“Now what’s to be done?” said Miss Rindy. “Do you know anything about opening lobsters, Miss Wickham?”
“I’m afraid I don’t. It has never been a part of my education.”
“Nor mine. I don’t want you all to be poisoned by getting hold of some deadly part,” returned Miss Rindy.
“Why not take them up to Mrs. Simpson and get her to show us how?” Ellen suggested.
“Just the ticket,” exclaimed Mabel, springing up. “Come along, Ellen. We’ll take a lesson from Mrs. Belah, and the next time we’ll show Beulah, so we’ll be independent for the rest of the summer.”
They bundled up the lobsters and bore them off to Mrs. Simpson, who laughed when she learned their errand. That any one should be so ignorant as not to know how to open lobsters was incomprehensible to her. “These city folks don’t know everything,” she confided to her next-door neighbor. However, she was “pleased to accommodate them,” she said, and each girl performed her task creditably under direction.
Mrs. Belah, or Aunt Noby, as every one called her, was a gentle old lady who had not outgrown an ancient belief in witches, signs, charms, and ghosts. She had had signs that very morning which indicated that she was to have strange visitors, so she was not in the least surprised when the two girls arrived. There was a horseshoe nailed above the door to keep off witches, for “there do be witches,” she said. As for ghosts, was there not a haunted house on the very next island? Every one knew that mysterious noises issued from it at certain times, and more than one had heard footsteps and had actually seen a pale face at the window.
“How fascinating!” cried Mabel. “We must go over there and investigate some day, Ellen. Have you ever been there, Aunt Noby?”
“Not I. Nothing would induce me. I’ve no wish to have any dealings with ungodly beings. The Bible warns us. Wasn’t Saul made to suffer because he dealt with familiar spirits? No, no, I cast all such doings from me.”
The girls took their leave, smiling as they went. “Isn’t she a dear, old-fashioned thing?” said Mabel. “Just the same, I mean to explore that house. Will you be a sport and go with me, Ellen? It will be such an adventure.”