Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/151

 *ed to act the part of umpire in disputes, arbitrator on conflicting claims, and also as committee-man and juror. Goodman Nurse had been a mechanic in Salem, but having by patient industry accumulated a little money, he removed to Salem village, where, in the year 1650, he purchased the great "Townsend Bishop Farm," as it was termed, a tract of about three hundred acres of land, much of it already improved, at the cost of £400. He was at this time a fine, hearty, hale, and vigorous old man; his wife, Rebecca Nurse, was about one year younger than himself.

She was an eminently Christian woman, full of good works; a regular member of long standing in the mother church at Salem; but after their removal to Salem village, by reason of her advanced age and consequent frequent infirmities, often a worshiper at the nearer church in the village, although never formally united with them. Goody Nurse seems to have been one of those rarely gifted women who unite the solid worth and excellence of a deeply religious character with the lighter graces of a cheer