Priscilla's Diary (Salem Witch Trials)

25 April 1692

Today, they found two more women guilty of witchcraft in our town. With the news of this, I have noticed more people becoming scared of their surroundings. I actually saw one of the women being accused right outside my window. Linda was walking down the street when Ester started up a bloodcurdling screeching that made my heart pound in my chest so hard that I thought it was about to jump out of my chest and onto the floor. I was inside at the time, done with the day's chores and sewing a doublet for Catherine's son when this happened. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like to have been actually outside when it all unfolded.

Ester kept on crying about how she was seeing Linda projecting the devil out into the world and was doing harm to her right there on the sidewalk. I can't say for sure that I saw anything in particular that was evil, but the ways of the witches could be deceiving. They do their business in secret after all. Either way, Ester is not known to act like that. She is quiet and shy, so the fact that she was screaming out in the open was something that was hard to get out of your head. Something that I wished I didn't witness, simply because it was so out of the ordinary that it frightens me.

After living with the addition of three children to our family for the past few weeks, it has become evident that our house was not built for three little girls, two little boys, two grown men, and a wife. I would have suggested Catherine's two older children to stay at their home and we just check in to make sure they are okay, but that house has become something to traumatic for them to bare. The memories of their mother being whisked away for practicing witchcraft and their father and oldest sibling passing away would be too much for even me to want to stay.

Having more children in the house was something Bernard and I were hoping for anyway. Sure, we thought it was going to happen some time next year and not in the form as three children all at once at varying ages. But, it has certainly kept me busy.

Margaret and Catherine's daughter both tend to their own gardens and after that I teach them how to sew and make clothes and cook meals. Catherine's oldest son goes off with Bernard and helps him either with farm work or running the shop he owns. Then for the littlest of the group, Elinor and Catherine's youngest son try to help us garden or clean up around the house, but they don't have the focus for it at this time in their lives. To be frank, I don't have the energy to try to encourage them to help us with the chores. With two little ones under the age of three, they get into more mess than one could even fathom. And, with teaching two older girls at a time with homely skills has turned out to become quite the mess also. Just yesterday, Margaret spilled all the flour on the kitchen floor when kneading dough for bread. Which reminds me, I need to talk with Bernard about our diminishing food supply. I tried to mention it to him over our significantly smaller dinner, but he seemed to have other things on mind. Probably day dreaming about where the witches are hiding out. If only he knew that Catherine's daughter may be holding the information that he has been dreaming about.