fire, 'cause, ye see, Cack allers had
slab-wood a plenty from his mill; and a roarin' fire is jest so much
company. It sort o' keeps a fellow's spirits up, a good fire does. So
Cack he sot on his old teakettle, and made a swingeing lot o' toddy; and
he and Cap'n Eb were havin' a tol'able comfortable time there. Cack was
a pretty good hand to tell stories; and Cap'n Eb warn't no way backward
in that line, and kep' up his end pretty well: and pretty soon they was
a-roarin' and haw-hawin' inside about as loud as the storm outside; when
all of a sudden, 'bout midnight, there come a loud rap on the door.

"'Lordy massy! what's that?' says Cack. Folks is rather startled allers
to be checked up sudden when they are a-carryin' on and laughin'; and
it was such an awful blowy night, it was a little scary to have a rap on
the door.

"Wal, they waited a minit, and didn't hear nothin' but the wind
a-screechin' round the chimbley; and old Cack was jest goin' on with his
story, when the rap come ag'in, harder'n ever, as if it'd shook the door
open.

"'Wal,' says old Cack,' if 'tis the Devil, we'd jest as good's open, and
have it out with him to onst,' says he; and so he got up and opened the
door, and, sure enough, there was old Ketury there. Expect you've
heard your grandma tell about old Ketury. She used to come to meetin's
sometimes, and her husband was one o' the prayin' Indians; but Ketury
was one of the rael wild sort, and you couldn't no more convert _her_
than you could convert a wild-cat or a painter [panther]. Lordy massy!
Ketury used to come to meetin', and sit there on them Indian benches;
and when the second bell was a-tollin', and when Parson Lothrop and his
wife was comin' up the broad aisle, and everybody in the house ris' up
and stood, Ketury would sit there, and look at 'em out o' the corner
o' her eyes; and folks used to say she rattled them necklaces o'
rattlesnakes' tails and wild-cat teeth, and sich like heathen trumpery,
and looked for all the world as if the spirit of the old Sarpent himself
was in her. I've seen her sit and look at Lady Lothrop out o' the corner
o' her eyes; and her old brown baggy neck would kind o' twist and work;
and her eyes they looked so, that 'twas enough to scare a body. For all
the world, she looked jest as if she was a-workin' up to spring at her.
Lady Lothrop was jest as kind to Ketury as she always was to every poor
crittur. She'd bow and smile as gracious to her when meetin' was