CHAPTER VII.
A Conversation with Dulcibel.
As Dulcibel sat in the little room which she had furnished in a prettybut simple way for a parlor, some days after the meeting of theministers, her thoughts naturally dwelt upon all these exciting eventswhich were occurring around her. It was an April day, and the snow hadmelted earlier than usual, and it seemed as if the spring might be anexceptionally forward one. The sun was pleasantly warm, and the windblowing soft and gently from the south; and a canary bird in the rusticcage that hung on the wall was singing at intervals a hymn of rejoicingat the coming of the spring. The bird was one that had been given her bya distinguished sea-captain of Boston town, who had brought it home fromthe West Indies. Dulcibel had tamed and petted it, until she could letit out from the cage and allow it to fly around the room; then, at thewords, "Come Cherry," as she opened the little door of the cage, thebird would fly in again, knowing that he would be rewarded for his goodconduct with a little piece of sweet cake.
Cherry would perch on her finger and sing his prettiest strains on someoccasions; and at others eat out of her hand. But his prettiest feat wasto kiss his mistress by putting his little beak to her lips, when shewould say in a caressing tone, "Kiss me, pretty Cherry."
After playing with the canary for a little while, Dulcibel sighed andput him back in his cage, hearing a knock at the front door of thecottage. And she had just turned from the cage to take a seat, when thedoor opened and two persons entered.
"I am glad to see you, friends," she said calmly, inviting them to beseated.
It was Joseph Putnam, accompanied by his friend and visitor, EllisRaymond, the young man of whom Dulcibel had spoken to Jethro Sands.
Joseph Putnam was one of that somewhat distinguished family from whomcame the Putnams of Revolutionary fame; Major-General Israel Putnam, thewolf-slayer, being one of his younger children. He, the father I mean,was a man of fine, athletic frame, not only of body but of mind. He wasone of the very few in Salem village who despised the wholewitch-delusion from the beginning. He did not disbelieve in theexistence of witches--or that the devil was tormenting the "afflictedchildren"--but that faith should be put in their wild stories was quiteanother matter.
Of his companion, Master Ellis Raymond, I find no other certain accountanywhere than in my Quaker friend's manuscript. From the little that isthere given of personal description I have only the three phrases "acomelie young man," "a very quick-witted person," "a very determined andcourageous man," out of which to build a physical and spiritualdescription. And so I think it rather safer to leave the portraiture tothe imagination of my readers.
"Do you expect to remain long in Salem?" asked Dulcibel.
"I do not know yet," was the reply. "I came that I might see whatprospects the new world holds out to young men."
"I want Master Raymond to purchase the Orchard Farm, and settle downamong us," said Joseph Putnam. "It can be bought I think."
"I have heard people say the price is a very high one," said Dulcibel.
"It is high but the land is worth the money. In twenty years it willseem very low. My father saw the time when a good cow was worth as muchas a fifty-acre farm, but land is continually rising in value."
"I shall look farther south before deciding," said Raymond. "I am toldthe land is better there; besides there are too many witches here," andhe smiled.
"We have been up to see my brother Thomas," continued Joseph Putnam. "Healways has had the reputation of being a sober-headed man, but he is alloff his balance now."
"What does Mistress Putnam say?" asked Dulcibel.
"Oh, she is at the bottom of all his craziness, she and that elfishdaughter. Sister Ann is a very intelligent woman in some respects, butshe is wild upon this question."
"I am told by the neighbors that the child is greatly afflicted."
"She came in the room while we were there," responded Master Raymond. "Iknew not what to make of it. She flung herself down on the floor, shecrept under the table, she shrieked, she said Goody Osburn was stickingpins in her, and wound up by going into convulsions."
"What can it all mean?--it is terrible," said Dulcibel.
"Well, the Doctor says she is suffering under an 'evil hand,' and theministers have given their solemn opinion that she is bewitched; andbrother Thomas and Sister Ann, and about all the rest of the familyagree with them."
"I am afraid it will go hard with those two old women," interposed EllisRaymond.
"They will hang them as sure as they are tried," answered Joseph Putnam."Not that it makes much difference, for neither of them is much to speakof; but they have a right to a fair trial nevertheless, and they cannotget such a thing just now in Salem village.
"I can hardly believe there are such things as witches," said Dulcibel,"and if there are, I do not believe the good Lord would allow them totorment innocent children."
"Oh, I don't know that it will do to say there are no witches," repliedJoseph Putnam gravely. "It seems to me we must give up the Bible if wesay that. For the Old Testament expressly commands that we must notsuffer a witch to live; and it would be absurd to give such a command ifthere were no such persons as witches."
"I suppose it must be so," admitted Dulcibel, with a deep sigh.
