illustration of a woman in a black dress with long black hair swimming down through the water toward a smaller human figure

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

by Elizabeth George Speare

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Does Mercy have polio?

No!

Expert Answers

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We aren't told.
She could have. Polio existed at that time, but wasn't yet identified as such, so even if she had it, they wouldn't have identified it as such. (The book is set before the disease was well known as what it is.)

She also could have had other illnesses.

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