“Well, let’s go down to the Pulpit Stone and I’ll tell you a story I know,” said the Story Girl.
We went—and straightway drank of the waters of forgetfulness. In a brief space we were laughing right merrily, no longer remembering our wrongs at the hands of those cruel grown-ups. Our laughter echoed back from the barns and the spruce grove, as if elfin denizens of upper air were sharing in our mirth.
Presently, also, the laughter of the grown-ups mingled with ours. Aunt Olivia and Uncle Roger, Aunt Jane and Uncle Alec, came strolling through the orchard and joined our circle, as they sometimes did when the toil of the day was over, and the magic time ’twixt light and dark brought truce of care and labour. ’Twas then we liked our grown-ups best, for then they seemed half children again. Uncle Roger and Uncle Alec lolled in the grass like boys; Aunt Olivia, looking more like a pansy than ever in the prettiest dress of pale purple print, with a knot of yellow ribbon at her throat, sat with her arm about Cecily and smiled on us all; and Aunt Janet’s motherly face lost its every-day look of anxious care.
The Story Girl was in great fettle that night. Never had her tales sparkled with such wit and archness.
“Sara Stanley,” said Aunt Olivia, shaking her finger at her after a side-splitting yarn, “if you don’t watch out you’ll be famous some day.”
“These funny stories are all right,” said Uncle Roger, “but for real enjoyment give me something with a creep in it. Sara, tell us that story of the Serpent Woman I heard you tell one day last summer.”
The Story Girl began it glibly. But before she had gone far with it, I, who was sitting beside her, felt an unaccountable repulsion creeping over me. For the first time since I had known her I wanted to draw away from the Story Girl. Looking around on the faces of the group, I saw that they all shared my feeling. Cecily had put her hands over her eyes. Peter was staring at the Story Girl with a fascinated, horror-strickened gaze. Aunt Olivia was pale and troubled. All looked as if they were held prisoners in the bonds of a fearsome spell which they would gladly break but could not.
It was not our Story Girl who sat there, telling that weird tale in a sibilant, curdling voice. She had put on a new personality like a garment, and that personality was a venomous, evil, loathly thing. I would rather have died than have touched the slim, brown wrist on which she supported herself. The light in her narrowed orbs was the cold, merciless gleam of the serpent’s eye. I felt frightened of this unholy creature who had suddenly come in our dear Story Girl’s place.
When the tale ended there was a brief silence. Then Aunt Janet said severely, but with a sigh of relief,
“Little girls shouldn’t tell such horrible stories.”
This truly Aunt Janetian remark broke the spell. The grown-ups laughed, rather shakily, and the Story Girl—our own dear Story Girl once more, and no Serpent Woman—said protestingly,
“Well, Uncle Roger asked me to tell it. I don’t like telling such stories either. They make me feel dreadful. Do you know, for just a little while, I felt exactly like a snake.”
“You looked like one,” said Uncle Roger. “How on earth do you do it?”
“I can’t explain how I do it,” said the Story Girl perplexedly. “It just does itself.”
Genius can never explain how it does it. It would not be genius if it could. And the Story Girl had genius.
As we left the orchard I walked along behind Uncle Roger and Aunt Olivia.
“That was an uncanny exhibition for a girl of fourteen, you know, Roger,” said Aunt Olivia musingly. “What is in store for that child?”
“Fame,” said Uncle Roger. “If she ever has a chance, that is, and I suppose her father will see to that. At least, I hope he will. You and I, Olivia, never had our chance. I hope Sara will have hers.”
This was my first inkling of what I was to understand more fully in later years. Uncle Roger and Aunt Olivia had both cherished certain dreams and ambitions in youth, but circumstances had denied them their “chance” and those dreams had never been fulfilled.
“Some day, Olivia,” went on Uncle Roger, “you and I may find ourselves the aunt and uncle of the foremost actress of her day. If a girl of fourteen can make a couple of practical farmers and a pair of matter-of-fact housewives half believe for ten minutes that she is really a snake, what won’t she be able to do when she is thirty? Here, you,” added Uncle Roger, perceiving me, “cut along and get off to your bed. And mind you don’t eat cucumbers and milk before you go.”
