is a wicked, cruel, revengeful man,
rather than a follower of the meek and lowly Lamb of God."

"I will not stay where my blessed pastor is spoken so ill of!" declared
Ann Putnam, and she bounded out of the door, shaking the dust off her
shoes. At the gate, she paused and held her fist in the air, and at the
height of her masculine voice screamed:

"I denounce you! I cry out against you, Hattie Stevens! I will to do no
more with you!" and having performed that wonderful act of discarding a
former friend, she turned about and hurried over the hill.

"Charles, I am sorry you and your mother angered her," said Cora.

"Why, Cora?" he asked.

"She can do us ill."

"Ann Putnam is an evil woman and a fit follower of such a man as
Parris," declared Charles. "My mother did a noble act in denouncing
him."

"It is time, Charles," interrupted Cora. "I feel, I know that if evil
befalls you, I am the cause. I must go away. I cannot remain here to
prove the ruin of those who befriended me. I must go away."

"Where would you go?"

"I know not where; but I will go anywhere, so that I may not prove the
ruin of my friends. The wild heathen in the forest could not be more
cruel than these people."

"Cora, you shall not go!" cried Charles. "No, you shall not. I will
protect you and mother. I have friends, friends true and strong, friends
of whom they little dream. They live in the forest and will come to my
aid by the hundreds to fight my battles."

"Do you mean the Indians?"

"Yes. Two years ago I saved the life of Oracus, a young chief, and made
him my friend. An Indian, once a friend, is the truest of friends.
Oracus and his warriors would die for me."

"Do not appeal to the Indians, if you can avoid it," the girl plead.
Charles assured her if she did go away, it would not remove the wrath of
the minister from them, and she decided to remain.

Mr. Parris hated Rebecca Nurse more than any other person in Salem. He
was now about to accomplish his designs.

Until the day of trial, Rebecca Nurse lay in jail, with great, heavy
fetters, which she could scarcely carry, upon her. Her husband, family
and friends did all in their power to procure her release on bond; but
witchcraft was not a bailable offence.

They tried to secure mercy for the old woman from Mr. Parris; but he was
inexorable. When Mr. Parris, a few months before, was publicly
complaining of neglect in the matter of firewood for the parsonage, and
of lukewarmn