A GOAT FOR AZAZEL
193
The solemn farce went on. The children were now quite
bewildered, but they still had presence of mind enough to remem·
ber the main issue. During all the months that Bridget Glover sat
chained waiting for her death, they concerned themselves with
putting off the bedtime hour, getting out of their chores, and
escaping family prayer. The neighbors crowded in as to a death–
bed.
This was better than a deathbed or a hanging, for it had tl}e
tang of novelty and supernatural danger. The children barked,
purred, growled, leaped like wild animals, and ' attempted to
By
like birds, or like witches. The watchers restrained them from
harming themselves. When they pulled their neck-cloths so tightly
they almost choked, someone was always on hand to relieve them.
They almost fell in the fire, and they almost drowned themselves,
but someone nearby hauled them out in the nick of time.
If
anyone
dared to touch a Bible, those religion-surfeited infants almost.died.
They tore their clothes and broke glasses and spilled their cups,
and mewed with delight; and to save their lives they could not do
the simplest task without making a frightful mess of it. No one
dared to punish them-" were they not innocent victims of the Devil?
Mather continued to tell them the spectres had done every–
thing, and did not fail verbally to point the way to grace. "Child,
pray to the Lord Jesus Christ," he admonished them in turn. Imme–
diately their teeth clenched over their tongues and they stared at
him.
"Child, look to Him," he advised, and their eyes were pulled
instantly so far into their heads he professed a fear that they
would never emerge again.
This grew monotonous, and Mather chose the interesting
member of the family for closer observation. He took Martha to
live in his house. She was gifted, pretty, and full of wit, and the
others were merely noisy and stubborn and tiresome.
Away from the stufly, disordered cottage, Martha behaved
herself very nicely at first. The big fine Mather house with its
handsome furniture, silver, books, servants, impressed her. Good
food,
a soft bed, and the gentleness of Abigail, Mather's young
wife, were very disarming. Everything was pleasant except the
persistent praying and the constant watching of all her movements.
She grew restless in a few days. In a voice of distress she
announced to Cotton Mather that They had found her out, and at
