“Bad luck, Missie,” he answered.
“Bad luck, Sartin, what do you mean?” asked Rick’s sister.
“Dey is suah t’ hab bad luck, fo’ didn’t dey start off an’ den stop t’ read dat tellygraft? Dey did, an’ dey suah will hab bad luck!”
“Isn’t there any way of stopping it, Sartin?” asked Mazie, more to please the old man than because she really had any belief in his many superstitions.
“Well, Missie, if dey had got out an’ turned around free times arter dey done stopped when dey had once started, dat would hab scairt de bad luck off. But now de only t’ing t’ do is fo’ somebody t’ hide a black hoss hair under a stone an’ say, free times: ‘Bad luck ride away!’”
“Couldn’t you do that, Sartin Sure?” asked Mazie.
“Why, ob course, Missie, Ah kin ef yo’ wants me t’.”
“It might not be a bad idea,” agreed Mazie, more to take the old man’s mind off his superstitious brooding than for any other reason.
“Den Ah’ll do it!” he declared. “Ah suah will!”
And he did, for some time later that day Mrs. Dalton saw him muttering and puttering away over a flat stone in the garden.