Short Fiction · Chapter
Witches’ Loaves explained
Miss Martha Meacham, a lonely baker with a sympathetic heart, takes a special interest in a regular customer she believes to be a poor artist.
What happens
Miss Martha Meacham, a lonely baker with a sympathetic heart, takes a special interest in a regular customer she believes to be a poor artist. She secretly inserts butter into his stale bread loaves as a kind gesture, only to discover that he is actually an architectural draftsman who uses stale bread to erase pencil lines from his drawings. Her well-intentioned act ruins his three-month work on a city hall plan, leading to a confrontation.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Appearance vs. Reality
Miss Martha deceives herself about the customer's identity and intentions, and her secret butter insertion is a well-meaning deception that backfires.
Love and Romance
Miss Martha's romantic daydreams about the customer, imagining a future together, drive her actions.
Humor and Irony
The ironic twist that her kind gesture destroys his work, and the dramatic confrontation, provide dark humor.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator describes Miss Martha's thoughts and actions, including her daydreams and the final confrontation.
- Miss Alice
Miss Martha Meacham, the protagonist who runs the bakery and tries to help the man she believes is an artist.
- Blumberger
The regular customer who buys stale bread; he is actually an architectural draftsman, not an artist.
Key passages
“Miss Martha was forty, her bankbook showed a credit of two thousand dollars, and she possessed two false teeth and a sympathetic heart.”
Miss Martha is a forty-year-old woman with savings of two thousand dollars, false teeth, and a kind nature.
Establishes Miss Martha's character and situation.
“He always bought two loaves of stale bread. Fresh bread was five cents a loaf. Stale ones were two for five.”
He consistently purchased two stale loaves for five cents, while fresh ones cost five cents each.
Highlights the customer's frugality and Miss Martha's assumption about his poverty.
“With a bread knife Miss Martha made a deep slash in each of the stale loaves, inserted a generous quantity of butter, and pressed the loaves tight again.”
Miss Martha cut into the stale loaves, added butter, and closed them up.
The pivotal action that leads to the story's climax.
“He’s been working hard for three months drawing a plan for a new city hall. It was a prize competition. He finished inking the lines yesterday. You know, a draftsman always makes his drawing in pencil first. When it’s done he rubs out the pencil lines with handfuls of stale bread crumbs.”
He spent three months on a city hall design for a contest, using stale bread to erase pencil marks after inking.
Reveals the true purpose of the stale bread and the consequence of Miss Martha's action.