A SUPERSTITION WHICH SUITED ME 



The way to render a witch innocuous was to get 

 blood from her, and this had been most success- 

 fully done, as the reciter of these legends knew from 

 direct evidence, by drawing a large needle smartly 

 down the length of her arm, after which you 

 were safe from her machinations. 



These particulars, conveyed with becoming 

 seriousness, filled my young brain with all kinds 

 of unhealthy imaginings, and rendered me ex- 

 tremely uncomfortable, especially when dark- 

 ness set in. Hence, if, in after-years, when I 

 had the responsibilities of parentage, I had found 

 any family-attendants regaling my progeny with 

 such mental pabulum, my discovery of this 

 would have been a sure sign or omen, whichever 

 they liked to call it, that their dismisal was 

 imminent. 



My mother had her share of superstitions, but 

 they were of a very harmless character, and 

 related mainly to walking under ladders, upset- 

 ting the salt, beginning nothing on a Friday, 

 and, especially, never sitting down thirteen to 

 dinner. This last superstition I cordially ap- 

 proved of. My mother and most of my aunts 

 treated it with a deference* which never per- 

 mitted of their partaking of this particular meal 

 in company with twelve others all told. So, on 

 more than one occasion, my company had to be 

 requisitioned before the party would consent to 

 fall to. I was most willing to grace the feast on 

 these occasions, thereby enjoying a much more 

 elaborate repast than would otherwise have fallen 

 to my lot. Reverting to signs and omens, and 

 such-like uncanny things, fortunately, by the 



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