Speaker 1: Haye Parents. The Curse of Botley's Hedge is a fun
and spooky story created for kids ages six and up,
but we know every child has different comfort levels, so
we recommend checking the episode description for any potential scare factors.
You know your kid's best, so use your best judgment
and now onto the story.
Speaker 2: Nowadays, Botley's Hedge is just a forgotten place on the
edge of Northfields, Massachusetts, and in sixteen ninety two it
wasn't all that different. Strange, exciting, terrible things were happening
in other places, but life in Botley's Hedge was just normal.
Farmers tended their sheep, bakers baked their bread, and the
good Reverend Brown delivered an optimistic sermon to the people
of the parish every Sunday.
Speaker 3: Heaven, it would be.
Speaker 2: That on this not very special Sarah Alder and her
best friend Rachel were playing hopscotch in front of the
Alder family's bakery.
Speaker 4: Five one two, three, four five words on Goodie Black's
nose seven one two, three, four, five six seven seven
souls that Goodie Black is cursed?
Speaker 5: Is Goodie Black Only it's seven souls. I would have
believed her to curse many times that by her advanced age.
Speaker 6: Good Moor. Farmer Norris, we were just playing a game, sir.
We didn't mean any offense.
Speaker 5: Don't apologize, girl, Your words have more truth than you know.
Goodie Black is a powerful witch. Anyone with any.
Speaker 7: Sense can see it.
Speaker 8: My mother says she's just a harmless old lady what
likes to keep to herself.
Speaker 3: Aye, but you know better, don't you.
Speaker 2: Rachel and Sarah looked at each other and then back
at Farmer Norris. His words felt like a joke, but
his face looked very serious.
Speaker 5: Ask your mother's what happened to good Black's poor old husband?
Speaker 6: She hasn't got husband.
Speaker 2: She's a spinster. Who told you that Sarah shrugged? Everyone
knew that Goody Black was a spinster, wasn't she?
Speaker 3: Nay, Goody Black was a young woman.
Speaker 5: Once she took a liking to the smithy, but he
never noticed her unless she brought her horse in for shoeing.
So she worked up a love potion, a charm to
make him fall.
Speaker 3: In love with her.
Speaker 6: And did it work?
Speaker 3: I it worked?
Speaker 5: Have ye never noticed the locket she wears around her neck? Well,
when he wasn't looking, she opened her locket and poured
something from it into his ale.
Speaker 3: The next thing.
Speaker 5: Anyone knows, they are married, and she moves into the
Black Farm and starts growing herbs and poisons of all kinds.
Speaker 6: What happened to him?
Speaker 3: Even the best love potion can't work forever.
Speaker 5: Two years to the day after they were married, Goodman
Black was kicked in the head by a pony. That
kick knocked the spell clean off him, and he woke
right up and realized he'd married a witch.
Speaker 3: That night, they had a terrible row. The next day
he was dead.
Speaker 2: How now, Farmer Norris.
Speaker 3: Good moral mother Alda.
Speaker 2: Come in do. I've got fresh bread just out of
the oven.
Speaker 5: Enjoy your game, girls, but heed my warning. Stay well
away from the Black Farm.
Speaker 3: Eh.
Speaker 2: Sarah and Rachel couldn't believe their ears. Goody Black was
old and scary, with pure white hair and at least
five words on her nose, and she did wear a
locket all the time. But surely she couldn't be a
real witch, could she?
Speaker 3: What cheer? Girls, Sarah? Older, is your brother still delivering
bread to those who cannot come into town.
Speaker 6: I'm afraid my brother and father are in Boston, Sir.
Speaker 2: They'll be gone for a fortnight, Reverend Brown, how do
you fare well?
Speaker 4: This can be.
Speaker 3: Thank you mother Older? Oh? Now, Farmer Norris, Reverend Brown
always such a pleasant man.
Speaker 2: How may I help you? Reverend?
Speaker 3: I'd hoped to have some bread delivered, but I've learned
that your son is away.
Speaker 2: He is, but perhaps Sarah can deliver it if it's
not too far.
Speaker 3: What say you? Sarah Black farm is not very far
from here at all?
Speaker 6: A Black farm a reverend choice, She can't go there?
Speaker 3: Why have an not child?
Speaker 6: Because cree plex Hh?
