* * * * * The terrible witchcraft drama of 1692 has been seriously treated, as it well deserves to be. The story has been told in two large volumes by the Rev. Charles Wentworth Upham, and in a small and more succinct volume, based upon his work, by his daughter-in-law, Caroline E. Upham. The delusion commonly spoken of, as if it belonged to Salem, was more widely diffused through the towns of Essex County. Looking upon it as a pitiful and long dead and buried superstition, I trust my poem will no more offend the good people of Essex County than Tam O'Shanter worries the honest folk of Ayrshire. The localities referred to are those with which I am familiar in my drives about Essex County. O. W. H. _July, 1891._ [Illustration] List of Illustrations THE DEACON'S MASTERPIECE. PAGE The Deacon _Frontispiece._ Half Title 11 The Masterpiece 12 "A chaise breaks down" 14 "The Deacon inquired of the village folk" 16 "Naow she'll dew" 18 "She was a wonder, and nothing less" 19 "Deacon and deaconess dropped away" 20 "Eighteen Hundred" 21 "Fifty-Five" 21 "Its hundredth year" 22 "A general flavor of mild decay" 23 "In another hour it will be worn out" 24 "The parson takes a drive" 25 "All at once the horse stood still" 26 "Then something decidedly like a spill" 27 "Just as bubbles do when they burst" 28 "End of the wonderful one-hoss-shay" 29