University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

—A Highway.
Enter Goodwife Prawl (L. 2 E.) meeting Susanna (1 E. R.)
Good. Prawl.
Why now, again, good morrow, Mistress Peache,
You 're stirring early for so young and fair;
Sad news! Old Ambla Bodish, 'las! 'las!
That it should come to this, and she a one
Whose chimney 's smoked in Salem thirty year.

Susanna.
Yes, tidings pitiful, but what more is there?

Good. Prawl.
They say, that Ambla and her boy, were riding
The clouds, all night, last night, above their house.

Susanna.
And drawn by nothing!

Good. Prawl.
At my end of the village, it is noised
That cunning Ambla moved them through the air—
Great mercy on us!—by merely wishing of it:
But down at Walcott's Tap, one has it said
That he beheld her helpers.

Susanna.
Helpers, goodwife?

Good. Prawl.
Ay, helpers,
Of an uncommon kind and bigness;
Two black horses hurrying fleetly,
Up and down the still sky, two hours before
Day-breaking, ('t is even so reported)
And shaking freely from their flaky manes,
A thicker darkness out upon the night.

Susanna.
Now, Goodwife Prawl, upon your honor, tell me,
And as you are a woman, believe you
Gideon Bodish sate within those clouds
Last night, or had a part in that dread show
You speak of?

Good. Prawl.
It may be not—but, of old Ambla,
There can be no doubt.

Susanna.
If she be one, what help?—
And yet I would she could escape.

Good. Prawl.
Take care, my darling, there 's Justice Fisk,
And half a minute nearer, my dear,
Would bring his warrant! 'Rat her, and snake her!
She 's guilty as the old Horn-man himself—
Old Doctor Mather will come down from Boston,
To test her case. He'll get the heart of it,
Dear Doctor Mather: and Deacon Gidney,
He too, has some virtues of the same.

Susanna.
Has Deacon Gidney moved in this?

Good. Prawl.
He 's moving now, as fast as goodly legs
Can carry him!—I met him on his way
To Ambla's house, just now; he looked so sharp,
And smiled so cheerfully, I could have hugged him—
He'll let nothing slip his fingers—let her take care!—
There 's been one hanged at Hadley not two days old;
And presently we'll have a hanging here,
If some folks carry still their necks so straight,
And hold their heads above us villagers.

Susanna.
You think that Gideon may go free?

Good. Prawl.
He may, my darling—though one
Told me, as I came along, that Gideon
As he passed her yesterday, she thought she heard
A great chain clank.

Susanna.
He wears no chain, 't was the clangor, rather,
Of restive cattle, drafting logs; some other sound
She took for that—Is it not so?

Good. Prawl.
Well, well,
[Cross to R.
He is a noble stripling, my sweet child,
And would he do no devil's work for Ambla,
Salem might call him her best son: I
Must be stirring; there 's much yet to be learned!
[Exit Goodwife Prawl, R. H.

Susanna.
Blessing on the old gossip! she is right:
I do believe Ambla more pitiful than this,
Although confusion sweeps us all along:
But Jarvis Dane 's merciless in his suit—
What shall I say, and whither turn? He sees
My heart 's for Gideon. T' is Ambla that bewitches us.
But there was witchery ere this, I fear—
When boy and girl pluck flowers together,
Together wade, white-ankled, in the shining stream,
Walk in the moonlight, softly, side by side,
Back from wood-rambles, mocking, as they pause,
Each other's shadow, all fantastical,
Each, joyous, laughing in the other's eyes,
Oh! had dark Ambla's spells such heart in them!
I fain would think that Gideon Bodish
Loves me—but time will soon the truth disclose!
[Exit Susanna, L. H.