The Witch Sheep by Alice Morse Earle

Name: The Witch Sheep
Author: Alice Morse Earle

"The Witch Sheep" by Alice Morse Earle is a short story set in rural Narragansett, Rhode Island, opening on Christmas morning of 1811 when an aged shepherd named Benny Nichols wakes late to discover a tremendous snowstorm has buried his farm overnight. Benny, a weathered and careful man who tends the sheep of a large Narragansett farm, rushes out in his best Sunday boots at his wife Debby's insistence and manages to dig his flock out of the drifts, finding most of them sheltered and alive beneath the snow. Only one sheep is missing: a rare and prized ewe of the creeper breed, small and long-bodied, the finest creature in his flock. Three weeks later, on the fourteenth of January, Benny spots a tiny breathing hole in the snow near a distant hay-rick and investigates. He breaks through the crust and finds his lost creeper ewe alive but in a pitiful state. Having been snowbound for nearly a month with nothing to eat, she has consumed every strand of her own wool that she could reach with her mouth, leaving herself entirely bare. Benny wraps the trembling, skeletal creature in his cloak and carries her home to Debby, who weeps at the sight of her and nurses her back to health with warm milk and patient care. The sheep recovers her strength and flesh within a week but cannot recover her wool so quickly, and as winter is still bitter and cold, she cannot be put outside without protection. Practical and resourceful, Debby fashions the ewe a false fleece from old garments. She takes a blue coat that once belonged to her son, shortens its sleeves to fit the animal's forelegs, and sews onto its waist two sleeves cut from a red flannel shirt to cover the hind legs. She buttons the whole comical ensemble up along the ewe's backbone with large brass buttons. The resulting costume makes the sheep look like nothing so much as an organ-grinder's monkey dressed in mismatched rags. When Benny first takes the dressed ewe outside, the rest of the flock panics in absolute terror at the strange, many-colored creature thrust among them and stampedes against the fence until Benny is forced to carry her back indoors. That evening, Benny tries again, placing Nanny with the flock in darkness hoping they will grow accustomed to her through the night. While the three men sit by the fire drinking Benny's homemade flip, the door bursts open and in stumbles Tuggie Bannocks, an elderly Black woman and former slave who lives on a nearby farm, collapsing in breathless terror. Once revived with a mug of Benny's flip, she tells her story in vivid and trembling detail. She claims to have witnessed the witch Mum Amey, a crabbed old half-breed Indian woman with whom she has a long-standing supernatural rivalry, riding and chasing Benny's sheep across the moonlit field. Tuggie describes the apparition as long and low like a snake, bounding and leaping across the ground in a red and blue blanket with gold coins gleaming on its back, with horns on its head, a lashing black tail, and fire and smoke pouring from its mouth and nostrils. At the height of Tuggie's dramatic account, the slow-thinking Debby, still processing the description, quietly suggests it might have been the devil or the creeper sheep. Benny immediately understands, leaps up laughing, and declares that what Tuggie saw was nothing but the ewe in her patchwork coat. The old woman is furious at being mocked and leaves the house in a rage, muttering threats of revenge and promising to burn a conjuring project against the household. True to her word, Tuggie apparently works her charm. The chimney begins to behave strangely: smoke pours back into the room on windy nights, food burns inexplicably before the fire, and a coal leaps out and scorches Debby's best petticoat despite her protective charm of wearing it inside out. The old ram of the flock also seems bewitched, growing thin and refusing to eat whenever Nanny comes near. When spring shearing comes, however, and Nanny's false coat is removed and replaced by her own freshly grown half-inch of natural wool, the ram recovers his health and boldness entirely, and the conjure is considered worked out. The tale of Tuggie's fright and her supernatural revenge spreads across every farm in Narragansett and is passed down through generations, and as Nanny's descendants multiply across the region, the creeper breed of sheep comes to be known throughout Narragansett as witch-sheep.

By Alice Morse Earle · First published 1898 · Genre: Historical Fiction, Folklore, Humorous Fiction · 3,488 words

First lines

In the darkness of Christmas morning, in the year 1811, old Benny Nichols could not sleep. He was not thinking of Santa Claus nor of Christmas gifts; he was watching for the first gray dawn which marked his regular rising hour, and he tossed and turned, wondering why he was so wakeful, until at last he rose in despair and lighted a candle to discover how long he had to wait ere daybreak. To his amazement he found the hands of the old clock pointing to the hour of nine, and as he stood shivering, candle in hand, staring at the apparently deceitful, bland face the clock raised its voice and struck nine, loudly and brassily, as if to prove that its hands and face told the truth. Benny then walked quickly to the window, and saw that the apparent darkness and length of the night came from a great wall of snow which covered the entire window and which had nearly all fallen since the previous sunset.

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The Witch Sheep is listed on Textopian as a short story by Alice Morse Earle, dated 1898 CE.

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Work type: Short story
Author: Alice Morse Earle
Date: 1898 CE
Language: English
Genres: Historical Fiction, Folklore, Humorous Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Magical Realism
Length: 3,488 words
Structure: 1 section, 25 paragraphs
Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

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Genres

Historical Fiction — The story is set in 1811 Rhode Island with specific historical references like the 1778 Hessian snow-storm, and depicts period-accurate details of early 19th-century farm life, clothing, and customs.
Folklore — The narrative centers on folk beliefs, superstitions, witchcraft lore, and the oral tradition of storytelling passed down through generations of farmers, characteristic of American folklore.
Humorous Fiction — The story employs comedic irony, particularly in the misidentification of the dressed sheep as a witch, creating humor through misunderstanding and the contrast between supernatural fear and mundane reality.
Domestic Fiction — The narrative focuses on the domestic lives of rural characters, their relationships, household activities like soap-making and cooking, and the interactions within a rural community.