hank God) above superstitions of all sorts. However, a very little
amused me in those days; and I waited to have my fortune told, as
patiently as if I believed in it too!

My aunt began her hocus pocus by throwing out all the cards in the pack
under seven. She shuffled the rest with her left hand for luck; and then
she gave them to me to cut. "Wi' yer left hand, Francie. Mind that! Pet
your trust in Proavidence--but dinna forget that your luck's in yer left
hand!" A long and roundabout shifting of the cards followed, reducing them
in number until there were just fifteen of them left, laid out neatly
before my aunt in a half circle. The card which happened to lie outermost,
at the right-hand end of the circle, was, according to rule in such cases,
the card chosen to represent Me. By way of being appropriate to my
situation as a poor groom out of employment, the card was--the King of
Diamonds.

"I tak' up the King o' Diamants," says my aunt. "I count seven cairds fra'
richt to left; and I humbly ask a blessing on what follows." My aunt shut
her eyes as if she was saying grace before meat, and held up to me the
seventh card. I called the seventh card--the Queen of Spades. My aunt
opened her eyes again in a hurry, and cast a sly look my way. "The Queen
o' Spades means a dairk woman. Ye'll be thinking in secret, Francie, of a
dairk woman?"

When a man has been out of work for more than three months, his mind isn't
troubled much with thinking of women--light or dark. I was thinking of the
groom's place at the great house, and I tried to say so. My aunt Chance
wouldn't listen. She treated my interpretation with contempt. "Hoot-toot!
there's the caird in your hand! If ye're no thinking of her the day, ye'll
be thinking of her the morrow. Where's the harm of thinking of a dairk
woman! I was ance a dairk woman myself, before my hair was gray. Haud yer
peace, Francie, and watch the cairds."

I watched the cards as I was told. There were seven left on the table. My
aunt removed two from one end of the row and two from the other, and
desired me to call the two outermost of the three cards now left on the
table. I called the Ace of Clubs and the Ten of Diamonds. My aunt Chance
lifted her eyes to the ceiling with a look of devout gratitude which
sorely tried my mother's patience. The Ace of Clubs and the Ten of
Diamonds, taken together, signified--first, good news (evidently the news
of the groom's place); secondly, a journey that