s in Boston."

"Hath not your mother told you of it?"

"She told me nothing."

Her sad eyes seemed to swim in tears, and Charles entreated her to tell
him what Mr. Parris had said of her. Without answering his question, she
asked:

"What do you think of Goody Nurse and her sisters, Goody Cloyse and
Goody Easty?"

"They are very excellent women," Charles answered, "I would that we had
more like them."

"Is it wrong for a young maid such as I to keep their company?"

"Assuredly not."

Charles saw that Cora had something to tell, and he begged her to come
to a large moss-covered log, on which they seated themselves, and then
he asked:

"Cora, who said it was wrong?"

"Mr. Parris."

"When?"

"On last Lord's day he did upbraid us as the emissaries of the Devil,
and Goody Nurse avowed if the minister did not cease to upbraid her in
church, she would absent herself."

"That would be a violation of law. All are compelled to attend worship
on Lord's day."

She was silent for several moments and then remarked:

"Can a law compel one to go where she is maligned and all the calumnies
hate can invent heaped upon her head?"

"By the laws of the colony, all must attend church on Lord's day."

The laws of the Puritans were exacting, and ministers of the character
of Mr. Parris took advantage of them.

"It is sad," sighed Cora.

"What did Mr. Parris say of you on last Lord's day, Cora?"

"I cannot recall all that he said. Even his text I have forgotten, for,
as he was announcing it, Abigail Williams was seized with a grievous
fit, and did cry out that Goody Nurse was pinching her. When she became
quiet, and the pastor again announced his text, Abigail interrupted him
with: 'It is not a doctrinal text, and it is too long.' He said that
when the children of God went to worship, Satan came also. Then he
declared that the Devil was in the church at that moment, and he looked
at Goody Nurse and me, who sat near each other in the church. 'Do any of
you doubt that the imps of darkness are in your presence? Behold how
they associate the one with the other. Those who afflict and persecute
the children of the righteous, and the unholy offspring of a player!' He
grew in a towering passion and cried out so against me, that all eyes
were turned upon me, and I bowed my head. No sooner had I done so, than
he called on all to witness how Satan rebuked dared not show his face in
the house of God. If I but looked on him to den