Her countenance showed not that her
thoughts mingled in either mirth or misery, except at times, when
terrible convulsions seemed to pass over like the sudden roll of the
sea, tossed by some unseen and subterraneous tempest. The neighbours
began to shun his dwelling. His presence was the signal for stolen looks
and portentous whispers. To church his wife never came; but the bench,
her usual sitting-place, was deserted. At the church-doors, after
sermon, when the price of grain, the weather, and other marketable
commodities were discussed and settled, Giles was evidently an object of
avoidance, and left to trudge home alone to his own cheerless and gloomy
hearth.
Dick Hargreave's only cow was bewitched. The most effectual and
approved method of ascertaining under whose spell she laboured was as
follows:--
The next Friday, a pair of breeches was thrown over the cow's horns; she
was then driven from the shippen with a stout cudgel. The place to which
she directed her flight was carefully watched, for there assuredly must
dwell the witch. To the great horror and dismay of Giles Dickisson, the
cow came bellowing down the lane, tail up, in great terror--telling, as
plain as beast could speak, of her distress, until she came to a full
pause, middle deep in his own mill-dam.
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