"And then again in the New Testament we have continual references topersons possessed with devils, and others who had familiar spirits, andif such persons existed then, why not now?"
"Oh, of course, it is so," again admitted Dulcibel with even a deepersigh than before.
But even in that day, outside of the Puritan and other religious bodies,there were unbelievers; and Ellis Raymond had allowed himself to smileonce or twice, unperceived by the others, during their conversation.Thus we read in the life of that eminent jurist, the Honorable FrancisNorth, who presided at a trial for witchcraft about ten years before theperiod of which we are writing, that he looked upon the whole thing as avulgar delusion, though he said it was necessary to be very careful toconceal such opinions from the juries of the time, or else they wouldset down the judges at once as irreligious persons, and bring in theprisoners guilty.
"I am not so certain of it," said Ellis Raymond.
"How! What do you mean, Master Raymond?" exclaimed Joseph Putnam; likeall his family, he was orthodox to the bone in his opinions.
"My idea is that in the old times they supposed all distracted andinsane people--especially the violent ones, the maniacs--to be possessedwith devils."
"Do you think so?" queried Dulcibel in a glad voice, a light seeming tobreak in upon her.
"Well, I take it for granted that there were plenty of insane people inthe old times as there are now; and yet I see no mention of them assuch, in either the Old or the New Testament."
"I never thought of that before; it seems to me a very reasonableexplanation, does it not strike you so, Master Putnam?"
"So reasonable, that it reasons away all our faith in the absolutetruthfulness of every word of the holy scriptures," replied JosephPutnam sternly. "Do you suppose the Evangelists, when they spoke ofpersons having 'familiar spirits,' and being 'possessed of devils,' didnot know what they were talking about? I would rather believe that everyinsane person now is possessed with a devil, and that such is the trueexplanation of his or her insanity, than to fly in the face of the holyscriptures as you do, Master Raymond."
Dulcibel's countenance fell. "Yes," she responded in reverential tones,"the holy Evangelists must know best. If they said so, it must be so."
"You little orthodox darling!" thought young Master Raymond, gazing uponher beautiful sad face. But of course he did not express himself to suchan effect, except by his gaze; and Dulcibel happening to look up andcatch the admiring expression of two clear brown eyes, turned her owninstantly down again, while a faint blush mantled her cheeks.
The young Englishman knew that in arousing such heterodox opinions hewas getting on dangerous ground. For expressing not a greater degree ofheresy than he had uttered, other men and e
ven women had been turnedneck and heels out of the Puritan settlements. And as he had no desireto leave Salem just at present, he began to "hedge" a little, as bettingmen sometimes say.
"Insane people, maniacs especially, do sometimes act as if they werepossessed of the devil," he said frankly. "And no doubt their insanityis often the result of the sinful indulgence of their wickedpropensities and passions."
"Yes, that seems to be very reasonable," said Dulcibel. "Every sinfulact seems to me a yielding to the evil one, and such yielding becomingcommon, he may at least be able to enter into the soul, and takeabsolute possession of it. Oh, it is very fearful!" and she shuddered.
"But I find one opinion almost universal in Salem," continued Raymond,"and that is one which I think has no ground to sustain it in thescriptures, and is very mischievous. It is that the devil cannot actdirectly upon human beings to afflict and torment them; but that he isforced to have recourse to the agency of other human beings, who havebecome his worshipers and agents. Thus in the cases of these childrenand young girls, instead of admitting that the devil and his imps aredirectly afflicting them, they begin to look around for witches andwizards as the sources of the trouble."
"Yes," responded Joseph Putnam earnestly, "that false and unscripturaldoctrine is the source of all the trouble. That little Ann Putnam,Abigail Williams and the others are bewitched, may perhaps be true--anumber of godly ministers say so, and they ought to know. But, if theyare bewitched, it is the devil and his imps that have done it. If theyare 'possessed with devils'--and does not that scripture mean that thedevils directly take possession of them--what is their testimony worthagainst others? It is nearly the testimony of Satan and his imps,speaking through them. While they are in that state, their evidenceshould not be allowed credence by any magistrate, any more than thedevil's should."
It seems very curious to those of the present day who have investigatedthis matter of witch persecutions, that such a sound and orthodox viewas this of Joseph Putnam's should have had such little weight with thejudges and ministers and other leading men of the seventeenth century.While a few urged it, even as Joseph Putnam did, at the risk of his ownlife, the great majority not only of the common people but of theleading classes, regarded it as unsound and irreligious. But the wholehistory of the world proves that the _vox populi_ is very seldom the_vox Dei_. The light shines down from the rising sun in the heavens, andthe mountain tops first receive the rays. The last new truth is alwaysfirst perceived by the small minority of superior minds and souls. Howindeed could it be otherwise, so long as truth like light always shinesdown from above?
