The Crucible by Arthur Miller Read Free Book Online Page A

answer for that crowd. I’ll wait till Mr. Hale arrives. To get Mrs. Putnam to leave: If you will, Goody Ann ...
    PUTNAM: Now look you, sir. Let you strike out against the Devil, and the village will bless you for it! Come down, speak to them-pray with them. They’re thirsting for your word, Mister ! Surely you’ll pray with them.
    PARRIS, swayed: I’ll lead them in a psalm, but let you say nothing of witchcraft yet. I will not discuss it. The cause is yet unknown. I have had enough contention since I came; I want no more.
    MRS. PUTNAM: Mercy, you go home to Ruth, d’y’hear?
    MERCY: Aye, mum.
    Mrs. Putnam goes out.
    PARRIS, to Abigail: If she starts for the window, cry for me at once.
    ABIGAIL: I will, uncle.
    PARRIS, to Putnam: There is a terrible power in her arms today. He goes out with Putnam.
    ABIGAIL, with hushed trepidation: How is Ruth sick?
    MERCY: It’s weirdish, I know not-she seems to walk like a dead one since last night.
    ABIGAIL, turns at once and goes to Betty, and now, with fear in her voice: Betty? Betty doesn’t move. She shakes her. Now stop this! Betty! Sit up now!
    Betty doesn’t stir. Mercy comes over.
    MERCY: Have you tried beatin’ her? I gave Ruth a good one and it waked her for a minute. Here, let me have her.
    ABIGAIL, holding Mercy back: No, he’ll be comin’ up. Listen, now; if they be questioning us, tell them we danced-I told him as much already.
    MERCY: Aye. And what more?
    ABIGAIL: He knows Tituba conjured Ruth’s sisters to come out of the grave.
    MERCY: And what more?
    ABIGAIL: He saw you naked.
    MERCY, clapping her hands together with a frightened laugh: Oh, Jesus!
    Enter Mary Warren, breathless. She is seventeen, a subservient, naïve, lonely girl.
    MARY WARREN: What’ll we do? The village is out! I just come from the farm; the whole country’s talkin’ witchcraft! They’ll be callin’ us witches, Abby!
    MERCY, pointing and looking at Mary Warren: She means to tell, I know it.
    MARY WARREN : Abby, we’ve got to tell. Witchery’s a hangin’ error, a hangin’ like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth, Abby! You’ll only be whipped for dancin’, and the other things!
    ABIGAIL: Oh, we’ll be whipped!
    MARY WARREN: I never done none of it, Abby. I only looked!
    MERCY, moving menacingly toward Mary: Oh, you’re a great one for lookin’, aren’t you, Mary Warren? What a grand peeping courage you have!
    Betty, on the bed, whimpers. Abigail turns to her at once.
    ABIGAIL: Betty? She goes to Betty. Now, Betty, dear, wake up now. It’s Abigail. She sits Betty up and furiously shakes her. I’ll beat you, Betty! Betty whimpers. My, you seem improving. I talked to your papa and I told him everything. So there’s nothing to-
    BETTY, darts off the bed, frightened of Abigail, and flattens herself against the wall: I want my mama!
    ABIGAIL, with alarm, as she cautiously approaches Betty: What ails you, Betty? Your mama’s dead and buried.
    BETTY : I’ll fly to Mama. Let me fly! She raises her arms as though to fly, and streaks for the window, gets one leg out.
    ABIGAIL, pulling her away from the window: I told him everything ; he knows now, he knows everything we—
    BETTY: You drank blood, Abby! You didn’t tell him that!
    ABIGAIL: Betty, you never say that again! You will never-
    BETTY: You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!
    ABIGAIL, smashes her across the face: Shut it! Now shut it!
    BETTY, collapsing on the bed: Mama, Mama! She dissolves into sobs.
    ABIGAIL: Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have