Witchtrot: Embellishments of an Old Maine Legend

What follows is an account put to paper in 1801 by my mother that fleshes out all the contours of a weird tale she often told us as children. In her youth, Mother had been an avid reader of her father’s extensive library and as a young adult found employment as a schoolteacher. These factors accounted for her exceptional ability with a pen.The setting of her story was on an old highway known as the Way to Wells, in the Upper Parish of Kittery, Maine, known as Berwick, that later had taken on the name Witchtrot Road. We would cajole her into repeating it many evenings, before a well stoked fire, when we mortals felt the spirits were abroad. I discovered this written rendition among the papers of my late parents nearly a year after my dear mother’s passing.The tale that follows is in her own words.