, "you have, I hope, a little common sense
left, if these Massachusetts ministers and magistrates have all gone
crazy on this subject. You know what a chicken is, if they do not. Are
not those simply chicken feathers?"

"Why, my dear," replied the Governor, wriggling in his great arm-chair,
"I grant that they certainly do look like chicken feathers; but then you
know, the yellow bird the witches use, may have feathers like unto a
chicken's."

"Nonsense!" replied Lady Mary. "None are so blind as those that will not
see. I suppose that if I were to bring that afflicted young man here,
and he were to acknowledge that the whole thing was a trick, got up by
him to save his life, you would not believe him?"

"Indeed I should," replied Sir William.

"Yes, Lady Mary, find the young man, and question him yourself," said
Master Mather. "None are so certain as those that have never informed
themselves. I have made inquiry into these marvelous things; I even
took that afflicted girl, as I have told you, into my own house, in
order to inform myself of the truth. When you have investigated the
matter to one-tenth the extent that I have, you will be prepared to give
a reasonable opinion as to its truth or falsehood. Until then, some
modesty of statement would become a lady who sets up her crude opinion
against all the ministers and the magistracy of the land."

This was a tone which the leading ministers of that day among the
Puritans, did not hesitate to take, even where high dignitaries were
concerned and Master Mather had the highest ideas of the privilege of
his order.

"Then I suppose, Master Mather, that if the afflicted young man himself
should testify that these feathers were simply chicken feathers, that he
had artfully thrown up into the air, you would not acknowledge that he
had deceived you?"

"If such an impossible thing could happen, though I know that it could
not, of course I should be compelled to admit that Squire Hathorne and a
hundred others, who all saw this marvelous thing plainly, in open day,
were deceived by the trick of an unprincipled mountebank and juggler."

"I shall hold both you and Sir William to your word," replied Lady Mary
emphatically. Then, turning to the young Englishman, who had remained
entirely silent so far, paying evident attention to all that was spoken,
but giving no sign of approval or disapproval, she said, "Master
Raymond, what do you think of this matter?"

Master Raymond ros