ak to him. Serve a fowl for
dinner, Betty;" and the Rev. Deodat Parker rose from the table,
evidently not crediting Betty's story.

Well, the fowl was served for dinner, and the minister and his good wife
ate heartily, likewise Dame Betty. But that night the minister had an
uncomfortable time of it, for the fowl was a tough old hen, and didn't
sit as quietly on the minister's stomach as she would on a nest full of
eggs.

"To my thinking, that boy's a witch of the Black Man's own brewing,"
said Betty, the next morning. "He hath bewitched our chickens, for
certain."

"Nonsense, Betty," said the minister and his good wife together.

"Verily, no nonsense," snapped back Dame Betty. "That hen was bewitched
I killed and cooked yesterday, as the eating of it has proved to the
master. Never hen had such legs, or was so hard to kill; and, hark ye! I
could not keep water in the pot," said Betty, mysteriously.

"Verily, this is a matter to be looked into. Thou thinkest the boy a
witch?" And the Rev. Deodat Parker, uncomfortable from his disturbed
night, was more willing to believe.

And so, I can hardly tell how, in a short time it was whispered around
that little Jonathan Winthrop was a witch, and had bewitched the Rev.
Deodat Parker's chickens.

One day Dame Betty walked into the minister's study, and said, "Master,
come and see for thyself."

So the minister called his good wife, and the three took their station
behind a closed blind. And there, sure enough, was Master Jonathan
astride the fence, waving his hands in the air, in what seemed to them
some dreadful incantation, while on the ground four old hens and one
miserable rooster were bobbing and squawking like things bewitched.

Now, unfortunately, the minister and his good wife and old Betty could
not see the strings in Jonathan's hands, and so immediately believed him
a true witch.

"Deodat, it must be seen to," said Goodwife Parker.

"Yes, I will go at once for a magistrate." And the old gentleman hurried
off with unseemly haste, and returned in a short time with two
magistrates and a brother clergyman, all considerably out of breath as
they took their station behind the blind to see the wonderful
manifestations.

And Jonathan was at it yet. Owing to the chickens being so hard to
catch, he prolonged the fun when he did catch them. As the solemn
magistrates peeped out, Jonathan gave a jerk to his threads that made
the poor fowls fly toward him, fluttering a