XXIV
The Bewitchment of Pat
We were all in the doleful dumps—at least, all we “young fry” were, and even the grown-ups were sorry and condescended to take an interest in our troubles. Pat, our own dear, frolicsome Paddy, was sick again—very, very sick.
On Friday he moped and refused his saucer of new milk at milking time. The next morning he stretched himself down on the platform by Uncle Roger’s back door, laid his head on his black paws, and refused to take any notice of anything or anybody. In vain we stroked and entreated and brought him tidbits. Only when the Story Girl caressed him did he give one plaintive little mew, as if to ask piteously why she could not do something for him. At that Cecily and Felicity and Sara Ray all began crying, and we boys felt choky. Indeed, I caught Peter behind Aunt Olivia’s dairy later in the day, and if ever a boy had been crying I vow that boy was Peter. Nor did he deny it when I taxed him with it, but he would not give in that he was crying about Paddy. Nonsense!
“What were you crying for, then?” I said.
“I’m crying because—because my Aunt Jane is dead,” said Peter defiantly.
“But your Aunt Jane died two years ago,” I said skeptically.
“Well, ain’t that all the more reason for crying?” retorted Peter. “I’ve had to do without her for two years, and that’s worse than if it had just been a few days.”
“I believe you were crying because Pat is so sick,” I said firmly.
“As if I’d cry about a cat!” scoffed Peter. And he marched off whistling.
Of course we had tried the lard and powder treatment again, smearing Pat’s paws and sides liberally. But to our dismay, Pat made no effort to lick it off.
“I tell you he’s a mighty sick cat,” said Peter darkly. “When a cat don’t care what he looks like he’s pretty far gone.”
“If we only knew what was the matter with him we might do something,” sobbed the Story Girl, stroking her poor pet’s unresponsive head.
“I could tell you what’s the matter with him, but you’d only laugh at me,” said Peter.
We all looked at him.
“Peter Craig, what do you mean?” asked Felicity.
“’Zackly what I say.”
“Then, if you know what is the matter with Paddy, tell us,” commanded the Story Girl, standing up. She said it quietly; but Peter obeyed. I think he would have obeyed if she, in that tone and with those eyes, had ordered him to cast himself into the depths of the sea. I know I should.
“He’s bewitched—that’s what’s the matter with him,” said Peter, half defiantly, half shamefacedly.
“Bewitched? Nonsense!”
“There now, what did I tell you?” complained Peter.
The Story Girl looked at Peter, at the rest of us, and then at poor Pat.
“How could he be bewitched?” she asked irresolutely, “and who could bewitch him?”
“I don’t know how he was bewitched,” said Peter. “I’d have to be a witch myself to know that. But Peg Bowen bewitched him.”
“Nonsense!” said the Story Girl again.
“All right,” said Peter. “You don’t have to believe me.”
“If Peg Bowen could bewitch anything—and I don’t believe she could—why should she bewitch Pat?” asked the Story Girl. “Everybody here and at Uncle Alec’s is always kind to her.”
“I’ll tell you why,” said Peter. “Thursday afternoon, when you fellows were all in school, Peg Bowen came here. Your Aunt Olivia gave her a
lunch—a good one. You may laugh at the notion of Peg being a witch, but I notice your folks are always awful good to her when she comes, and awful careful never to offend her.”
“Aunt Olivia would be good to any poor creature, and so would mother,” said Felicity. “And of course nobody wants to offend Peg, because she is spiteful, and she once set fire to a man’s barn in Markdale when he offended her. But she isn’t a witch—that’s ridiculous.”
“All right. But wait till I tell you. When Peg Bowen was leaving Pat stretched out on the steps. She tramped on his tail. You know Pat doesn’t like to have his tail meddled with. He slewed himself round and clawed her bare foot. If you’d just seen the look she gave him you’d know whether she was a witch or not. And she went off down the lane, muttering and throwing her hands round, just like she did in Lem Hill’s cow pasture. She put a spell on Pat, that’s what she did. He was sick the next morning.”
We looked at each other in a miserable, perplexed silence. We were only children—and we believed that there had been such things as witches once upon a time—and Peg Bowen was an eerie creature.
“If that’s so—though I can’t believe it—we can’t do anything,” said Story Girl drearily. “Pat must die.”
