Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/62

 *gling" about the terms of his salary, and the harsh and exasperating manner in which he upon all occasions magnified his office, checking and restraining the usual powers of his deacons and elders, had rendered him thoroughly repugnant to all the preconceived ideas and feelings of the sensible and independent farmers of Salem village; and he, on his part, seems to have entertained no pleasant or friendly feelings toward his people.

It was under these peculiarly irritating feelings and circumstances, when ill-temper and acrimonious discontent and discussion prevailed on all sides, that the first swell of the great tidal-wave became perceptible, which afterward beat down the barriers of common-sense, and engulfed so many happy homes in fatal and irremediable woe.

During the winter of 1691 and '92, a party of young girls, about a dozen in number, were in the habit of meeting together at Mr. Parris's house; their names, as they have come down to us, are:

Elizabeth Parris, aged 9—the daughter of the minister.