Betty Parris is lying, as if asleep, though no one can wake her up. When Mrs. Putnam arrives, she asks, "How high did she fly, how high?" She has heard a (false) rumor that Betty was seen flying over a neighbor's barn, and she is anxious to confirm the details. Certainly, having acquired the ability to fly would make many Puritans believe that Betty has been bewitched. Mrs. Putnam also describes her daughter, Ruth's, behavior; it is similar to Betty's except that Ruth's eyes are open while Betty's are closed. She says,

I'd not call it sick; the Devil's touch is heavier than sick. It's death, y'know, it's death drivin' into them, forked and hoofed.

Ruth is acting as though she's asleep, but her eyes are open. This would be troubling indeed, and so Mrs Putnam believes something supernatural is at work.

Later, when Rebecca Nurse arrives, Betty lies whimpering on the bed, and "Rebecca simply stands over the child, who gradually quiets." This looks odd as well. The fact that Rebecca's presence seems to have such an effect on the child's comfort strikes observers as strange. Further, when the people below begin to sing a psalm: "Betty claps her ears suddenly and whines loudly." It looks as though she "cannot bear to hear the Lord's name," and this seems to be, to them, a very sure sign of witchcraft as well.

When the play opens, Betty is presumably asleep on the bed and Reverend Parris is praying feverishly next to her. The reader learns that since Parris found the girls dancing naked in woods, Betty has not woken. The Purtains feels that something as simple as a sickness should be cured by now and by all of the prayers. They figure that it must be something stronger than illness. Betty also become agitated when hymn are sung and has been said to call for her mother (who is dead) and to try to fly out the window, all indications that she is not under her own control.