September 1691-December 1691 Summary

Sarah's glowering resentment at being recalled from her cousin's house focuses on her mother. During the long, cold winter, relations between the Carriers and the Toothakers become strained. One day, Martha asks Sarah to come with her into the fields; Sarah fully expects a beating. They stop in a meadow to pick mushrooms. Sarah picks a mushroom that looks appetizing and raises it to her mouth. Her mother yells at her to stop and tells her to look at the underside of the mushroom. There she sees the telltale white gills of the destroying angel and one of the deadliest of wild mushrooms. Martha uses the experience to teach her daughter a moral lesson. Martha says the really dangerous mushrooms are those with smooth skins and the edible morels have pitted skin.

"People, too, are often not what they seem, even...