Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/238

234 plaits an' her ha'r wa' a standing out from her haid lak a bush an' she didn't have on a rag er clothes savin' beads an' she had string on string er them, made out'n all kinds er things. Some er them wa' made out er buttons an' bones, ol' teeth an' the lak. She had on shiny bracelets on her arms an' laigs made out'n brass an' tin. She wa' that outlandish looking she'd a skeert the Angel Gabrul. She skeert me an' still I couldn't run, but I crope closeter an' closeter until I wa' right against her. She had a evil eye an' she rolled it aroun' on me an' pierced me through an' through until I jes' fell on my knees all of a trimble."

"But what was she doing, Aunt Pearly Gates? What was all the booming an' humming for? Why was she fixed up so funny?"

"I wa'n't sho', honey baby, but I done hearn whisperin's goin' 'roun' that Aunt Peachy had some kinder cha'm-wuckin' power that she done got straight from the debble hisse'f. They do say she had it an' her pappy befo' her had it an' mebbe her gran'pappy—an' some er them beads an' things wa' handed down ter her from Afgan kings, beads an' cha'm-wuckin' bones an' sich. Anyhow, she done got all the niggers fer miles aroun' skeert er her spells an' cha'ms an' she got 'em a thinkin' that she wa' a kinder