IN THE HOME OF A
WITCH
A mother's love--how
sweet the name!
What is a mother's love?
A noble, pure,
and tender flame.
Enkindled from above.
To bless a heart
of earthly mold;
The warmest love that can grow
cold;
This is a mother's love.--Montgomery.
Yes, this is the nature of
a true mother's love, but such love poor Edwin had never
known. At the age of fourteen the unwelcome child felt that
there was nothing in life for him except that which was hard
and unreasonable. The things that he had learned from his kind
friends, Mr. and Mrs. Hahn concerning nature often helped him
to forget his sorrows, and the fact gained from his mother,
that God's eyes were ever upon him, beholding his actions all
the time, was a constant source of comfort and satisfaction,
for he was sure that he was always trying to do his best.
"If I do as well as I can,
God will surely know and care," he reasoned. Thus, his Creator
filled a place in the lonely life that had never known a
father's or mother's love. And strange as it may seem, the
neglect and abuse that Edwin endured did not rob him of his
strength and ability to perform all the duties assigned him.
So if Mrs. Fischer had hoped to bring on the premature death
of her son through her cruel treatment, she was disappointed,
and within her evil heart she conceived another plan.
In a distant part of the
country, among the hills where two public highways crossed was
a home, large, aristocratic, and almost elegant in appearance.
The large two-story-and-a-half brick house nestled amidst the
dense evergreen and floral shrubbery, the large luxuriant
orchards widening around it, the immense barn on the corner
opposite, and the wheat- and corn-fields waving in the
distance, caused many a passer-by to envy the possessors; but
a look at the interior of the house and only a brief
acquaintance with the occupants were sufficient to disillusion
any one regarding the family's culture and happiness.
Mr. Fitch, a thriving and
ambitious young farmer, had inherited the home and, having
married a woman of an evil and superstitious family, soon
discovered that he was bound to a person whom the community
looked upon as a witch. The years had rolled by, and Mr. and
Mrs. Fitch were now old. The fame of the evil woman had been
published, and she was considered as one who was able to
relieve people of any sickness or to drive trouble away from
their doors. The treatment, called powwowing, consisted of
repeating long lists of words that she had learned from a book
called "The Black Arts." This book and an almanac made up the
entire Fitch library.
As this Mr. Fitch passed
the home of Mrs. Fischer on his way to and from the city, it
became his custom to stop at the uncle's blacksmith shop. In
this way the two families became acquainted, and Mrs. Fischer
learned something of the nature of the witch. Just why and how
it was suggested to the mind of Mrs. Fischer that the Fitch
home would be the proper place to send her son is hard to
tell. It would seem that Satan (understanding Edwin's desire
to do right) helped her strive to throw every wicked influence
possible about him and plan to discourage, deceive, and tempt
him to do evil and become like the rest of the family. And she
may have thought that there was a possibility of a mysterious
and unquestioned death. At least, it happened that one day
late in the summer she asked Mr. Fitch the question:
"How would you like a
fourteen-year-old boy who would work for you for his board and
clothes?"
"To be sure, I need one
very much!" was the old man's reply. "My wife has a little
girl to help her, and I need a boy to be with me. He could
help with the chores and herd the cows. I've tried several
lads, but they always run off."
"Well, my Ed will be just
the one for you then," said Mrs. Fischer confidently. "You
needn't be afraid that he will run off, for he knows too well
that he must stay where I put him."
"How about his wages and
schooling?" Mr. Fitch inquired with a suspicious glance at
Mrs. Fischer, but he was instantly assured that such would not
be necessary. "Only his clothes and board will be required,
and I shall expect you to see that he earns them.",p> "Very
well, ma'am, then we can count it a bargain, and I will take
your son right home with me today if you like," and the old
farmer and Mrs. Fischer hastened to the house to inform Edwin
of the plan.
Edwin, brush in hand and
down upon his knees, was diligently brushing away the crumbs
from under the table in the dining-room when he was told in a
few words to stop his work and prepare for the journey.
"You are to go home with
Mr. Fitch," his mother explained. "He wants you to live with
him and be his choreboy."
Perhaps Mrs. Fischer did
not understand the expression that came over Edwin's face, but
the news gave him intense satisfaction. He could compare the
change only to his visit in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hahn, and
he could desire nothing better. Any place, Edwin reasoned,
must be better than his mother's home, and he was soon sitting
beside Mr. Fitch as he drove away in the direction of the
mountains.
