The Witch of Blackbird Pond / Ведьма с пруда Черных Дроздов. 10-11 классы - Страница 2

Nat laughed. “And yours will spoil hers,” he answered. “She has told my father that you are a witch because no good woman could swim like that.”

“Nonsense!” Kit cried.

“Don’t you know about the water test?” Nat asked her. “A true witch will always float. The innocent ones just sink like a stone.” Nat was clearly joking, but she was surprised to see that John Holbrook’s face was now even darker than before. “That is not a funny thing,” he said. “Was the woman serious, Nat?”

“She was,” Nat answered. “But my father has calmed her down. He knows Barbados. He explained that the sea is always warm there, and that even good people sometimes swim in it. But, Mistress Katherine, now that you’re in Connecticut, I’d advise you to forget that you can swim.”

They all laughed, but inside Kit felt uneasy. Nat was joking, but he definitely warned her. There was something strange about this country of America; something that they all seemed to understand, but she did not.

It took nine days for the Dolphin to make the voyage from Saybrook to Wethersfield. As if the ship was bewitched – from the moment they left Saybrook everything went wrong. The wind almost died away, and the ship was moving down the river very slowly. Kit was very frustrated. How could she stand another meal at the same table with Goodwife Cruff, her sullen husband and that miserable little child Prudence. Yet Kit couldn’t get the girl out of her mind. There was something in that small child. One afternoon Kit saw the little girl standing alone on the deck. Kit moved closer and they stood side by side watching beautiful birds and dark trees on the shore. The child looked at the scenery with wonder. But soon a call from her mother made her run away. Suddenly, Kit realized that she hadn’t seen the girl’s wooden doll.

Captain Eaton and Nat were avoiding Kit. John Holbrook was the only one on this ship who didn’t mind her company. Most of the time, he was reading his books, even forgetting about the meals. But the moment he noticed Kit, John would smile, shut his book and come to join her. Slowly Kit learned the details of his dull history.

“It was foolish of me, the farmer’s son, even to think about Harvard,” John told her. “It was too far to the school, and my father could never let me go for more than a month out of the year. But he wanted me to learn, and I wanted to go to college. Till this spring I was hoping I could save enough money. Well, the Lord didn’t provide the money, but now He has another plan for me. Reverend Bulkeley of Wethersfield has agreed to take me as a pupil. He is a famous scholar, in medicine as well as theology. There isn’t a more learned teacher, even at Harvard.”

This talk about money embarrassed Kit. Her grandfather seldom mentioned such things. For sixteen years she had never questioned the expensive and beautiful things she had. In the last few months she had had a terrifying experience of living without money, but she didn’t want to speak about it. Instead, she tried to tell John Holbrook of her own childhood. She saw that he didn’t like the way she had grown up on the island. The green palms, warm blue ocean, white sandy beaches meant nothing to him. Didn’t her parents give her work to do?

“I don’t remember my parents at all,” she told him. “My father was born on the island and was sent to England to school. He met my mother there and brought her back to Barbados with him. They had only three years together. They both drowned by accident on a pleasure trip to Antigua, and Grandfather and I were left alone.”

“Were there no women to care for you?”

“Oh, there were slaves of course. I had a black maid. But I never needed anyone but Grandfather.” Kit remembered her Grandfather: his fine cheekbones, his thin aristocratic nose, and his loving eyes.

“It must have been hard to lose him,” said John gently. “I am so glad you have an aunt here. I’m sure she will be very happy to see you.”

“She was my mother’s only sister,” said Kit. “Grandfather said that my mother missed her very much. Her name is Rachel, and Grandfather said that she was beautiful. My mother remembered that she was always laughing. But she fell in love with a Puritan and ran away to America. She wrote to my mother from Wethersfield, and she has written a letter to me every year of my life.”

John Holbrook looked at Kit. “That was many years ago,” he told her. “Don’t forget that your aunt has been away from England for a long time.”

Kit felt that it was another warning which she could not yet understand. Later that hot afternoon Nat walked over to her where she stood on the deck looking at the river.

“How I would love,” she said. “To get into that water and away from this filthy ship!”

Nat’s blue eyes darkened. “Filthy – the Dolphin?”

“Oh,” she laughed, “You know, that stable smell!”

“Maybe you think it would smell better with a hold full of human bodies in chains, half of them almost dead?”

Kit was shocked. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you have slaves on Barbados?”

“Of course we have. We used to own more than a hundred to work the plantation.”

“How did you think they got there? Did you think they traveled from Africa in private cabins like yours?”

She had never thought about it. “But don’t you have slaves in America?”

“Yes, to our shame! But we, Eatons, we’re very proud that our ship has never had any slaves in its hold!” With these words Nat was gone again. What a temper! She insulted his precious ship. They almost made friends again, but now he will probably not speak to her for the rest of the trip. And why should she care? He is just a rude sailor!

But even John Holbrook didn’t approve of her now. She shocked him last night when she took his book, opened it at the marked page, and read a boring passage aloud. “Is this what you read all day long?”

John was staring at her. “You can read that?” he asked, amazed. “How did you learn to read?”

“I don’t even remember how I learned. Grandfather sometimes took me into his library where it was dark and cool, and read to me aloud from his books, and later I would sit beside him and read to myself while he studied.”

“What books?” John asked doubtfully.

“Oh, history, and poetry, and plays.”

“Plays! Your grandfather allowed a girl to read such things?”

“Yes. Wonderful plays by Shakespeare, for example. They were beautiful! Haven’t you read them?”

John’s cheeks reddened. “There are no such books in Saybrook. The right use of reading is to improve our sinful nature and to fill our minds with God’s holy words.”

Kit stared at him. She remembered her Grandfather, and she knew that he hadn’t read his books to improve his sinful nature. John Holbrook’s words made her feel uncomfortable again.

Early the next morning the Dolphin finally arrived at Wethersfield. The shore looked just like the forest they had seen for the past week. Her heart sank. So this was Wethersfield! Just a narrow sandy shoreline with a row of huge wooden warehouses, and beyond that – green fields and woods. No town, not a house. Only a few men and boys and two dogs had come to meet the boat. Kit watched Goodwife Cruff walk with her husband along the shore. Prudence, holding her mother’s hand, looked back.

“Bye, Prudence,” Kit shouted. “I hope to see you often!”

Goodwife Cruff stopped and looked at Kit. “Please leave my child alone! We do not welcome strangers in this town, especially the ones like you!” With these words she marched up the dirty road and disappeared in the fog. Even John Holbrook’s goodbyes were very formal, and he, too, walked away into the fog to meet his new teacher.

Then Kit saw Captain Eaton coming and knew that this was the moment to tell the truth.

“There must’ve been some mistake,” the captain said. “I am sure that your aunt and uncle will be here to meet you any time soon.”