“How long have you lived here?” Kit asked curiously.

“I don’t really know,” the woman answered slowly. “But I remember the day we came here. We had walked from Massachusetts, you see. Someone had told us there would be land for us in Connecticut. But in the town there was none. So we walked toward the river, and then we came to this meadow.”

There were a hundred questions Kit wanted to ask, but instead she looked up and noticed with surprise one thing on the shelf. “This coral!” she exclaimed. “How did it get here?”

A small secret smile lit up the wrinkled face. “I have a sailor friend,” Hannah said. “When he comes back from a voyage, he brings me a present.”

Kit almost laughed. A romance! She imagined him, this white-haired sailor friend, coming here with his small presents from some distant shores. “Maybe this came from my home,” Kit said. “I come from Barbados, you know.”

“From Barbados!” cried the woman. “You do look different somehow. What is it like?”

“It’s so beautiful with flowers every day of the year. You can always smell them in the air.”

“You have been homesick,” said Hannah softly.

“Yes,” agreed Kit. “I guess I have. But most of all, I miss my late grandfather so much.”

“That is the hardest,” nodded the woman. “What was your grandfather like, child?”

Tears filled Kit’s eyes. No one, since she had come to America, had ever really wanted to hear about her grandfather. She told the old woman about the happy days on the island, the plantation, the long walks together, the swimming, the library and the books. Then she described her voyage to Connecticut and all the confusion of the past weeks. “I hate it here,” Kit said. “I don’t belong. Mercy is wonderful, and Judith tries to be friendly, but I’m just a trouble to them all. Uncle Matthew hates me. Everything I do or say is wrong!”

“That’s why you’ve come to the meadow,” said Hannah. “What went so wrong this morning?”

The older woman listened to the school story, nodding her head. As Kit told her about the schoolmaster, Hannah started laughing. Suddenly, Kit was laughing with her, too. “What should I do now?” she asked when they calmed down. “How can I go back and face them?”

Hannah said nothing for a long time. Her eyes studied the girl beside her. “Come,” she finally said. “I have something to show you.”

Outside the house grew a single green stalk with one huge scarlet flower.

“It looks just like the flowers at home,” Kit said. “I didn’t know you had such flowers here.”

“It came all the way from Africa,” Hannah told her. “My friend brought the bulb to me, a little brown thing like an onion. I doubted it would grow here, but it was very determined and now look what has happened.”

Kit kept quiet. Was Hannah trying to preach to her? “I’m sorry but I really must go now,” Kit said. “You’ve given me an answer. I think I know what you mean.”

The woman shook her head. “The answer is in your heart,” she said softly. “You can always hear it if only you listen to it.”

Kit walked back with a lightness and freedom she hadn’t known since the day she came into Saybrook Harbor. Hannah Tupper was not a witch, but certainly she had a magic charm. In one short hour she had made all the worries of the girl disappear. Only one thing must be done before Kit could finally be at peace. Without speaking a word, Hannah had given her the strength to do it. She walked straight up the path to a big house and knocked bravely on the door of Mr. Kimberley.

Mercy couldn’t believe that Kit had talked to Mr. Kimberley himself! “But he was very fair,” said Kit. “He listened to me and finally agreed that I could have one more chance.”

“You surprise me, Kit,” Mercy said. “You must have surprised Mr. Kimberley, too. He doesn’t normally change his mind.”

“I surprised myself,” Kit laughed. “I think I was bewitched.”

“Bewitched?”

“Yes. I met the witch who lives in the meadow. It was she who gave me the courage.”

Mercy and her mother exchanged glances. “You mean you talked with her?”

“I went into her house and ate her food. But I was joking about being bewitched. She’s the nicest person I have ever met.”

“Kit,” Aunt Rachel said seriously. “I think you should not say anything to the others about meeting this woman. That is just gossip that she’s a witch. But no one in Wethersfield has anything to do with Hannah Tupper because she is a Quaker. [2] The Quakers are strange people. They don’t believe in some of the things we believe in.”