The Brixen Witch Read Online Free PDF

rat out by its long naked tail. “See this? They’re hardly afeared of humans at all.” She flung the creature to the side, where it squeaked and scurried toward the woodpile.
    Rudi scratched his head. “We don’t have such a problem at our house.”
    Mistress Tanner snorted. “Just wait.”
    As Rudi wandered homeward, he recalled the words he’d overheard that night in the village square, weeks before: ’Tis bad luck to see a rat in the shadow of the churchyard wall … Nothing good can come of that.
    Rudi had feared, upon hearing those words, that the Brixen Witch had leveled a new curse upon him, and upon all his neighbors too. But he could think of no reason for it. His nightmares were gone. Certainly the witch had recovered her coin.
    Besides, the villagers of Brixen were a superstitious lot. They claimed enchantment and omens with every turn of the weather and with every stillborn calf.
    And yet …
    Even if the witch had not recovered her coin after all, why would she curse the entire village?
    Rudi shook himself. The infestation of rats was only a coincidence. A result of the warm weather and abundant food, and nothing more. Besides, if the rats were an enchantment, wouldn’t Rudi’s own house be overrun with the creatures?
    He turned a corner and wandered up the lane toward home.
    As he approached his own front door, he hearda shriek coming from inside the cottage. The door flew open, and his mother ran out with a bundle in her apron. She shook it frantically, and out tumbled a large, pink-tailed rat.
    Mama looked at Rudi, her eyes wide and her chest heaving. Then, without a word, she stepped back into the house and slammed the door.
    Through the open window, Rudi could hear Oma somewhere inside, tsk ing.
    And Papa was still snoring.

MISTRESS TANNER’S words proved to be prophetic. In short order, Brixen was indeed overrun with rats. Rats in the woodpiles, rats in the thatch, rats in the stream (poor little Susanna Louisa). Rats spilling down chimneys and onto hearths, scorched tails and all.
    To be sure, rats were nothing new in Brixen. Much like mosquitoes and vipers and the surly barn cat Zick-Zack, rats were vile, unwelcome, barely tolerated creatures, but they played a role in the natural order of things. They provided a home for fleas. They gave parents a reason to scold children who ventured too near to dark and unhealthy corners.
    But this June, something was different.

    The rats were worse than ever before. True, itwas an especially warm summer, but there had been other warm summers. The cats had done all they could and were fat to prove it, but it was not enough. The dogs chased whatever rats ventured into the open, but rats were stealthy creatures, and they easily avoided a species that excelled at napping. Traps, as Susanna Louisa had told Rudi, could catch only so many rats. And there seemed to be more every day.
    Rudi began to suspect there was a curse after all. He decided to ask Oma about it.
    “Enchantment?” she said, and then she hummed a bit to herself, thinking. “Are you sure you’ve had no more nightmares since the snows melted?”
    Rudi shook his head emphatically. “I sleep like a rock every night.”
    “Then I still say the witch has retrieved her coin. If this is a new enchantment, it’s not your doing.” Oma shrugged. “Then again, sometimes a rat is just a rat. There’s one way to find out.”
    “How?” said Rudi.
    “If ordinary measures get rid of the rats, then there can be no enchantment. Yes?”
    “I suppose so,” said Rudi. Then he frowned. “What ordinary measures have we not already tried?”
    Oma tapped her own forehead. “The mayor will know.”
    “He will? How will the mayor know?”
    She patted Rudi on the cheek. “Because I’m going to tell him, that’s how.”
    That very evening, Rudi overheard a conversation in the bustling village square.
    “Did I not say so weeks ago?” said a familiar voice. “I told you it would come to no good. And