Cecily began to weep afresh.
“I’d do anything to save Pat’s life,” she said. “I’d believe anything.”
“There’s nothing we can do,” said Felicity impatiently.
“I suppose,” sobbed Cecily, “we might go to Peg Bowen and ask her to forgive Pat and take the spell off him. She might, if we apologized real humble.”
At first we were appalled by the suggestion. We didn’t believe that Peg Bowen was a witch. But to go to her—to seek her out in that mysterious woodland retreat of hers which was invested with all the terrors of the unknown! And that this suggestion should come from timid Cecily, of all people! But then, there was poor Pat!
“Would it do any good?” said the Story Girl desperately. “Even if she did make Pat sick I suppose it would only make her crosser if we went and accused her of bewitching him. Besides, she didn’t do anything of the sort.”
But there was some uncertainty in the Story Girl’s voice.
“It wouldn’t do any harm to try,” said Cecily. “If she didn’t make him sick it won’t matter if she is cross.”
“It won’t matter to Pat, but it might to the one who goes to her,” said Felicity. “She isn’t a witch, but she’s a spiteful old woman, and goodness knows what she’d do to us if she caught us. I’m scared of Peg Bowen, and I don’t care who knows it. Ever since I can mind ma’s been saying, ‘If you’re not good Peg Bowen will catch you.’ ”
“If I thought she really made Pat sick and could make him better, I’d try to pacify her somehow,” said the Story Girl decidedly. “I’m frightened of her, too—but just look at poor, darling Paddy.”
We looked at Paddy who continued to stare fixedly before him with unwinking eyes. Uncle Roger came out and looked at him also, with what seemed to us positively brutal unconcern.
“I’m afraid it’s all up with Pat,” he said.
“Uncle Roger,” said Cecily imploringly, “Peter says Peg Bowen has bewitched Pat for scratching her. Do you think it can be so?”
“Did Pat scratch Peg?” asked Uncle Roger, with a horror-stricken face. “Dear me! Dear me! That mystery is solved. Poor Pat!”
Uncle Roger nodded his head, as if resigning himself and Pat to the worst.
“Do you really think Peg Bowen is a witch, Uncle Roger?” demanded the Story Girl incredulously.
“Do I think Peg Bowen a witch? My dear Sara, what do you think of a woman who can turn herself into a black cat whenever she likes? Is she a witch? Or is she not? I leave it to you.”
“Can Peg Bowen turn herself into a black cat?” asked Felix, staring.
“It’s my belief that that is the least of Peg Bowen’s accomplishments,” answered Uncle Roger. “It’s the easiest thing in the world for a witch to turn herself into any animal you choose to mention. Yes, Pat is bewitched—no doubt of that—not the least in the world.”
“What are you telling those children such stuff for?” asked Aunt Olivia, passing on her way to the well.
“It’s an irresistible temptation,” answered Uncle Roger, strolling over to carry her pail.
“You can see your Uncle Roger believes Peg is a witch,” said Peter.
“And you can see Aunt Olivia doesn’t,” I said, “and I don’t either.”
“See here,” said the Story Girl resolutely, “I don’t believe it, but there may be something in it. Suppose there is. The question is, what can we do?”
“I’ll tell you what I’d do,” said Peter. “I’d take a present for Peg, and ask her to make Pat well. I wouldn’t let on I thought she’d made him sick. Then she couldn’t be offended—and maybe she’d take the spell off.”
“I think we’d better all give her something,” said Felicity. “I’m willing to do that. But who’s going to take the presents to her?”
“We must all go together,” said the Story Girl.
“I won’t,” cried Sara Ray in terror. “I wouldn’t go near Peg Bowen’s house for the world, no matter who was with me.”
“I’ve thought of a plan,” said the Story Girl. “Let’s all give her something, as Felicity says. And let us all go up to her place this evening, and if we see her outside we’ll just go quietly and set the things down before her with the letter, and say nothing but come respectfully away.”
“If she’ll let us,” said Dan significantly.
“Can Peg read a letter?” I asked.
“Oh, yes. Aunt Olivia says she is a good scholar. She went to school and was a smart girl until she became crazy. We’ll write it very plain.”
