THE WENDY HUT

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1931, Page 20 (Supplement)

THE WENDY HUT

BOYS OF LONG AGO. CLARENCE V ■ Clarence was employed in an ale-houie, where he scrubbed and ran errands for Dame Loveday from sunrise to sunset. 'He was fourteen years old, and his mother, a widow, supported herself by selling herbs to the apothecary. She walked miles over hill and dale to obtain these herbs, but she kept her small cottage very clean and every night Clarence went home to sleep. Then suddenly his mother fell sick, and could no longer gather herbs. There was scarcely any money for food, and, in his , anxiety, Clarence did a dreadful thing. He consulted an old woman who was supposed to be a witch!' In return, for all the money he possessed, she gave him a black draught iwhich his mother was to swallow fasting, and taught him three strange words which he was to say to himself all day. Clarence 1 duly whispered the words,, and Dame Loveday was frightened when she saw his lips’ moving silently all day long. “I hope that boy has no evil power,” she remarked one evening, and, a stranger who had come to the ale-house for a meal overheard her. Now this man was a .witch-finder. He had recently come from Scotland where he had assisted the King—afterwards James the First of England—to find the witches who had: been responsible for the storms at sea when James had sailed to Denmark to marry his bride. J I was a fine summer’s evening, so the witch-finder visited the cottage where Clarence lived, and saw the boy washing clothes in the garden. Clarence had a great white lather of soap suds in a tub, and his lips moved silently as he worked. After watching him for a time from behind a tree, the witchfinder suddenly grabbed him, accused him of setting charms to •sink ships at sea, and carried him away to prison'. When Clarence was brought before the judge he thought all was lost. Nothing would induce him to admit that he had consulted a witch, because the black draught had cured his mother. He- declared that he' had only been washing clothes that evening, and not making a storm in the tub as witches did; if his lips had moved, he said it was because his mother was ill and he was nervous. For hours they questioned Clarence; then the great Judge, who believed him to be inocent, ordered him to be tried by weighing. So they took him to the Church, put the huge brass-bound Church Bible on one side of the scales, and Clarence on the other. The. boy weighed down the Bible, therefore he was declared innocent and set free. “And take a holiday to-morrow to recover yourself,” said Dame Loveday. “Here is a nice basket of food, for you, in case I had anything to do with your trial.” So Clarence arid his mother walked happily home together, but never again did the boy consult a witch!