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

And with the rules. And with sitting for hours in Meeting hearing Reverend Parris tell us how we're all damned. I think they have decided to become comic oddities."
    "How terrible to think such," I said.
    " 'Tis wondrous. A few young girls have their elders running to their Bibles and searching Scripture. At the same time, they have managed to throw off all restrictions. I think they are a bunch of jackanapes who are teasing—and enjoying the distress of their elders."
    He sought my eyes. His own were steady and unblinking. "That can't be possible, John," I said. "They've been declared possessed by learned men."
    "Yes, and ever since then they've been having a wonderful time of it. Are you going to the parsonage tomorrow? The girls will name their tormentors."
    "My family is not much taken with this witchcraft business."
    "Ha! Your father will be there as a town elder. I'm going. Can I fetch you?"
    "Thank you, John, no. I haven't decided if I should go."
    "Well, I wouldn't miss it."
    "Be careful of your tongue, John. You can't confide such views to just anyone. Most people don't know you as I do."
    He smiled sadly. "Do you know me, Susanna?"
    "Since dame school."
    "But who knows another? Reverend Parris doesn't know his own daughter at this time."
    "What are you saying now, John?"
    "Why should the girls have all the sport? Can't young men be possessed by witches, too?"
    "John!"
    "These girls will be known throughout the colony before this is over. They will hold sway over learned men. Well, I'm bound to have some of that power, Susanna. I'm weary of working hard and being passed over as nothing."
    I had no reply for that. He walked off, whistling, down the wharf. Poor John, I thought. He must be lonely and friendless indeed, if he seeks such a goal.
    What had our way of life done to us, that to escape it some would resort to feigning possession by the dark consorts of eternity? While others would rush to believe them? And still others would rush to join them for their own advantage?
    I went home thinking that everyone in Salem was most likely choosing sides in the witchcraft business, the same as John Dorich. I felt sad, for the community was torn apart already by old quarrels, and now it would be even more disrupted.

10. Naming the Tormentors
     
    AT BREAKFAST the next day, Father told us he was going to the parsonage.
    "I have informed the ministers and magistrates that I hold no belief in witchcraft," he said. "I suggested that Salem would do better to put its energies into planning the spring crops, increasing our trade, and improving the quality of our dame schools."
    "What did they reply to that?" Mama asked.
    "That they wanted my presence, along with the presence of many other good people, in the place where they would pray to God that the girls be relieved of their torments. I could not say no to such a request."
    " 'Tis a reasonable request to a reasonable man," Mama said.
    "May I go with you, honored Father?" I asked.
    "Why would you wish to, child?"
    "I know so many of the afflicted."
    "Do you go as a curiosity seeker or as a seeker of truth?"
    "To know the truth, Father." It was no lie. Perhaps this day the truth would be known at the parsonage.
    He nodded. "I must depart immediately. If you accompany me, mind your demeanor. This is a sad day for Salem, not a country fair as so many are making it out to be."

    The front of the parsonage property was crowded with wagons and carriages, people on horseback, and little groups of folks conversing in the cold as if they were at a September corn husking.
    " 'Tis as I thought, a country fair," Father said as we alighted from the carriage. "Daughter, with the press of people, you may not be able to get inside. I hesitate leaving you here in the cold."
    "I'll keep, Father."
    But he called out to the first familiar and trustworthy face. "Here! Johnathan Hathorne!"
    "Sir?" Johnathan approached and took off his hat. I minded he seemed two inches taller than when we last