"'Let me hold your hand and see if you have a fever.'

"'No, no, no!' and she sought to hide her hands under the cover; but my
uncle was a resolute man, and he seized her hand and drew it from
beneath the cover, and behold, a horseshoe was nailed unto it. On each
hand and each foot there was nailed a shoe which the smith at the trial
swore he had put on the gray mare the night before."

The negro groaned at the conclusion of the narrative, and his face was
so expressive of agony, that it formed a comical picture, exciting the
laughter of Charles Stevens, and Bly supposing that he was skeptical of
the story he had told said:

"Do you doubt the truth of my narrative, my merry fellow? Perchance you
may some day feel the clutches of a witch upon you, then, pray God,
beware."

"These are matters of too serious moment to excite one to laughter," put
in Mr. Gray, solemnly. "Since the devil is come down in great wrath upon
us, let us not in our great wrath against one another provide a lodging
for him."

Charles, the reckless, merry youth, treated the matter as it would be
treated at the present day.

"You need not deride the idea of witches changing people to horses,"
said John Louder, who, according to accounts given of him, by Cotton
Mather, was either an accomplished liar or a man possessing a vivid
imagination.

"Have you ever had any personal experience?" asked Charles.

"Indeed I have."

"What was it?"

"Goody Nurse does such things; but she has ever been too shrewd to be
caught as was the witch in Virginia."

"Goody Nurse! For shame on you, Mr. Louder, to accuse that good,
righteous woman with offences as heinous as having familiar spirits."

With a solemnity so earnest that sincerity could scarcely be doubted,
John Louder remarked:

"Glad should I be, if I had never known the name of this woman, or never
had this occasion to mention so much as her name. Goody Nurse is the
most base of all God's creatures, for she takes unto herself a seeming
holiness."

"What hath she done?"

"Listen and I will tell you. She hath grievously afflicted my children.
At night her shape appears to them accompanied by a black man. She hath
power to change her own form into an animal, a bird or insect at will.
Once my little girl was attacked by a large black cat, which she
recognized as Goody Nurse.

"Not only does she afflict my children; but my cattle, my gun and myself
have been bewitched by her."

John Louder