Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/106

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

they may know, an' be able to put an end to it; for there's nae doin' ony business, ivery bodie is so cast up about it. Is na' it awfu'?"

"But I wonder if sensible people there believe in it? Did he say?"

"He did, then. He said Nathaniel Ingersoll, Mr. Parris, an' Joseph Hutchinson, an' Edward an' Thomas Putnam, they all believed in it. Oh! wae is me! wae is me! 'Deed, but I think it's jist awfu'! awfu'!"

"And you believe it too, then—do you, grandmother?"

"I dinna ken what to believe, lassie! I kinna say I do believe in it, an' yet, as folks say, 'Where there's sae much smoke, there maun be some fire.'"

"I know. But then, these two poor old creatures—what power can they possibly have? Grandmother, I don't think I believe one word of it."

"Weel-a-weel! I kinna say. But there, lassie, rin awa' noo; an' dinna fash ony mair aboot it, for it makes me sick wi' fear."

"But stay a moment, grannie, and tell me just this one thing: If the devil hath such