roomstick herself. How is the cat?

_Olive._ She is better.

_Giles._ She was taken strangely, if your mother did make light of
it. And the ox, hath he fell down again?

_Olive._ Not that I have heard.

_Giles._ The ox was taken strangely, if your mother did pooh at it.
The ox was better when she went out of the yard.

_Phoebe._ There's Aunt Corey now. Who is she talking to?

_Enter_ Martha Corey.

_Phoebe._ Who were you talking to, Aunt Corey?

_Martha._ Nobody, child. Good-evening, Ann.

_Phoebe._ I heard you talking to somebody, Aunt Corey.

_Martha._ Be quiet, child. I was talking to nobody. You hear too
much nowadays. [_Takes off her cloak._

_Nancy._ Mayhap she hears more than folk want her to. I heard a
voice too, a gruff voice like a pig's.

_Giles._ I thought I heard talking too. Who was it, Martha?

_Martha._ I tell you 'twas no one. Are you all out of your wits?
[_Gets some knitting-work out of a cupboard and seats herself._

_Phoebe._ Weren't you afraid coming through the wood, Aunt Corey?

_Martha_ (_laughing_). Afraid? Why, no, child. Of what should I be
afraid?

_Giles._ I trow there's plenty to be afraid of. How did you get
home so quick? 'Tis a good three miles to Goody Bishop's.

_Martha._ I walked at a good speed.

_Giles._ I thought perhaps you galloped a broomstick.

_Martha._ Nay, goodman, I know not how to manage such a strange
steed.

_Giles._ I thought perhaps one had taught you, inasmuch as you have
naught to say against the gentry that ride the broomstick of a
night.

_Martha._ Fill not the child's head with such folly. How fares your
mother, Ann?

_Ann._ Well, Goodwife Corey.

_Giles._ She lacks sense, or she would have kept her daughter at
home. Out after nightfall, and the woods full of the devil knoweth
what.

_Martha._ Nay, goodman, there be no danger. The scouts are in the
fields.

_Giles._ I meant not Injuns. There be worse than Injuns. There be
evil things and witches!

_Martha_ (_laughing_). Witches! Goodman, you are a worse child than
Phoebe here.

_Giles._ I tell ye, wife, you talk like a fool, ranting thus
against witches. I would you had been where I have been to-night,
and heard the afflicted maids cry out in torment, being set upon by
Sarah Good and Sarah Osborn. I would you had seen Mercy Lewis
strangled almost to death, and the others testifying 'twas Sarah
Good thus afflicting her. But I'll warrant you'd not have b