Mary Rowlandson’s life is in jeopardy. Two weeks ago
she was shot at and taken as spoils of the siege on her small village in Bay
Colony, Massachusetts called Lancaster. Her husband left the night before the
ambush to get help from a Boston militia. She still awaits his return.
In the fight, Mary lost her sister, Beth. She saw Beth
being struck down at the threshold of her burning house by a devil that looked
like he was enjoying the experience. One blow by the club would have sufficed,
but the devil continued to defile her and then set her aflame.
Mary viewed other horrors as she tried to run but
the buckshot that was mostly taken by her small daughter Sarah was also causing
her to see double. Or, was the excruciating pain around Mary’s waist a result of
Sarah’s legs squeezing tight on the wound in order to stay on Mary as they made
haste?
The same devil that fouled Beth was ready to club
Mary when he suddenly stopped. He pulled off her kerchief and yanked at her
hair. He stepped closer to her and began to lick a curl as if it was made of
honey. He then pushed the woolen cap off of Sarah’s head.
Instead of being killed, the devil herded them to an
opening in the stockade. Shoving them through, another devil grabbed her and threw
a noose made of hemp around her neck. The other end of the long rope was
attached to a horse, one of Mary’s own.
Sarah has been dead now for a week and Mary is doing
her best to forget the child and concentrate on her living children. She spoke
with her son, Josh, earlier that week and found he and his sister were slaves to
an Indian family in a nearby village.
In that brief encounter, Josh had to tell Mary what
happened to Goody Joslin. He cried as he retold the ugly affair. Ann Joslin was
going into labor as they walked away from the fighting and her wails were irritating
the warriors. Josh said he and some other children were made to dance around her
in a circle. When that did not stop the noise, one of the devils jumped atop
her and cut her wailing throat.
All Mary could think to console him with was trust
in the Lord. All her Puritan beliefs were not helping though. And where was her
husband? Was she not worth rescuing?
Set in 1672 early America, Amy Belding Brown’s book Flight
of the Sparrow is an intriguing page turner and the first book in this semester’s
Reading Roundtable at Northwest. Digital Librarian Maya Berry will lead the discussion
and Amy Brown will Skype in on January 27 at 2 p.m. at the R. C. Pugh Library in Senatobia.
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Jhon Dela
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