Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/66

 But these things could not be enacted in a little quiet village and not be known; nor was it intended they should be. And, attention being called to their strange condition and unaccountable behavior, the whole wondering neighborhood was filled with consternation and pity at the unwonted proceedings; from house to house the strange tidings spread with wonderful rapidity, and gaining doubtless at every repetition; and no attempt at concealment being made, but, on the contrary, rather an ostentatious display of the affair, crowds flocked together from every quarter to see and listen and wonder in horror and amazement.

No explanation of the mystery was given, and, excited by the attention they received and the wonder they attracted, the children, emulating each other in their strange accomplishments, grew worse and worse, until the whole community became excited and aroused to a most intense degree. Every thing else was forgotten or set aside, and there was no other topic of thought or conversation; and finding themselves the objects of universal attention, "the observed of all