“Oh, Uncle Amos, tell us, did you ever go to see the girls?” asked Amanda eagerly.
“Did I ever go to see the girls? Um-uh, I did!” The man laughed suddenly. “I’ll tell you about the first time. But now you just go on with your snitzin’. I can’t be breakin’ up the party with my yarns. I was just a young fellow workin’ at home on the farm. Theje was a nice girl over near Manheim I thought I’d like to know better, and so one night I fixed up to try my luck and go see her. It was in fall and got dark pretty early, and by the time I was done with the farm work and dressed in my best suit and half-way over to her house, it was gettin’ dusk. Now I never knew what it was to be afraid till that year my old Aunty Betz came to spend a month with us and began to tell her spook stories. She had a long list of them. One was about a big black dog that used to come in her room every night durin’ full moon and put its paws on her bed. But when she tried to touch it there was nothing there, and if she’d get up and light the light it would vanish. She said she always thought he wanted to show her something, take her to where there was some gold buried, but she never could get the dog to do it, for she always lighted the light and that scared him away. Then she said one time they moved into a little house, and once when they had a lot of company she slept on a bed in the garret. She got awake at night and found the covers off the bed. She pulled ’em up and something pulled them off. Then she lighted a candle, but there wasn’t a thing there. So she went back to bed and the same thing happened again; down went the covers. She got frightened and ran down the stairs and slept on the floor. But that spook was always a mystery. I used to have shivers chasin’ each other up and down my back so fast I didn’t know how to sit up hardly when she was tellin’ them spook stories. But she had one champion one about a man she knew who was walkin’ along the country road at night and something black shot up in front of him, and when he tried to catch it and ran after it, he rolled into a fence, and when he sat up, the spook was gone, but there was a great big hole by the fence-post near him, and in the hole was a box of money. She could explain that ghost; it was the spirit of the person who had buried the money, and he had to help some person find it so that he could have peace in the other world. Well, as I said, I was goin’ along the road on the way to see that girl, and it was about dark when I got to the lane of her house. I was a little excited, for it was my first trial at the courtin’ business. Aunty Betz’s spook stories made me kinda shaky in the dark, so it’s no wonder I jumped when something black ran across the road and stood by the fence as I came along. I remembered her story of the man who found the gold, and I thought I’d see whether I could have such luck, so I ran to the black thing and made a grab--and--it was a skunk! Well,"--after the laughter died down--"I didn’t get any gold, but I got something! I yelled, and the girl I started to call on heard me and come to the door. I hadn’t any better sense than to go up to her. But before I could explain, the skunk’s weapon told the tale. ‘You clear out of here,’ she hollered; ’who wants such a smell in the house!’ I cleared out, and when I got home Mom was in bed, but Pop was readin’ the paper in the kitchen. I opened the door. ’Clear out of here,’ he ordered;’ who wants such a smell in the house! Go to the wood-shed and I’ll get you soap and water and other clothes.’ So I went to the wood-shed, and he came out with a lantern and water and clothes and I began to scrub. After I was dressed we went to the barn-yard and he held the lantern while I dug a deep hole, and the clothes, my best Sunday clothes, went down into the ground and dirt on top. And that settled courtin’ for a while with me.”
Uncle Amos’s story had interfered with the snitzing.
“Say,” said Millie, “how can abody snitz apples when you make ’em laugh till the tears run down over the face?”
“Oh, come on,” cried Amanda, “I just thought of it--let’s tell fortunes with the peelin’s! Everybody peel an apple with the peelin’ all in one piece and then throw it over the right shoulder, and whatever letter it makes on the floor is the initial of the person you’re goin’ to marry.”
“All right. Now, Millie, no cheatin’,” teased Uncle Amos. “Don’t you go peel yours so it’ll fall into a Z, for I know that Zach Miller’s been after you this long while already.”
“Ach, him? He’s as ugly as seven days’ rainy weather.”
“Ach, shoot it,” said Phil, disgust written on his face as he threw a paring over his shoulder; “mine always come out an S. Guess that’s the only letter you can make. S for Sadie, Susie--who wants them? That’s a rotten way to tell fortunes!”
“Now look at mine, everybody!” cried Amanda as she flung her long apple paring over her shoulder.
“It’s an M,” shouted Phil. “Mebbe for Martin Landis. Jiminy Christmas, he’s a pretty nice fellow. If you can hook him----”