"Have you communicated this view to your brother and sister?" askedDulcibel.
"I have talked with them for a whole evening, but I do think Sister Annis possessed too," replied Joseph Putnam. "She fairly raves sometimes.You know how bitterly she feels about that old church quarrel, when asmall minority of the Parish succeeded in preventing the permanentsettlement of her sister's husband as minister. She seems to have theidea that all that party are emissaries of Satan. I do not wonder herlittle girl should be so nervous and excitable, being the child of sucha nervous, high-strung woman. But I am going to see them again thisafternoon; will you go too, Master Raymond?'
"I think not," replied the latter with a smile, "I should do harm, Ifear, instead of good. I will stay here and talk with Mistress Dulcibela little while longer."
Master Putnam departed, and then the conversation became of a lightercharacter. The young Englishman told Dulcibel of his home in the oldworld, and of his travels in France and Switzerland. And they talked ofall those little things which young people will--little things, butwhich afford constant peeps into each other's mind and heart. Dulcibelthought she had never met such a cultivated young man, although she hadread of such; and he felt very certain that he never met with such alovely young woman. Not that she was over intelligent--one of thoseprecociously "smart" young women that, thanks to the female colleges andthe "higher culture" are being "developed" in such alarming numbersnowadays. If she had been such a being, I fancy Master Raymond wouldhave found her less attractive. Ah, well, after a time perhaps, we ofthe present day shall have another craze--that of barbarism--in whichthe "coming woman" shall pride herself mainly upon possessing a strong,healthy and vigorous physical organization, developed within thefeminine lines of beauty, and only a reasonable degree of intelligenceand "culture." And then I hope we shall see the last of walking femaleencyclopedias, with thin waists, and sickly and enfeebled bodies; fit tobe the mothers only of a rapidly dwindling race, even if they have thewish and power to become mothers at all.
I am not much of a believer in love at first sight, but certainlypersons may become very much interested in each other after a few hours'conversation; and so it was in the case before us. When Ellis Raymondtook up his hat, and then lingered minute after minute, as if he couldnot bring himself to the point of departure, he simply manifested anewto the maiden what his tones and looks had been telling her for an hour,that he admired her very greatly.
"Come soon again," Dulcibel said softly, as the young man managed toopen the door at last, and make his final adieu. "And indeed I shall ifyou will permit me," was his earnest response.
But some fair reader may ask, "What were these two doing during all thewinter, that they had not seen each other?"
I answer that Dulcibel had withdrawn from the village gatherings sincethe breaking of the engagement with Jethro. At the best, it was anacknowledgment that she had been too hasty in a matter that she shouldnot have allowed herself to fail in; and she felt humbled under thethought. Besides, it seemed to her refined and sensitive nature onlydecorous that she should withdraw for a time into the seclusion of herown home under such circumstances.
As for the village gossips, they entirely misinterpreted her conduct.Inasmuch as Jethro went around as usual, and put a bold face upon thematter, they came to the conclusion that he had thrown her off, and thatshe was moping at home, because she felt the blow so keenly.
Thus it was that while the young Englishman had attended many socialgatherings during the winter he had never met the one person whom he wasespecially desirous of again meeting.
One little passage of the conversation between the two it may be wellhowever to refer to expressly for its bearing upon a very seriousmatter. Raymond had mentioned that he had not seen her recently flyingaround on that little jet black horse, and had asked whether she stillowned it.
"Oh, yes," replied Dulcibel; "I doubt that I should be able to sellLittle Witch if I wished to do so."
"Ah, how is that? She seems to be a very fine riding beast."
"She is, very! But you have not heard that I am the only one that hasever ridden her or that can ride her."
"Indeed! that is curious."
I have owned her from a little colt. She was never broken to harness;and no one, as I said, has ever ridden her but me. So that now if anyother person, man or woman, attempts to do so, she will not allow it.She rears, she plunges, and finally as a last resort, if necessary, liesdown on the ground and refuses to stir. "Why, that is very flatteringto you, Dulcibel," said Raymond smiling. "I never knew an animal ofbetter taste."
"That may be," replied the maiden blushing; "but you see how it is thatI shall never be able to sell Little Witch if I desire to do so. She isnot worth her keep to any one but me."
"Little Witch! Why did you ever give her a name like that?"
"Oh, I was a mere child--and my father, who had been a sea-captain, andall over the world, did not believe in witches. He named her "LittleWitch" because she was so black, and so bent on her own way. But I mustchange her name now that people are talking so about witches. In truthmy mother never liked it."
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