Miss L.

“ I don’t know, sir, if it ever was made up; may be, you see, the witch wouldn’t let her bring her mind like to do it, for Jack and her were never the same afterwards, and Tom went to the cottage oftener than ever. I used to be quite frightened at Jack’s look, when he’d come in and see them two a-talking together; but I knew poor Ellen was bewitched, and couldn’t help teasing him. The neighbours knew it, too; for, you see, bewitched people have a queer look about the eyes, and grow thin and pale, like Ellen did, till they die quite away. ”

“ Hearing no sound, the little one crept up noiselessly, and getting on the bed nestled closely to her mother, the large living eyes bright with a mixed expression of pity, love, and wonder, the little hand stroking the dead face with a fond caressing movement inexpressibly touching. ”

“ WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT.
alt = A man with a bundle under his arm walks away from a cottage where a woman is sitting, while another woman, holding a baby, attempts to retain him. Some time ago, I fell gradually ill. “You study too much,” said my senior partner, Dr. G——. “You don’t take enough exercise,” said an intimate friend in a confidential tone, as if he wouldn’t have any one else know his opinion for the world. ”

“ The busy whirr of a threshing-machine mingled with the notes from time to time, and then a distant shout from the already-wearied reapers brought to my mind the days of childhood, when, a “boy among boys,” I chased butterflies in the fields, while my pretty sister (what a strange old creature she was now) gleaned for the children of the poor. ”

“ I thought Jack was wrong, and was just telling her so, when I heard a knock at the door, which was open, and there was the witch standing looking.”
“What witch?” I asked.
“Why, her that lives in the hut on the hill; there’s only one witch, sir.”
Again the look of astonishment. I signified a satisfaction I was far from possessing, and she continued:
“Well, sir, she was standing staring, and Ellen, thinking she’d heard what we’d been saying, told her sharply to go off; but she didn’t move, so Ellen got up and pushed her out, but not before she had cast an evil look and muttered to herself. ”

“ The story, as nearly as I remember, ran as follows:
“You see, sir, Ellen was my only child, and a good one she was. Many’s the time I’ve told my old man she’d live to be a comfort to me; and so she truly did, nursing me and taking care of me, when he died, for many a long day.” (Here she fondled the dead hand closer still.) “Well, you see sir, she was still quite a child, when a young chap comes to work up at the Squire’s where Ellen took the milk every morning. ”

“ In obedience to this thoroughly womanly principle, my wife says, women are not curious—men are curious—and I the most curious of men.
Without arguing this point, I certainly must confess that I experienced a large amount of the failing in question, after witnessing the scene described in the last chapter; and it was with no small satisfaction, at the prospect of having my curiosity gratified, that I set off the next morning for the old woman’s cottage. She was standing at the door, evidently expecting me.
“Oh, sir, is it you? do walk in!” ”

“ This narrative is strictly true—no solitary instance—hundreds of the same kind are continually occurring. The belief in witchcraft is prevalent in most parts of England; nearly every village and hamlet has its “witch.” No malice is expressed, simply a dread of offending her, even unintentionally. The unfortunate beings supposed to have fallen under her evil influence, are considered marked and doomed ”

“ This belief not only exists among the very poor and the more intelligent labourers, but even many of the better class of farmers, and occasionally thoroughly educated members of the higher ranks of society are infected with it. ”

“ The child had fallen asleep with the doll by her side, still murmuring in her dreams that “they must keep quiet”—a little rosy face, but strangely like the dead one on the bed. I reclosed the window-shutters, thinking of the light she had found—that great eternal light that will one day dawn on all—covered the pale dead face, and left the woman weeping and in prayer.
CHAPTER II.
My wife says “women are not curious.” This conclusion is not the result of calm, logical reasoning, but proceeds rather from a spirit of firmness, not to say obstinacy, inherent in the sex ”