At this Perseverance gave Nancy a sly touch with the foot and the latter colored a little, just a small, decorous blush, suitable to a staid spinster, for Ephraim was not likely to create any very fiery emotion.
“We are straying from the question in hand, gossip,” said the hostess. “I learn, by the last arrivals from home, that the people are not only at their wits’ end in the face of these civil commotions, but that in sundry places have broken out divers cases of witchcraft and possession, whereby the peace and safety of many devout persons has been greatly jeopardized!”
“Yea, yea, I have read thereof; it were a goodly thing if this young church in the wilderness, as yet little disturbed by heresies, should give the older one a lesson. What think you, mistress?”
Mistress Bonyton did not reply directly to the question, but laying her work in her lap, replied, slowly:
“At one time it was thought that your son Ephraim was falling into the snares of this—this—”
“Witch devil.” Perseverance came thus to her mother’s aid.
“Yea, it is most true. Ephraim sat day after day, like a—eh—like a sparrow upon the house-top—eh—lamenting.”
Perseverance eyed Nancy with a malignant smile, whereat the latter, nothing daunted, replied:
“Many a godly youth has been led astray, but when he returns, and saith ‘I have sinned,’ it shall not be accounted to him.”
“Thou art of a goodly speech, Nancy, and I thank thee,” returned Dame Higgins.