mmunicative and
silent as the grave.

Charles felt an interest in these people. It was a strange interest, one
he could not understand himself, and like all good boys, when he wanted
wisdom and information, he went to his mother.

"Mother, do you ever talk with Cora?" he asked one day.

"Yes."

"Do you ever talk with her about England?"

"I have; but it seems her father was a roving player, without any fixed
abode."

"And her mother?"

Mrs. Stevens, who was busy sewing, answered:

"I know nothing of her mother."

"Have you never asked about her?"

"No."

"Has she never mentioned her mother's name?"

"She has not."

The girl was nearly always at the home of Mrs. Stevens, though she
sometimes took strolls alone through the town.

The melancholy child attracted the attention of Good-wife Nurse, who
asked her to her house and brought her a mug of fresh milk.

"Do you belong here?" asked Goody Nurse.

"I suppose we do," was the answer. "Father is here part of the time."

"And your mother?"

"I have none."

"Did she die in England?"

"Alas, I know not."

"Do you remember seeing her?"

Cora shook her head, and a shadow passed over her face.

"Has your father ever told you about her?" asked Goody Nurse.

"No, madame; I have not heard him speak her name."

Then Goody Nurse, with a curiosity that was natural, sought to question
the child about her former life; but all she could gain was that her
father had been a strolling player.

Players were not in good repute in New England at this time. The
prejudice against the theatre, growing out of the rupture between the
actors and the Roman Catholic Church, was inherited by the Protestants,
who, to some extent, still continue their war against the stage. The
fact that George Waters had been an actor was sufficient to condemn him
in the eyes of the Puritans.

When Mr. Parris learned that a player was in their midst, he elevated
his ecclesiastical nose, and seemed to sniff the brimstone of Satan.
When he learned that some of the dissenting members of his congregation
had been guilty of the heinous sin of speaking kind words to the
motherless child of a player, he shook his wise head knowingly and
declared, "Truly Satan is kind to his own." He made the player a subject
for his next Lord's day sermon, in which he sought to pervert the
scriptures to suit his prejudices. The subject of witchcraft was
beginning to excite some attention, and he managed in