The colonies were infantile; barbed lines of entrepreneurship cast by the maritime lords of commerce, using those naive fanatics of God as their willing bait. The Puritan colonies in Massachusetts were the deepest sunk into the bays and coasts of the New World, or more precipitously, the most established. Mary Ellsworth, otherwise known as Mistress Mary to her students, was a traveling tutor in this New England; this Second Chance. The schoolhouses were erected within city limits, leaving the far-reaching homesteaders to fend for themselves when it came to their children's education. There were twenty-two Puritan homesteads she shuttled among, going from house to house teaching the Puritan children reading, writing, and arithmetic. She was commonly not paid for her efforts, except in the form of shelter and food. Her stay beneath each roof depended upon the capability of the settlers; some being able to keep her employment longer than others. Typically, Mary remained no longer than a week at any residence before moving on to the next. During the harvest season she might instruct her pupils for only one or two days as the children were needed to help bring in the yield of springtime's sow.
For the last two days she was tutoring at the Ham household. Josiah Ham was the father of the household and he beseeched Mary to stick to teaching the 'three R's' as they were so called. "Here me, Mary, I know your intelligence is not to be questioned and have been educated abroad, but yonder children so ferried from high society to this unbridled wilderness, don't need anything other than the primary subjects. Young Caleb is going to assume these lands when I am taken up by Providence, and he shan't need to learn to draw to do so."
"I appreciate your perspective, Josiah," Mary replied with a knowing resignation, having had this conversation many times with other parents. "Yet the practice of drawing is fundamental in understanding one's surroundings. Caleb and I might merely be drawing the trees and animals we ascertain in the forest now, but suppose one day Caleb acquires thy worthy farm and wishes to procure more land. A Plymouth purveyor is going to call anon and draw up the property lines upon three pieces of paper: one for the city, one for the landholder, and one for the buyer. Now how will Caleb know whether or not he is being misled or cheated into buying less land than he pay for if he knows not the first thing about drawings and sketches, or how to draft or interpret maps?"
The humble Puritans did not like to talk about the future as a rule, and Mary bringing it up made Josiah uncomfortable. He shifted his weight and brushed his beard with his palm. "Well, I just don't reckon…"
"The way I see it," Mary gently cut across him, "you, as Caleb's parent have every right to determine what he can and cannot study. But as his parent you should want him to be as duly prepared as possible to run this farm. Don't obstruct his future by hindering him now."
Josiah looked around as if to find another excuse. "I… I don't have any paper or ink."
"That's quite alright, Josiah, I always keep some with me."
"Ok then, go on," he smiled broadly in spite of himself. Josiah was not so easily beguiled by merchants or peddlers in the town square, a quality he was proud of, but that this impetuous woman could sway him so easily made him start questioning his weakness of mind. 'Or most assuredly it may not be his mind that was weak, but the lady that was strong,' Josiah thought. "Thou art a curious young lady, Mary. I pray the other homesteaders are as forgiving of thy impertinence as I."
"I should be so blessed."
Mary Ellsworth was indeed a curious young lady; he was not mistaken, for she was in fact a witch. She had trained in the south of England at a community-organized school specifically fashioned for witchcraft and wizardry. She could not afford the more prestigious school in Scotland, as was the case with many a young student. She was only four years a graduate, and had never dreamed of venturing to the New World for any reason. She had entered into a relationship with a wizard, however, and when the relationship became abusive she fled to the Americas to be free from his influence.
She was two years a colonial, but due to what she was and what community she associated with, her life was under constant threat. A problem she had not considered before she became a passenger upon the Maritas and sailed for Massachusetts Bay. At first she felt too fearful to stay among the Puritans, due to their strict, unrelenting adherence to law; a law made more perilous for it was infused by the unwavering righteousness of Holy Writ; but she found it very difficult to sustain herself without either consistent food or comfortable finances. As she grew more comfortable blending in, donning the muted colors of servile pilgrims, she struck upon her niche in the tutoring business, finding the children of the frontier Puritans lacking in overall education.
Her life was one of loneliness. Passing from house to house like a gift, being re-gifted over and over. She longed for a familiar friend; one she might only nod in understanding as if to say, 'I am invested in you and you in me.' Her pupils became her closest confidants, and were more like family than not.
Her true abilities she had to keep to herself or undertake only at night or in the wild forest. She had been discovered once already and regretted obliviating the entire household to save herself. Unfortunately, the staunch and rigorous beliefs of the Puritans determined all magic to be from the devil. To the astute, though perhaps dense Puritans a witch was defined as an ungodly, hexing harlot who laid with the Devil or flew over their settlements at night shrieking their curses of doom over there righteous rooftops. This left Mary with no room for error or carelessness.
Yet there were some advantages she could utilize under little or no threat. Her ink bottle for instance was a bewitched one in which the ink never ran out, and the paper she used she would wipe clean with her wand between each homestead to make it new for the next set of children to draw upon. Her life as a wanderer was therefore eased in functionality, if not by companionship.
Mary didn't know of any magical practitioners in the New World. She spent only a little time among the indigenous population when she was at first so repulsed by the Puritan way of life. She hardly presumed she was the only one, but she had failed to come into contact with any other. Yet she was not idle in her speculative queries, for she kept a weathered eye out for children gifted with magic in the homes she taught in. This quest to find others like herself was made the more difficult by the fact that even if a child exemplified characteristics of a witch or wizard, the child's family would at once turn the child over to be injured or executed by the community leaders and magistrates. Even if she was fortunate enough to find a child with magical attunement, she knew not what she might do about it. She may try to teach the child in secret or at night. Ultimately, the hope of finding someone like herself was only a hope to finding someone with whom to be close.