Читать книгу Ye Lyttle Salem Maide. A Story of Witchcraft онлайн

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Naturally, at the convulsed child’s words, which seemed a confirmation of that warning, the good people drew away, shuddering, each man pressing against his neighbour, until they formed a circle a good distance back from the little assistant teacher of the Dame School.

Thus Deliverance stood at noonday, publicly disgraced, sobbing, with her hands over her face in the middle of the roadway; an object of hatred and abhorrence, with the screaming children clutching at her dress, or crawling at her feet.

But suddenly her father, who, returning from his herb-gathering, had pushed his way to the edge of the crowd and perceived Deliverance, stepped out and took his daughter by the hand. He spoke sternly to those who blocked the way, so that the people parted to let them pass. Master Wentworth was a man of dignity and high repute in those parts.

As the two walked home hand in hand, Deliverance, with many tears, related the morning’s events; how in some anger she had rapped Ebenezer Gibbs’ head with her thimble, and how he had cried thereat.