreadful delusion. ”

“ And still her weary wheel went round
Day after day, with no relief
Small leisure have the poor for grief.
IV. The Champion. So in the shadow Mabel sits;
Untouched by mirth she sees and hears,
Her smile is sadder than her tears. ”