orsley took it. She would have agreed to anything so long
as she could get a chance to empty her reservoirs of enthusiasm into
the Barnriff sea.

"You sure are a lucky woman, Kate. Maybe the rain wasn't an omen for
you at all. Maybe it was for the folks that _didn't_ marry on that
day. You see, it's easy reading these things wrong. Now I never read
omens wrong, an' the one I see this morning when I was bathin' my
little Sammy boy was dead sure. You see, I got to bathe him every
morning for his spots, which is a heap better now. And I'm real glad,
for Abe has got them spots on his mind. He guessed it was my blood
out of order. Said I needed sulphur in my tea. I kicked at that, an'
said he'd need to drink it, too. An', as he allowed he'd given up tea
on account of his digestion, nothing come of it. Of course I knew
Sammy boy's spots was on'y a teething rash, but men is so queer;
spechully if the child's the first, and a boy. Now what----"

"And the omen, dear?" inquired Mrs. Crombie, who had all a woman's
interest in babies, but was just then ensnared in the net of
superstition which held all Barnriff.

"The omen? Oh, yes, I was coming to that. You see, as I said I can
read them, an' this is one that never fails, never. I've _proved it_.
When you prove an omen, stick to it, I says--and it pays. Now, this
morning I set my stockings on the wrong--ahem--legs, and not one, but
_both_ of them was inside out. There's bad luck, as you might say. And
folks say that to escape it you must keep 'em that ways all day. But I
changed 'em! Yes, mam, I changed 'em right in the face of misfortune,
as you might say. And why? you ask. Because I've done it before, and
nothing come of it. And how did I change 'em? you ask. Why, I stood to
my knees in Sammy's bath water, an' then told Abe I'd got my feet wet
bathing him. He says change 'em right away, Carrie, he says, and, him
being my man, why I just changed 'em, seein' I swore to obey him at
the altar."

"Very wise," observed Kate Crombie, sapiently. "But this omen for
Eve----?"

"To be sure. I was just coming to it. Well, it wasn't much, as you
might say, but I've proved it before. It come when I was ladling out
Abe's cereal--he always has a cereal for breakfast. He says it eases
his tubes when he preaches for the minister--well, it come as I was
ladling out his cereal; it was oatmeal porridge, Scotch--something
come over me, an' my arm shook. It was most unusual. Well, some of the
c