Элизабет Джордж Спир - The Witch of Blackbird Pond / Ведьма с пруда Черных Дроздов. 10-11 классы

Hannah nodded. “My Thomas built this house. He made it good, so it has stood all these years.”

“How long have you lived here?” Kit asked curiously.

“I don’t really know,” the woman answered slowly. “But I remember the day we came here. We had walked from Massachusetts, you see. Someone had told us there would be land for us in Connecticut. But in the town there was none. So we walked toward the river, and then we came to this meadow.”

There were a hundred questions Kit wanted to ask, but instead she looked up and noticed with surprise one thing on the shelf. “This coral!” she exclaimed. “How did it get here?”

A small secret smile lit up the wrinkled face. “I have a sailor friend,” Hannah said. “When he comes back from a voyage, he brings me a present.”

Kit almost laughed. A romance! She imagined him, this white-haired sailor friend, coming here with his small presents from some distant shores. “Maybe this came from my home,” Kit said. “I come from Barbados, you know.”

“From Barbados!” cried the woman. “You do look different somehow. What is it like?”

“It’s so beautiful with flowers every day of the year. You can always smell them in the air.”

“You have been homesick,” said Hannah softly.

“Yes,” agreed Kit. “I guess I have. But most of all, I miss my late grandfather so much.”

“That is the hardest,” nodded the woman. “What was your grandfather like, child?”

Tears filled Kit’s eyes. No one, since she had come to America, had ever really wanted to hear about her grandfather. She told the old woman about the happy days on the island, the plantation, the long walks together, the swimming, the library and the books. Then she described her voyage to Connecticut and all the confusion of the past weeks. “I hate it here,” Kit said. “I don’t belong. Mercy is wonderful, and Judith tries to be friendly, but I’m just a trouble to them all. Uncle Matthew hates me. Everything I do or say is wrong!”

“That’s why you’ve come to the meadow,” said Hannah. “What went so wrong this morning?”

The older woman listened to the school story, nodding her head. As Kit told her about the schoolmaster, Hannah started laughing. Suddenly, Kit was laughing with her, too. “What should I do now?” she asked when they calmed down. “How can I go back and face them?”

Hannah said nothing for a long time. Her eyes studied the girl beside her. “Come,” she finally said. “I have something to show you.”

Outside the house grew a single green stalk with one huge scarlet flower.

“It looks just like the flowers at home,” Kit said. “I didn’t know you had such flowers here.”

“It came all the way from Africa,” Hannah told her. “My friend brought the bulb to me, a little brown thing like an onion. I doubted it would grow here, but it was very determined and now look what has happened.”

Kit kept quiet. Was Hannah trying to preach to her? “I’m sorry but I really must go now,” Kit said. “You’ve given me an answer. I think I know what you mean.”

The woman shook her head. “The answer is in your heart,” she said softly. “You can always hear it if only you listen to it.”

Kit walked back with a lightness and freedom she hadn’t known since the day she came into Saybrook Harbor. Hannah Tupper was not a witch, but certainly she had a magic charm. In one short hour she had made all the worries of the girl disappear. Only one thing must be done before Kit could finally be at peace. Without speaking a word, Hannah had given her the strength to do it. She walked straight up the path to a big house and knocked bravely on the door of Mr. Kimberley.

Chapter Ten

Mercy couldn’t believe that Kit had talked to Mr. Kimberley himself! “But he was very fair,” said Kit. “He listened to me and finally agreed that I could have one more chance.”

“You surprise me, Kit,” Mercy said. “You must have surprised Mr. Kimberley, too. He doesn’t normally change his mind.”

“I surprised myself,” Kit laughed. “I think I was bewitched.”

“Bewitched?”

“Yes. I met the witch who lives in the meadow. It was she who gave me the courage.”

Mercy and her mother exchanged glances. “You mean you talked with her?”

“I went into her house and ate her food. But I was joking about being bewitched. She’s the nicest person I have ever met.”

“Kit,” Aunt Rachel said seriously. “I think you should not say anything to the others about meeting this woman. That is just gossip that she’s a witch. But no one in Wethersfield has anything to do with Hannah Tupper because she is a Quaker.[2] The Quakers are strange people. They don’t believe in some of the things we believe in.”

“Why, Aunt Rachel? What difference does that make? Has she ever done anything bad?”

Rachel looked down. “No, probably not, but there’s been talk. Quakers bring trouble wherever they go. They speak against our faith. In Boston, I’ve heard, they even hanged some Quakers. This Hannah Tupper and her husband were branded and forced to leave Massachusetts. They were thankful just to be let alone here in Wethersfield. Kit, I know your uncle would be very angry about this. Promise me that you won’t go there again.”

All Kit’s fine thoughts about trying to understand and to be patient have disappeared, and already she felt rebellious again. “I can’t promise that, Aunt Rachel,” she said unhappily. “Hannah was good to me, and she’s very lonely.”

“You are very young, child,” insisted Rachel. “You don’t understand how sometimes evil can seem innocent. It is dangerous for you to see that woman. You must believe me.”

