told us how her husband had cut down every
tree near his house at Deerbrook, in order that
no one might come near him, under cover; and
how one evening she was a sitting in the twilight,
when all her family were gone to bed, and
her husband gone off to Plymouth on business,
and she saw a log of wood, just like a trunk of
a felled tree lying in the shadow, and thought
nothing of it, till, on looking again a while after,
she fancied it was come a bit nearer to the
house, and how her heart turned sick with
fright, and how she dared not stir at first, but
shut her eyes while she counted a hundred, and
looked again, and the shadow was deeper, but she
could see that the log was nearer; so she ran in and
bolted the door, and went up to where her eldest
lad lay. It was Elijah, and he was but sixteen then;
but he rose up at his mother's words, and took his
father's long duck-gun down, and he tried the
loading, and spoke for the first time to put up a
prayer that God would give his aim good
guidance, and went to a window that gave upon
the side where the log lay, and fired, and no one
dared to look what came of it, but all the household
read the Scriptures, and prayed the whole
night long till morning came, and showed a long
stream of blood lying on the grass close by the
log, which the full sunlight showed to be no log
at all, but just a Red Indian covered with bark,
and painted most skilfully, with his war-knife
by his side."

All were breathless with listening, though to
most the story, or such like it, were familiar.
Then another took up the tale of horror:

"And the pirates have been down at Marble-
head since you were here, Captain Holdernesse.
'Twas only the last winter they lauded, French
Papist pirates, and the people kept close within
their houses, for they knew not what would
come of it; and they dragged folk ashore. There
was one woman among those folk prisoners
from some vessel, doubtless and the pirates
took them by force to the inland marsh; and
the Marblehead folk kept still and quiet, every
gun loaded, and every ear on the watch, for who
knew but what the wild sea-robbers might take
a turn on land next; and in the dead of the
night they heard a woman's loud and pitiful
outcry from the marsh, ' Lord Jesu! have mercy
on me! Save me from the power of man,
Lord Jesu!' And the blood of all who heard the
cry ran cold with terror, till old Nance Hickson,
who had been stone-deaf and bedridden for
years, stood up in the midst of the folk all
gathered together in her grandson's house, and
said that as they, the dwellers in Marblehead, had
not had brave hearts or faith enough to go and
succour the helpless, that cry of a dying woman
should be in their ears, and in their children's
ears, till the end of the world. And Nance
dropped down dead as soon as she had made an
end of speaking, and the pirates set sail from
Marblehead at morning dawn; but the folk
there hear the cry still, shrill and pitiful, from the
waste marshes, ' Lord Jesu! have mercy on me!
Save me from the power of man, Lord Jesu!'"

"And by token," said Elder Hawkins's deep
bass voice, speaking with the strong nasal twang
of the Puritans (who, says Butler,

Blasphemed custard through the nose),

"godly Mr. Noyes ordained a fast at Marblehead,
and preached a soul-stirring discourse on
the words, ' Inasmuch as ye did it not unto the
least of these little ones, ye did it not unto me.'
But it has been borne in upon me at times
whether the whole vision of the pirates and the cry
of the woman was not a device of Satan's to sift
the Marblehead folk, and see what fruit their
doctrine bore, and so to condemn them in the
sight of the Lord. If it were so, the enemy
had a great triumph, for assuredly it was no part
of Christian men to leave a helpless woman
unaided in her sore distress."

"But, Elder," said Widow Smith, "it was
no vision; they were real living men who went
ashore, men who broke down branches and left
their footmarks on the ground."

"As for that matter, Satan hath many powers,
and if it be the day when he is permitted to go
about like a roaring lion, he will not stick at
trifles, but make his work complete. I tell you
many men are spiritual enemies in visible forms,
permitted to roam about the waste places
of the earth. I myself believe that these
Red Indians are indeed the evil creatures of
whom we read in Holy Scripture; and there is
no doubt that they are in league with those
abominable Papists, the French people in
Canada. I have heard tell that the French pay
the Indians so much gold for every dozen scalps
off Englishmen's heads."

"Pretty cheerful talk this," said Captain
Holdernesse to Lois, perceiving her blanched
cheek and terror-stricken mien. " Thou art
thinking that thou hadst better have stayed at
Barford, I'll answer for it, wench. But the
devil is not so black as he is painted."

"Ho! there again!" said Elder Hawkins.
"The devil is painted, it hath been said so from
old times; and are not these Indians painted,
even like unto their father?"

"But is it all true?" asked Lois, aside, of
Captain Holdernesse, letting the elder hold
forth unheeded by her, though listened to,
however, with the utmost reverence by the two
daughters of the house.

"My wench," said the old sailor, " thou hast
come to a country where there are many perils
both from land and from sea. The Indians hate
the white men. Whether other white men"
(meaning the French away to the north) "have
hounded on the savages, or whether the English
have taken their lands and hunting-grounds
without due recompense, and so raised the cruel
vengeance of the wild creatures—who knows?
But it is true that it is not safe to go far into
the woods for fear of the lurking painted
savages; nor has it been safe to build a dwelling
far from a settlement; and it takes a brave
heart to make a journey from one town to
another, and folk do say the Indian creatures
rise up out of the very ground to waylay the
English; and then others affirm they are all in