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

That would please Uncle Matthew, Kit thought. Nat was a New Englander, too, had she forgotten?

“Have you finished fixing the roof yet? It’s time for supper,” Kit heard Hannah call them.

“Supper?” Kit had not even noticed how late it was.

Nat helped her to climb down the ladder. “You will come often to see her, won’t you?” he asked her.

“Of course,” Kit replied. “I worry about her, sometimes, especially when she talks about her late husband as if he were still alive.”

“Oh, that! Don’t worry about it!” Nat laughed. “Hannah’s fine. I guess she is much older than we think, and she’s lived through a lot. She and her husband were in jail in Massachusetts. Then they were branded and sent out of the state.”

“My company always has to hurry off,” Hannah said to them. “Nat, and you, and now Prudence.”

“Who is Prudence?” asked Nat.

Kit told him about the reading lessons on the way back home. She didn’t, however, expect Nat to walk her this time all the way to her uncle’s house. Her family was sitting outside, so the supper must’ve been over. As Kit and Nat came near, William rose to his feet and stood watching them.

“Kit, where have you been?” Judith spoke up. “William has been waiting for so long.”

Kit looked from one person to the other and decided to tell them the truth. “I’ve been helping to fix Hannah Tupper’s roof,” she said. “I’m sorry that I didn’t realize how late it was. Aunt Rachel, this is Nathaniel Eaton, Captain Eaton’s son, from the Dolphin. He was fixing the roof, and I was assisting him.”

Nat and William looked at each other for a long time. Nat turned to Matthew Wood. “It was my fault, sir,” he said, with dignity. “I shouldn’t have accepted Kit’s help.” He looked back at William. Then Nat said goodbye and walked away.

“Why did you have to fix a roof for the Quaker woman?” shouted her uncle when Nat was gone.

“She lives all alone,” replied Kit. “And she needs help, Uncle Matthew.”

“She is a heretic, and she doesn’t attend Meeting! If she wants help, let her repent her sin. You will never go to that place again, Katherine! I forbid it!”

Depressed, Kit followed the family into the house. “Don’t worry, Kit,” Mercy whispered. “Hannah will be fine if she has that young sailor to help her. I liked his looks.”

Judith was walking with Kit along the street to gather the last of the corn in the meadow. “I just feel,” she said, “that something wonderful is going to happen at the corn party tonight because this time I’m going to make sure that something happens.”

“Do you mean John Holbrook?”

“Of course! You know that he is too shy to say anything. He hasn’t got a house like William, or any money to support me yet. That’s why he doesn’t speak. But I know how he feels, and I know how I feel, so…”

Kit was thoughtful. She knew that William was only waiting for the right time to speak, too. She had already decided what her answer would be. As William’s wife she could do what she wanted. There would be no more hard work. Besides, William admired her. Then why was she worried?

On the way home Kit visited the little house by Blackbird Pond but only for a few minutes. Hannah told her that Prudence had come to her once, but couldn’t wait for a lesson. When Kit was walking back home, to her surprise, she saw a familiar black hat in the distance. It was John Holbrook! “Judith went back home, but I stopped to see Hannah Tupper,” Kit told him.

“The Widow Tupper? Does your family know about it, Kit? She is a Quaker. I’m not against the Quakers, but this woman has a bad reputation. They say she practices witchcraft.”

“That’s just gossip!” Kit cried. “John, this is silly! Hannah is a good friend of mine.”

“Probably, but you know, Kit, there are some people in town who still remember how you jumped into the river. And now you’re friends with a witch… And witchcraft isn’t silly, Kit.”

“I know,” Kit agreed, “but if only you knew Hannah…” They walked together, and Kit tried to make John Holbrook understand the lonely woman in the meadow.

Finally, they came to the point where John would turn and go his way. “Well,” he said, “it’s been five months since we came here on the Dolphin. It has turned out well for you, Kit: a fine big house and a good young man like William. I hope you will be very happy.”

Kit turned red and looked down. She did not want to talk about William. “And you, John?” she asked instead. “Are you going to the corn party tonight?”

“Well,” he answered. “We’ll see. I don’t know. Will Mercy be there?”

“Mercy? No, I don’t think so. It’s too far away.”

“Then I think I’ll spend the evening at your house instead. I seldom have a chance to talk to her.”

Slowly Kit began to understand what he had just said. “Why should you want to talk to Mercy?”

His smiled, “Why do you think I come so often? It has always been Mercy, from the very beginning. Didn’t you guess that? Do you think I have a chance, Kit?”

“Oh, John!” Kit cried. “A chance? I’m so happy for you two!”

“But I have nothing to give her, nothing at all.”

“You’ll have your own church some day. Only there are so many things that Mercy can’t do…”

“Then I will do them for her,” he said quietly. “I don’t want a wife to serve me. For Mercy I could never do enough.”

“Then tell her, tonight, John,” she said, remembering Mercy’s shining eyes.

“Well,” he answered again. “We’ll see.”

Walking home Kit could hardly keep from dancing. She wanted to shout and sing. Mercy and John Holbrook! How right! How unbelievably right! Suddenly, she stopped. How could she have forgotten about Judith? What has she been planning for tonight? Well, if John doesn’t go to the corn party – then nothing can happen. And what if he’s there with Mercy? Maybe Kit should warn Judith? Oh, dear, Judith is going to feel terrible! But Kit knew that John wasn’t really suitable for Judith.

That evening Judith looked lovely in her new blue dress. Kit was becoming impatient: they all had to leave quickly and leave Mercy sitting alone near the fireplace before John arrived.

But they were too late, as at that moment John Holbrook walked in through the door. Judith smiled at him.

“I’m so glad you’ve come,” she said. “Now we can all walk together.”

“I’m not going to the corn party,” John shook his head. “I think I’ll stay here with Mercy instead. There is something I want to speak to your father about.”

After his words Judith turned red. “Tonight? Really?” she whispered in joy and disbelief. “Oh, Father!” she cried. “You know what he wants to ask! Say yes, now, so we can go to the party together!”

Matthew Wood was shocked. “My daughter, what sort of talk is this?”

“Oh, Father, you must have guessed. John doesn’t need to tell you.”

Matthew Wood’s face softened, and when he turned to John he was smiling, “If you have agreed between you, then I can only give you my blessing. Perhaps you can teach this girl some manners.”

John stood silent, his face pale. He was so ashamed that he couldn’t say a word.

“Tell them! You’ve got to say something, John, right now!” Kit begged him silently.

John opened his mouth to say something to correct the mistake. Then, he looked at Judith. She seemed so happy that John stopped himself. Everyone in the room started congratulating him. Even Mercy came up slowly. “I am so glad for you both,” she said warmly. Only Kit could say nothing. Maybe she dreamed it all, she thought, watching Mercy. But she knew she had not dreamed the love in Mercy’s eyes that summer evening.