“What if we don’t see her?” asked Felicity.
“We’ll put the things on her doorstep then and leave them.”
“She may be miles away over the country by this time,” sighed Cecily, “and never find them until it’s too late for Pat. But it’s the only thing to do. What can we give her?”
“We mustn’t offer her money,” said the Story Girl. “She’s very indignant when any one does that. She says she isn’t a beggar. But she’ll take anything else. I shall give her my string of blue beads. She’s fond of finery.”
“I’ll give her that sponge cake I made this morning,” said Felicity. “I guess she doesn’t get sponge cake very often.”
“I’ve nothing but the rheumatism ring I got as a premium for selling needles last winter,” said Peter. “I’ll give her that. Even if she hasn’t got rheumatism it’s a real handsome ring. It looks like solid gold.”
“I’ll give her a roll of peppermint candy,” said Felix.
“I’ll give one of those little jars of cherry preserve I made,” said Cecily.
“I won’t go near her,” quavered Sara Ray, “but I want to do something for Pat, and I’ll send that piece of apple leaf lace I knit last week.”
I decided to give the redoubtable Peg some apples from my birthday tree, and Dan declared he would give her a plug of tobacco.
“Oh, won’t she be insulted?” exclaimed Felix, rather horrified.
“Naw,” grinned Dan. “Peg chews tobacco like a man. She’d rather have it than your rubbishy peppermints, I can tell you. I’ll run down to old Mrs. Sampson’s and get a plug.”
“Now, we must write the letter and take it and the presents to her right away, before it gets dark,” said the Story Girl.
We adjourned to the granary to indite the important document, which the Story Girl was to compose.
“How shall I begin it?” she asked in perplexity. “It would never do to say, ‘Dear Peg,’ and ‘Dear Miss Bowen’ sounds too ridiculous.”
“Besides, nobody knows whether she’s Miss Bowen or not,” said Felicity. “She went to Boston when she grew up, and some say she was married up there and her husband deserted her, and that’s why she went crazy. If she’s married she w
on’t like being called Miss.”
“Well, how am I to address her?” asked the Story Girl in despair.
Peter again came to the rescue with a practical suggestion.
“Begin it, ‘Respected Madam,’ ” he said. “Ma has a letter a school trustee once writ to my Aunt Jane and that’s how it begins.”
“Respected Madam,” wrote the Story Girl. “We want to ask a very great favour of you and we hope you will kindly grant it if you can. Our favourite cat, Paddy, is very sick, and we are afraid he is going to die. Do you think you could cure him? And will you please try? We are all so fond of him, and he is such a good cat, and has no bad habits. Of course, if any of us tramps on his tail he will scratch us, but you know a cat can’t bear to have his tail tramped on. It’s a very tender part of him, and it’s his only way of preventing it, and he doesn’t mean any harm. If you can cure Paddy for us we will always be very, very grateful to you. The accompanying small offerings are a testimonial of our respect and gratitude, and we entreat you to honour us by accepting them.
“Very respectfully yours,
“SARA STANLEY.”
“I tell you that last sentence has a fine sound,” said Peter admiringly.
“I didn’t make that up,” admitted the Story Girl honestly. “I read it somewhere and remembered it.”
“I think it’s too fine,” criticized Felicity. “Peg Bowen won’t know the meaning of such big words.”
But it was decided to leave them in and we all signed the letter.
Then we got our “testimonials,” and started on our reluctant journey to the domains of the witch. Sara Ray would not go, of course, but she volunteered to stay with Pat while we were away. We did not think it necessary to inform the grown-ups of our errand, or its nature. Grown-ups had such peculiar views. They might forbid our going at all—and they would certainly laugh at us.
Peg Bowen’s house was nearly a mile away, even by the short cut past the swamp and up the wooded hill. We went down through the brook field and over the little plank bridge in the hollow, half lost in its surrounding sea of farewell summers. When we reached the green gloom of the woods beyond we began to feel frightened, but nobody would admit it. We walked very closely together, and we did not talk. When you are near the retreat of witches and folk of that ilk the less you say the better, for their feelings are so notoriously touchy. Of course, Peg wasn’t a witch, but it was best to be on the safe side.
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