Kaisa’s boy, the oldest of the children, answered. “The Witch! Witch Mary! She came down the path to the river. Didn’t you hear her clicking her old cane? Didn’t you hear her curse?”
“Will she—will she—come in here, I wonder?” faltered one woman.
“She said the serpent of the river would get him! She cried it out! She waved her cane and said that!”
“No,” protested another child, “she said she would kill him!”
“I could not see her—I was so—so scared!” a third added, with chattering teeth.
Black Eric stood silent, his face pale and twitching. He was evidently fighting for control.
“Down to the river!”
“No, she went back in the woods. She went fast, like the wind!”
They crowded to the windows, the children still clinging to their mothers. Beyond the river bank stretched a sandbar, gleaming white in the sun. The river coiled and twisted like sensuous green snakes writhing together.