The Black Witch's Promise

By Don Schone

This book is about a mother (Amy Goodbar) convicted of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts during the witch hunts of 1692 and her promise of good fortune to her future generation of children and bad happenings to the relatives of her accusers. Now, 300 years later, a family moves to Salem not knowing anything of Amy Goodbar and the house they call Witch House. Now it is up to the Roberts family to discover what Witch House is all about. Once you start to read this book, you will not be able to put it down.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 18, 2007
• ISBN: 9781463462116

Don Schone

He has always told bedtime stories to his children and grandchildren.  Now retired he is taking the stories to print for all children.  He likes to test his stories in elementary schools before they go to print.

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SKU-000230353_Text.pdf

AuthorHouse™

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Phone: [phone]

© 2007 Don Schone. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 12/10/2007

ISBN: 978-1-4343-3511-1 (sc)

ISBN: 9781463462116(ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007906591

Illustrations by Travis Hupert

Contents

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

The year was 1692, and the town was Salem, Massachusetts. People were very superstitious, and they accused anyone they didn’t like of witchcraft. If you happened to be a stranger to Salem, you were watched with great concern. Even if you lived there for a long time, you could still be accused of witchcraft.

Amy Goodbar lived with her husband and children on one of the most prosperous farms in the village. In addition to helping her husband on the farm, Amy would tend to people who were sick. She would often make medicine from the herbs she grew in her garden. She was always seen wearing a black dress and black cap. People often wondered if she owned any other clothes. However, her clothes were always neat and clean, which made some of the village women jealous. Amy Goodbar was accused of witchcraft. During her trial, she told her accusers, which included neighbors and people she had treated and were thankful for her help, that if they convicted her for something she did not do, she would come back to take care of her children … and to seek revenge.

When the Roberts family moved to Salem, Massachusetts three hundred years later, they knew very little of the town’s history, and nothing about Amy Goodbar. They had three children: Elizabeth, fifteen, a very popular high school student; Laura, thirteen, who loves to read and is a top student in history; and Jonathan, eleven, who likes adventure and playing football. All three of them were excited to learn the history of Salem. At the end of their street, high on a lonely hill, stood a very old house with a broken stone fence around the front and both sides. Some of the windows were broken, and shreds of curtains hung in the openings. When Elizabeth, Laura, and Jonathan learned the house was called the Witch House, they planned to find out everything they could about the house. Thus the story begins.

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CHAPTER 1

On a Saturday morning in June, Elizabeth, Laura, and Jonathan, the new kids in town, headed for the library to learn more about the history of Witch House. At the library, they meet with the librarian, who introduced himself and said his name was Travis Roberts. The kids were surprised, and they told him their name was also Roberts.

Well, I will have to look into that, Travis said. The kids discovered that the library had a whole section on local history. With the help of the library computers, they could go back into the early history of Salem, even into the years that Amy Goodbar would have lived. As they were working on the computers, Laura came across some information that said Amy Goodbar was accused of witchcraft and went to her death wearing a black dress and hat.

As they kept searching the library files and books, they discovered many interesting things about the relationship between the local townspeople and the people in Salem of 1692. They learned that the present mayor, Mr. Harry Bumble, was the great, great, grandson of the judge who