Free A Break With Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials by Ann Rinaldi

myself go limp with fear. "I must go now," I said to Ann Putnam.
    "Do go. And remember what I said this day. And thank you for the apple tarts."
    Her evil laughter followed me out of the room.

9. Choosing Sides
     
    HER EVIL LAUGH ter stayed with me. I heard it at night in my dreams. But I told no one of what had transpired. For I had no doubt that if I did, Ann Putnam would bring trouble down on my family.
    If she proved to be anything like her mother, she was not a person to be dallied with. I did not wish to find out.
    So I did not betray her. But her disclosures troubled me greatly. So I worked harder at chores, helping Mama more and more in her shop. Partly to redeem myself for the sin of keeping such knowledge from my parents and partly to hear what news neighbors brought in.
    Joseph Putnam came in one day to purchase the red kersey bed cover. I had always liked Joseph Putnam. He was tall and amiable, a fine-looking man with a face that had both a sober strength and a boyish eagerness.
    "How is the new babe?" Mama inquired.
    "Thriving."
    Mama wrapped the bed cover and tied the bundle for him. He thanked her solemnly. "Words should be let go with due consideration, Mary," he said.
    Mama nodded and waited.
    "I know you and your husband to be people of common sense. In the near future, we people of like mind will have to support each other."
    "Is there trouble, Joseph?" Mama was never one to shilly-shally about things.
    "I feel the hysteria connected with this witch business will get worse before it abates. It is fed on distrust in our community, on old quarrels between neighbors."
    "Then it is well fed before it starts," Mama said.
    "It has started, Mary. Reverend Parris caught Tituba making a witch cake. He was so enraged, he beat her."
    "Why would Tituba do such a thing?" Mama asked.
    "It is an old custom where she comes from. She told the reverend she hoped to conjure forth the witches before people could be named. But we heard she was encouraged to make it by Mary Sibley, aunt of Mary Walcott, one of the afflicted girls."
    "For what reason?" Mama asked.
    "Mayhap to raise suspicions of witchcraft against Tituba."
    I was standing in a corner of the shop. Upon hearing this, I uttered a gasp of surprise. But no one heeded me, thank Heaven.
    "Mary, it is good to know there are enlightened people hereabouts to consult with as matters worsen." And so saying, Joseph Putnam nodded to me and started for the door. "In the days ahead, it will surprise us all to see who amongst us falls in with the hysteria and who holds himself above it. Or uses it for personal advantage."
    "Who would do such a thing as to take personal gain from the troubles of others?" Mama wondered aloud.
    "In times of crisis," Joseph Putnam said, "there are always those to use misfortune for personal gain. That will be the real evil we see in Salem. Not some girls trembling in fits. And I say this though my own niece be one of them."
    "I pray for your niece, Joseph," Mama said.
    "Thank you, Mary." He nodded at me and left.

    Two days later, Elizabeth Porter came into the shop. She was sister to Magistrate John Hathorne and wife to Israel Porter. Joseph Putnam was her son-in-law; his wife, Elizabeth, her daughter.
    "Reverend Deodat Lawson returned to Salem Village and his former parish yesterday," she told Mama. "He witnessed the fits of the girls. He said the violence that overcame them was well beyond the power of the ordinary person."
    "He has come all the way from Boston to study our problem?" Mama asked.
    "Yes. And he put up at Ingersoll's Ordinary. There he saw Mary Walcott in one of her fits. He said the poor girl acted as if a witch was biting her."
    "What was that child doing at Ingersoll's Ordinary?" Mama asked.
    "Performing, Mary. The afflicted girls have taken to going to Ingersoll's so people can witness their torments. Mr. Ingersoll's tavern has picked up considerably in business."
    "Shameful," Mama said.
    "I take it then, Mary, that you and your