THE MUSICAL PUSS.
A DARKEY BEWITCHED.
Witches in the Cream.
Through all the long, long winter’s day,
And half the dreary night,
We churned, and yet no butter came:
The cream looked thin and white.
Next morning, with our hopes renewed,
The task began again;
We churned, and churned, till back and arms
And head did ache with pain.
The cream rose up, then sulking fell,
Grew thick, and then grew thin;
It splashed and spattered in our eyes,
On clothes, and nose, and chin.
We churned it fast, and churned it slow,
And stirred it round and round;
Yet all the livelong, weary day,
Was heard the dasher’s sound.
The sun sank in the gloomy west,
The moon rose ghastly pale;
And still we churned, with courage low,
And hopes about to fail,—
When in walked Granny Dean, who heard,
With wonder and amaze,
Our troubles, as she crossed herself,
And in the fire did gaze.
“Lord, help us all!” she quickly said,
And covered up her face;
“Lord, help us all! for, as you live,
There’s witches in the place!
“There’s witches here within this churn,
That have possessed the cream.
Go, bring the horse-shoe that I saw
Hang on the cellar-beam.”
The shoe was brought, when, round and round,
She twirled it o’er her head;
“Go, drive the witches from that cream!”
In solemn voice she said;—
Then tossed it in the fire, till red
With heat it soon did turn,
And dropped among the witches dread,
That hid within the churn.
Once more the dasher’s sound was heard,—
Have patience with my rhyme,—
For, sure enough, the butter came
In twenty minutes’ time.
Some say the temperature was changed
With horse-shoe glowing red;
But when we ask old Granny Dean,
She only shakes her head.—Hearth and Home.
Horse-shoes.
One would suppose the folly of putting horse-shoes into cream, “fish-skins into coffee, to settle it,” and forcing filthy molasses and water down the throats of new-born babes, were amongst the follies of the past; but they are not yet, with many other superstitious, and even cruel and dangerous notions, done away with. For some prominent instances of this course of proceedings the reader may consult next chapter.
Riding through the rural districts of almost any portion of the Union, one will sometimes find the horse-shoe nailed over the stable, porch, or even house front door, to keep away the witches. As in Gay’s fable of “The Old Woman and her Cats:”—
“Straws laid across my path retard,
The horse-shoes nailed each threshold guard,”