The Witch Tree Symbol by Carolyn Keene (1955, 1975) Part 3

Ned and Nancy follow the carriage onward. It finally stops at an embankment of water. They discover that the driver is nowhere to be seen. Nancy looks in the back of the carriage to find some furniture. After examining it, some of the pieces she believed were the ones that were stolen that they were looking for. After turning the horse and carriage around they make their way to the dance. They find the owner and talk with him about the stolen property, he calls the police for them and encourages the young couple to go join in the dancing.

They enter looking for the others in their party. Someone calls Nancy out as being a witch. Ned tells them that they are not giving them a chance and tells them of the great things Nancy has done to help their community. Some step forward in apology and offer to take them to their friends. Then Bess and George arrive with the boys, they had gone to search for them. They return to the Glick's for a late night meal and turn in for the night. In the morning the boys' tells them that they have to head back and wished they could have stayed longer to help with the case. The girls' attend a quilting event to help a young girl whom was to marry soon. They were prepping items for her dowry so she would not have to make blankets, bedding or other fabric items she would need in her first year of marriage and be prepared. After a while Mrs. Glick says the girls' may leave. They decide to head back to where the abandoned horse and carriage were in hopes of finding Mr. Hoelt.

They find a house that appears to be empty. After looking around they notice an attic door and hear a thud. Upon moving towards it a huge slew of dusty newspapers fall down on them. Nancy had the suspicion that it was deliberate. After looking inside the home more they are unable to find anyone or anything. Going outside they explore around the home and find a tree. It had twisted parts that resembled a witch on a broom. They had found their witch tree symbol. All of a sudden they hear a woman scream in the woods. Unable to locate the scream they come to the conclusion that the tree may possible be connected with the schnitz. The girls' head back to the home and have Nancy go up the trap door into the attic and she finds the Hoelt family Bible. It was browned with age and dirt. Not finding any other clues the girls' head back to the Glick's. After dinner they go the Kruetz's homestead to see if Manda had returned home.

Mrs. Kruetz's pulls them inside the front door rather quickly. She tells them her husband now believes the girls' persuaded Manda to run away from home on purpose. Nancy asks her about a drying apple store house and she said that it was something that Manda mentioned to her. Mrs. Kruetz's knew of a man that had a farm similar to this but knew it wasn't him though. The girls' still thought he may be of help. They go and speak with the man and mention to him the schnitz. He in fact knew of it and when they inquired where it was he panicked and told them to never go there.

After reasoning with him, he finally tells them where it is. But he also warned them with the history of the property there that the Hoelt's owned. A few generations back there was some bad times that had fallen on the family. Around the same time a gypsy group passed through and stayed on their land. Mr. Hoelt was mad and told them to leave. They only moved into the woods that were on their property. Unbeknownst to Mr. Hoelt, his children would sneak off and play with the gypsy children. His oldest son fell in love with one of the gypsy girls' and they planned on marrying in secret. When he found this out he was furious and kept his children locked inside his home. The mother the girl his son was to marry said that she placed a curse on the family to continue their back luck with the land. Legend has it the girl wrote a secret letter for the boy and hid it inside a table. Later on the family continued to have bad luck and have crops do poorly and have cattle die. They eventually gave the property away to another family. That family now does nothing with the land. Nancy wondered if the table was real and if that was one that Mr. Hoelt was after. The girls' decide to head back to the Glick's. They tried to get more information about the gypsies but Mrs. Glick said they were all nonsense and shied away from the questions. Later that evening Bess received a phone call and started crying from what was told to her.

This part of the book dives into a little more of the Amish traditions regarding a young woman's dowry. I have an link below that gives more detail on that. Nancy and her friend's are not opposed to it but it was definitely implied they were slightly uncomfortable at the quilting bee. I think its quite interesting that they were even allowed to attend, this is typically a smaller group usually of close friends and family.

Now I am unsure if the twisted tree is a result of nature, the gypsies or the Hoelt's. If it were of nature causes I would not have an issue with it. But I don't think it would be natural, supernatural perhaps but if it did indeed do that I am surprised the tree is not dying or dead yet from its appearance as such.

Unfortunately when I read of the Hoelt family legend, it was cliche and stereotypical. Strangers come to town, forbidden love, revenge then downfall. Nothing more than Amish-Gypsy romance interpretation of Romeo and Juliet which now sounds more weird than I originally thought. If that did end up happening sounds like a family home divided over sports teams but to a much higher degree.

Nancy, Bess and George have uncovered more clues and a few more answers but we will have to see if they will be able to solve this. The phone call is quite alarming. Who knows what that call foretells in the girls' future in solving this case.

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