fields.

_Giles._ I meant not Injuns. There be worse than Injuns. There be
evil things and witches!

_Martha_ (_laughing_). Witches! Goodman, you are a worse child than
Phoebe here.

_Giles._ I tell ye, wife, you talk like a fool, ranting thus
against witches. I would you had been where I have been to-night,
and heard the afflicted maids cry out in torment, being set upon by
Sarah Good and Sarah Osborn. I would you had seen Mercy Lewis
strangled almost to death, and the others testifying 'twas Sarah
Good thus afflicting her. But I'll warrant you'd not have believed
them.

_Martha_ (_laughing_). That I would not, goodman. I would have said
that the maids should be sent home and soundly trounced, then put to
bed, with a quart bowl of sage tea apiece.

_Giles._ Talk so if you will. One of these days folk will say you
be a witch yourself. You were ever hard-skulled, and could knock
your head long against a truth without being pricked by it. Hold out
if you can, when only this morning the ox and the cat were took so
strangely here in our own household.

_Martha._ Shame on you, goodman! The ox and the cat themselves
would laugh at you. The cat ate a rat, and it did not set well on
her stomach, and the ox slipped in the mire in the yard.