over,
and she come down the aisle, passin' oot o, meetin'; but Ketury never
took no notice. Ye see, Ketury's father was one o' them great powwows
down to Martha's Vineyard; and people used to say she was set apart,
when she was a child, to the sarvice o' the Devil: any way, she never
could be made nothin' of in a Christian way. She come down to Parson
Lothrop's study once or twice to be catechised; but he couldn't get a
word out o' her, and she kind o' seemed to sit scornful while he was
a-talkin'. Folks said, if it was in old times, Ketury wouldn't have been
allowed to go on so; but Parson Lothrop's so sort o' mild, he let her
take pretty much her own way. Everybody thought that Ketury was a witch:
at least, she knew consid'able more'n she ought to know, and so they was
kind o' 'fraid on her. Cap'n Eb says he never see a fellow seem scareder
than Cack did when he see Ketury a-standin' there.

"Why, ye see, boys, she was as withered and wrinkled and brown as an old
frosted punkin-vine; and her little snaky eyes sparkled and snapped,
and it made yer head kind o' dizzy to look at 'em; and folks used to say
that anybody that Ketury got mad at was sure to get the worst of it fust
or last. And so, no matter what day or hour Ketury had a mind to rap
at anybody's door, folks gen'lly thought it was best to let her in; but
then, they never thought her coming was for any good, for she was just
like the wind,--she came when the fit was on her, she staid jest so long
as it pleased her, and went when she got ready, and not before. Ketury
understood English, and could talk it well enough, but always seemed to
scorn it, and was allers mo win' and mutterin' to herself in Indian,
and winkin' and blinkin' as if she saw more-folks round than you did,
so that she wa'n't no way pleasant company; and yet everybody took good
care to be polite to her. So old Cack asked her to come in, and didn't
make-no question where she come from, or what she come on; but he knew
it was twelve good miles from where she lived to his hut, and the snow
was drifted above her middle: and Cap'n Eb declared that there wa'n't no
track, nor sign o' a track, of anybody's coming through that snow next
morning."

"How did she get there, then?" said I.

"Didn't ye never see brown leaves a-ridin' on the wind? Well,' Cap'n Eb
he says, 'she came on the wind,' and I'm sure it was strong enough to
fetch her. But Cack he got her down into the warm corner, and he poured
her