Speaker 2: A witch? Sarah Older, you watch your tongue?
Speaker 3: What makes you say that?
Speaker 8: My dear Farmer nor said she put a love swell
on her husband and then killed him when it wore off.
He said, she's cursed dozens of souls in her lifetime.
Speaker 2: Then Farmer Norris better learn to watch his tongue too.
Goody Black has been using her herbs and medicines to
heal the people of Botley's Hedge for ages, and she
never asks a penny for it.
Speaker 3: Well, perhaps Farmer Norris is too young to remember. When
Goodman Black died. I was there, you see, I sat
at his bedside till the end. Poor man was kicked
in the head by a pony. Goody Black was beside herself.
She tried her best to save him, but all her
remedies were for nought. He died from a bleed on
the brain, not a witch's curse.
Speaker 6: Then why would Farmer Norris say she killed him?
Speaker 2: Farmer Norris has been after Goody Black's land for years.
He'd love to see her run off by a band
of torch wielding villagers.
Speaker 6: Be there as it may, I am not.
Speaker 2: Oh yes you are, young lady. Go get your bonnet.
Come inside, Reverend, I'll pack up your order. Goody Black
will be getting some iced buns from us as well.
Come on, Rachel.
Speaker 8: My use arguing, Uh, Actually, I promise my mother i'd
be home by now.
Speaker 6: I think I can hear her calling for me. You cannot, No,
I can can you not hear it? Yes, mother, just
coming you chicken. Better a chicken than a Widge's dinner.
Speaker 2: And with that, Sarah knew she had no choice but
to go to Black Farm all by herself. Black Farm
wasn't so very far from the bakery in the middle
of town. In actual fact, it couldn't have been more
than two miles, but somehow it seemed a world away.
As soon as she walked past the neat pastures and
well tended rows of corn at the Noras Farm, the
bright sunshine was almost completely blotted out by the close
branches of the old oak trees. A wing kicked up,
swirling the dead leaves on the path, startling Sarah with
her sudden movement. She could have sworn something was watching her.
As she drew closer and closer to the creaky old
house in the middle of Black Farm. It was no
wonder there were rumors about what went on in this house.
The faded white paint was peeling off the rough sandboards
in great strips, almost as wide as the loaves of
bread that Sarah carried in her basket. Every window had
a heavy black cloth draped over it, so that no
one may see inside, except for the tiny window at
the very top of what must be the attic. There
a very faint orange light was glowing dimly from somewhere
deep inside the house. Sarah raised her hand to knock
on the old.
Speaker 6: Door, Hello, goody Black.
Speaker 2: The door swung fully open, and the wind behind Sarah
was suddenly so strong she felt like she was being
pushed toward the door. Her feet slipped on the mossy
porch as she tried to resist, but before she knew it,
she was inside Goody Black's house. Then the door slammed
behind her and everything was quiet again. It took a
minute for Sarah's eyes to adjust to the dark, but
slowly things came into focus. The first things she could
see were the dying embers of a fire in the
big fireplace, with a huge black cauldron suspended inside it.
There was a big table in the middle of the
room that was covered with glass jars. It was too
dark to read the labels, but she could see that
some jars held liquids, while others had objects that looked
suspiciously lumpy. Sarah knew she should leave. She took one
step backwards and felt something connect with her leg. Sara
sighed with relief, though her heart was still beating in
her ears.
Speaker 4: I thought you were Goodie Black.
Speaker 2: It was just a cat. She smiled into its yellow eyes.
She was so glad to see it. She crouched down
to give the cat a friendly pat. As Sarah straightened up,
she turned back toward the door and took a step
forward in the dark. When she collided with something big
and solid and smelling like sage and sulfur. Was it
me you were looking for?
Speaker 1: Child?
Speaker 8: Thanks for listening to the Curse of Botley's Hedge. We'll
be releasing new episodes every Tuesday this October, so gather
around next week to find out what happens to Sarah
and Goodie Black, and if you liked the story, tell
a friend. Until then, stay spooky.
Speaker 7: The Curse of Botley's Hedge was written, produced, and performed
by the Warren Family. Sound effects and music provided by
Epidemic Sound. The main title theme was written by Arthur Benson.
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friends and family. Thanks again for listening and we'll see
you next time.