In chapter
9, Kit and Mercy are teaching elementary school children to read at the dame school. Mercy is
patient, but Kit is not. She gets frustrated and decides to make up lessons using the childrens
names in rhyme. They are fascinated. Then she has them act out Bible stories, not knowing that
the townspeople do not approve of this.
But Kit had made
one mistake. She had picked her characters too hastily. By chance she had chosen the three
most obstreperous pupils in the school to be her thieves and robbers. (p. 88)
Kit is fired (but she talks them into rehiring her), and she runs
to the meadow where she meets Hannah, an old woman who lives by the pond. Everyone thinks shes
a witch, but she is really just a lonely old lady.
In chapter 11, Kit
secretly agrees to teach Prudence to read. This is important because it is one of the issues
that will come up later at her trial when she is accused of being a witch. Prudences parents
think she is too dumb to read, but Kit disagrees. She arranges to meet the little girl by the
meadow. When Prudence worries about the witch, Kit sets her straight.
Shes a gentle old woman who wouldnt harm a field mouse. (p.
114)
In chapter 12, Kit goes to visit Hannah. She tells
Mercy, who surprisingly gives her a piece of tart to share with the lonely old woman everyone
thinks is a witch. Nat has been helping Hannah, and he and Kit talk about politics. Kit asks
why Nat is not loyal to the King.
If the King respects our
rights and keeps his word to us, then he will retain our loyalty. But if he revokes the laws he
made €¦., then finally we will be forced to cut the hasser! (p. 129)
Kit accuses Nat of treason, but he tells her a man is loyal to
the place he loves (p. 129).
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