When they arrived at the
place that Mr. Fitch explained was his home, Edwin was more
delighted than ever, for he had never pictured anything more
beautiful. But when they drew near the house and he heard
oaths and language still more vile than he had ever heard from
his mother's tongue, he wondered if he heard aright. Even
during her most terrible tantrums he had never heard such
words, and when through the open kitchen-door he saw Mrs.
Fitch with a rolling-pin in one hand and a pie-pan in the
other and with her face turned toward the sky, blaspheming the
great God of the universe for permitting a certain crop to
fail, he felt faint and sick.
Again and again the wicked
woman blasphemed that holy name because of the failure caused
by drought, and threatened, on account of the failure, to
enter other fields and with a burning torch to set fire to
them all. Then as curse after curse upon other things rang
from her lips, she continued beating the air with rolling-pin
and pan until it was dangerous to be inside the room. Edwin
remained very close to the door, and the girl whom Mr. Fitch
had mentioned as being his wife's helper, he saw spring to one
side just in time to escape being struck by a huge piece of
dough that was thrown by the wicked woman at her head.
How long the unearthly
scene had been going on or would have continued is hard to
say, but from exhaustion Mrs. Fitch sank heavily upon the
floor and for some time was in an unconscious condition. In
answer to Edwin's worried expression Mr. Fitch remarked, "Oh,
that's nothing! She'll be all right after a while," and
together they went out to the barn. Edwin asked no questions,
but he wondered if such things were right and had to be.
In this new place he soon
discovered that he must bear, in some ways, even greater
cruelties than had been forced upon him in his mother's home,
for in rainy weather or during the hardest storms as much was
expected of him as when the sun was shining. Many times he was
forced to work all day long without a dry thread of clothing
upon his body and often without sufficient food. For all this
he never complained, but he wondered why it was impossible to
please some people, when he was always satisfied with so
little.
The greater part of the
Fitch property that was used for pasturing purposes was low
and swampy and had long been the haunt of many poisonous
snakes. One portion of the land that was higher than the rest,
Mr. Fitch had decided to have prepared for spring plowing, and
Edwin's work was to gather the brush and the stones into piles
that they might be burned or hauled away. He was also
instructed to drive the cows from those parts of the pasture
in which the snakes were the most numerous. With nothing to
protect his bare feet and with no understanding of the danger
of snakebites, he was often tramping in places where the
reptiles were gliding past him in many directions, but upon
none of these occasions was he ever bitten.
It was said that ghosts
and many strange objects were often discovered in the house or
grove of the Fitch property, and also that some unearthly
creatures had been frequently known to rise from an unused
chimney and, moving slowly toward the large field, to
disappear always at a certain place. Others said that ghosts
and horrible-looking forms had been met in the grove, and
still others had heard strange noises, as the slamming of
doors and windows when no breeze was blowing, the moving of
heavy pieces of furniture, and the rattling and dragging of
heavy chains.
One man said that once
while working for Mr. Fitch he was sleeping in a certain room
when suddenly the covers from the bed began to move and that
although he resisted with all his strength, they were torn
away. Feeling confident that he was the only occupant of the
room, he left the place in the night vowing that he would
never return.
These stories and many
more were told by the visitors who congregated in the evening
about the home from time to time, and they were usually
approved and strengthened by Mr. and Mrs. Fitch, who could
tell of many worse and more absurd happenings. Edwin often
listened to the weird tales because those telling them were
anxious to frighten him, but sometimes it was because of his
own curiosity. He was often seized with a strong desire to
investigate and to find out for himself whether the things
that they said were really true. Upon different occasions he
was allowed to sleep in the rooms that were supposed to be
haunted, but never did he see or find out anything that was
unusual.
Lying and stealing and
other evils were often freely discussed by the boys and girls
of the neighborhood when they gathered in the grove, and it
was no uncommon thing to hear some one telling of a narrow
escape from detection. Occasionally Eldwin was asked to tell a
lie to help another cover up some evil deed, but this Edwin
always stoutly refused to do. When fun was made of him or he
was mocked for his principles of right, his answer was always,
"I never want any one to lie or steal for me, and I will not
do such things for any one else." His reason for speaking thus
was not that he looked upon either of these things as sins,
for he had no conception of what sin was. It was simply his
sense of duty and his admiration of doing that which was right
and just. Thus, his mother's desire to have him educated in
wrong-doing was in no wise gratified, and his young life, even
in the home of one of Satan's most efficient servants, was
protected and preserved pure and blameless.
"Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the
way of sinners." (Psa. 1:1).