Why, you take your cat and go and get in the grave-yard long about
midnight when somebody that was wicked has been buried; and when it s
midnight a devil will come, or maybe two or three, but you can t see
em, you can only hear something like the wind, or maybe hear em talk;
and when they re taking that feller away, you heave your cat after em
and say, Devil follow corpse, cat follow devil, warts follow cat, I m
done with ye! That ll fetch _any_ wart.
Sounds right. D you ever try it, Huck?
No, but old Mother Hopkins told me.
Well, I reckon it s so, then. Becuz they say she s a witch.
Say! Why, Tom, I _know_ she is. She witched pap. Pap says so his own
self. He come along one day, and he see she was a-witching him, so he
took up a rock, and if she hadn t dodged, he d a got her. Well, that
very night he rolled off n a shed wher he was a layin drunk, and broke
his arm.
Why, that s awful. How did he know she was a-witching him?
Lord, pap can tell, easy. Pap says when they keep looking at you right
stiddy, they re a-witching you. Specially if they mumble. Becuz when
they mumble they re saying the Lord s Prayer backards.
Say, Hucky, when you going to try the cat?
To-night. I reckon they ll come after old Hoss Williams to-night.
But they buried him Saturday. Didn t they get him Saturday night?
Why, how you talk! How could their charms work till midnight? and
_then_ it s Sunday. Devils don t slosh around much of a Sunday, I don t
reckon.
I never thought of that. That s so. Lemme go with you?
Of course if you ain t afeard.
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