The Witch Of Blackbird Pond

As the ship makes its tedious way upriver, Kit and John chat about books. She describes her grandfather’s great library and all the wonderful novels and plays that she read there. John is amazed that Kit can read at all, but he disapproves of the nonreligious nature of her reading material.

Nine days later, the ship finally reaches Wethersfield, and Kit is just as disappointed in this village as in Saybrook: “Her heart sank. This was Wethersfield! Just a narrow sandy stretch of shoreline […] No town, not a house, only a few men and boys and two yapping dogs who had come to meet the boat” (26).

Kit informs Captain Eaton that her family will not come to meet her because they don’t know of her arrival. Her grandfather recently died, leaving her penniless, and she set off to find her only living relative, her mother’s sister, Rachel.

The captain is annoyed but has his men carry Kit’s seven trunks of belongings through the town until they find the Wood residence. Kit’s Aunt Rachel is overjoyed to see her, but Uncle Matthew is another matter: “She could not read the faintest sign of welcome in his thin stern lips or in the dark eyes that glowered fiercely at her from under heavy grizzled eyebrows” (32). Kit also discovers that her aunt and uncle have two daughters: the sharp-tongued but beautiful Judith and the equally pretty Mercy, who walks with crutches. Matthew grudgingly agrees that Kit must stay with them since she has nowhere else to go. 

Later that morning, Kit unpacks her fine clothing to the delight of her aunt and cousins. She makes presents of some items until her uncle walks in and puts an end to her generosity. He says her clothing is too colorful to be appropriate among Puritans. Matthew also disapproves of Kit’s Royalist political sympathies.

After he stalks back to work in the fields, the women go about their grueling household chores. Kit learns how to card wool, boil soap, and prepare cornmeal mush, and she fails at all three tasks: “By the end of that first day the word useful had taken on an alarming meaning. Work in that household never ceased, and it called for skill and patience, qualities Kit did not seem to possess” (47-48).

On Sunday, Kit is forced to accompany her family to the Puritan religious service, even though her uncle complains that her bright clothing will cause a scandal among the congregation. Kit sees hints of the darker side of the Puritans’ religious zeal: “As they crossed the clearing Kit recoiled at the objects that stood between her and the Meeting House; a pillory, a whipping post and stocks” (52).

Kit endures the miserable two-hour sermon and wonders how anyone can stay awake while Reverend Gershom Bulkeley drones on. After the service, Aunt Rachel introduces Kit to a smartly dressed neighbor named Mistress Ashby and her son William. William is immediately smitten with Kit. Also at the service is John, whom Kit met on the boat, and he catches the eye of Cousin Judith. As the family walks back home, Kit is shocked to learn that there will be another afternoon service to endure that same day. 

Aunt Rachel has invited Reverend Bulkeley and his protégé, John, to dine with the family that evening. The meal goes well, but afterward, Bulkeley gets into an argument with Matthew, who doesn’t share his Royalist sympathies. Matthew thinks the colonies should be free and predicts a revolution someday. Once Bulkeley and John leave, Matthew informs the women that the wealthy young William has asked to court Kit. Kit later learns that Judith was originally interested in this same young man for herself. Fortunately, she has now transferred her interest to John.