Dulcibel: A Tale of Old Salem

by Henry Peterson

  CHAPTER II.

  In Which Some Necessary Information is Given.

  Dulcibel Burton was an orphan. Her father becoming a little unsound indoctrine, and being greatly pleased with the larger liberty ofconscience offered by William Penn to his colonists in Pennsylvania, hadleased his house and lands to a farmer by the name of Buckley, anddeparted for Philadelphia. This was some ten years previous to theopening of our story. After living happily in Philadelphia for abouteight years he died suddenly, and his wife decided to return to her oldhome in Salem village, having arranged to board with Goodman Buckley,whose lease had not yet expired. But in the course of the followingwinter she also died, leaving this only child, Dulcibel, now a beautifulgirl of eighteen years. Dulcibel, as was natural, went on living withthe Buckleys, who had no children of their own, and were verygood-hearted and affectionate people.

  Dulcibel therefore was an heiress, in a not very large way, besideshaving wealthy relatives in England, from some of whom in the course ofyears more or less might reasonably be expected. And as our Puritanancestors were by no means blind to their worldly interests, believingthat godliness had the promise of this world as well as that which is tocome--the bereaved maiden became quite an object of interest to theyoung men of the vicinity.

  I have called her beautiful, and not without good reason. With the oldmanuscript volume--a family heirloom of some Quaker friends ofmine--from which I have drawn the facts of this narrative, came also anold miniature, the work of a well-known English artist of that period.The colors have faded considerably, but the general contour and thefeatures are well preserved. The face is oval, with a rather higher andfuller forehead than usual; the hair, which was evidently of a ratherlight brown, being parted in the center, and brought down with a littlevariation from the strict Madonna fashion. The eyes are large, and blue.The lips rather full. A snood or fillet of blue ribbon confined herluxuriant hair. In form she was rather above the usual height of women,and slender as became her age; though with a perceptible tendencytowards greater fullness with increasing years.

  There is rather curiously a great resemblance between this miniature,and a picture I have in my possession of the first wife of a celebratedNew England poet. He himself being named for one of the Judges who satin the Special Court appointed for the trial of the alleged witches, itwould be curious if the beautiful and angelic wife of his youth wereallied by blood to one of those who had the misfortune to come under theban of witchcraft.

  Being both beautiful and an heiress, Dulcibel naturally attracted theattention of her near neighbor in the village, Jethro Sands. Jethro wasquite a handsome young man after a certain style, though, as his lifeproved, narrow minded, vindictive and avaricious. Still he had a highreputation as a young man with the elders of the village; for he hadearly seen how advantageous it was to have a good standing in thechurch, and was very orthodox in his faith, and very regular in hisattendance at all the church services. Besides, he was a staunchchampion of the Reverend Mr. Parris in all his difficulties with theparish, and in return was invariably spoken of by the minister as one ofthe most promising young men in that neighborhood.

  Jethro resided with his aunt, the widow Sands. She inherited from herhusband the whole of his property. His deed for the land narrated thatthe boundary line ran "from an old dry stump, due south, to thesouthwest corner of his hog-pen, then east by southerly to the top ofthe hill near a little pond, then north by west to the highway side, andthence along the highway to the old dry stump again aforesaid." There isa tradition in the village that by an adroit removal of his hog-pen toanother location, and the uprooting and transplanting of the old drystump, at a time when nobody seemed to take a very active interest inthe adjoining land, owing to its title being disputed in successivelawsuits, Jethro, who inherited at the death of his aunt, became thepossessor of a large tract of land that did not originally belong tohim. But then such stories are apt to crop up after the death of everyman who has acquired the reputation of being crafty and close in hisdealings.

  We left Jethro, after his interview with Dulcibel, walking on in orderthat he might avoid her further company. After going a short distance heturned and saw that she was riding rapidly homeward. Then he began toretrace his steps.

  "It was bound to come," he muttered. "I have seen she was getting coldand thought it was Leah's work, but it seems she was true to her promiseafter all. Well, Leah is poor, and not of so good a family, but she isworth a dozen of such as Dulcibel Burton."

  Then after some minutes' silent striding, "I hate her though for it, allthe same. Everybody will know she has thrown me off. But nobody shallget ahead of Jethro Sands in the long run. I'll make her sorry for itbefore she dies, the spoiled brat of a Quaker infidel!"