On the way home through the meadow everything had seemed so simple, and here it was all complicated again. Only one thing Kit was sure of. She had found a secret place, a place of freedom, clear sunlight and peace. Nothing and no one would stop her from going back to that place again.

Should she tell William Ashby about Hannah? No, he would probably be horrified. William was still a stranger to her, although he came every Saturday evening and even on some evenings during the week. She would like to tell John Holbrook, she thought, but there was never a moment when she could speak to him alone. John often joined the family as they sat outside in the evening. He had never asked formal permission to come. There had never been any sign that John was seeing Judith, but sometimes he agreed to her proposal to go for a walk in the twilight. That was all Judith needed to show the whole family John’s intentions. Even her father could tell that Judith was in love, although she had never said anything. Kit thought that, compared to ambitious William, the young biblical scholar was unsuitable for Judith’s high hopes. Probably, Kit decided now, it wouldn’t be good to tell John about Hannah Tupper.

Soon Kit started waiting for another opportunity to visit the Meadows. With Mr. Kimberley’s permission she was teaching the school again. There were no more stories, no games, not even small poems. After school the girls weeded the gardens and helped to harvest the first crop. Finally, one hot afternoon, Kit and Judith finished their weeding of onion rows a little early. As they started walking back along the path, Kit looked across the fields to the house by Blackbird Pond and knew what she would do now. “I am going there to see Hannah Tupper,” she informed Judith.

“The witch? Are you crazy, Kit?” her cousin protested.

“She’s not a witch! She’s just a lonely old woman, and you would like her if you knew her,” Kit said. “Come with me now and see for yourself.”

“I would never step inside that house, and I don’t think you should either. Father would be furious,” refused Judith.

“Then go home without me. I won’t be long,” said Kit and started walking through the long grass, leaving her cousin standing in the path.

“Sit down, child,” Hannah welcomed Kit in, smiling as if she was expecting her. “Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes, I think so. The schoolmaster let me teach again, but forbade any plays. Mr. Kimberley says that children are evil by nature and that they need a firm hand. But it’s not much fun to be so solemn all day.”

Hannah was sorting some flax now. Kit picked up the sleeping cat. The late afternoon sun shone through the open door. Peace flowed into Kit, and she felt warm and happy. “Did you grow the flax yourself?” she asked.

“Some of the families in town bring me their flax to spin,” Hannah explained. “I don’t charge them much – just enough to pay the land taxes and the fines for not going to Meeting.”

“Fines?” Kit was surprised. “Maybe you should go to Meeting instead?”

“They wouldn’t welcome me,” Hannah said, “even if I decided to go. In Massachusetts we, Quakers, had our own meetings.”

“Actually, I’d rather pay fines than go to Meeting. Can I become a Quaker too?”

But before the old woman could answer, a shadow fell across the sunlit floor.

A tall figure was standing in the doorway. Kit jumped up. There, at the door, unbelievably, was Nathaniel Eaton, the captain’s son, with a smile in his blue eyes. “I might have known,” he said, “that you two would find each other.”

Hannah’s face shone with pleasure. “I knew you would come today,” she said. “I saw the Dolphin pass the island this morning. Kit, my dear, this is the sailor friend I told you about.”

Nat bowed. “Mistress Tyler and I are already acquainted,” he said.

“Bless you, Nat,” Hannah said quietly. “Now sit down and tell us how your father is.”

“He is well and sends you his greetings.”

“I said to Thomas just yesterday, ’Tom, I’m going to save the last of these berries because the Dolphin will come soon.’ He’ll be pleased when I tell him you’ve been here.”

Kit’s suddenly realized that Hannah had spoken as if her husband, so long dead, were still here, in the little house. A cloud had passed across the old woman’s eyes. Kit looked at Nat, but he didn’t seem to have noticed anything unusual because he was examining Kit with interest. “Tell me,” he asked her, “how did they let you come to Hannah?”

Kit paused, and Hannah laughed, “It’s a strange thing, that the only two friends I have, I found in the same way – lying in the meadows, crying.”

The young people stared at each other. “You?” asked Kit, astonished. “Were you running away?”

Nat laughed. “I was only eight years old,” he explained. “It was when I quarreled with my father once. I’d never in my life seen anything like the meadows. I ran and ran, but then suddenly I was hungry, lost and scared. Hannah found me and brought me here. She even gave me a kitten to take back home.”

“Did Hannah give you her blueberry cake, too?”

“It’s Hannah’s magic cure for every problem,” Nat said. “A blueberry cake and a kitten.”

“And now you can both have supper with me,” said Hannah, delighted.

Kit looked at the sun. “Oh, dear!” she cried. “I didn’t realize it was time for supper.”

Hannah smiled at her. “God be with you then, child,” she said softly. She did not need to say more. They both knew that Kit would come back. Nat followed Kit to the door. “You didn’t say what you were running away from,” he asked her. “Has it been so bad here in Wethersfield?”