Now Sukey's way
of doing up her hair in a great knot, behind, with an old-fashioned tuck
comb, was not pretty. But Susan Gray lived in what was called the
"White-Oak Flats;" a region sometimes called the "Hoop-Pole Country." It
was not the most enlightened place in the world, for there was no school,
except for a short time in winter, and the people were very
superstitious, believing that if they carried a hoe through the house, or
broke a looking-glass, somebody "would die before long," and thinking
that a screech-owl's scream and the howling of a dog were warnings; and
that potatoes must be planted in the "dark of the moon," because they
grew underground, and corn in the "light of the moon," because it grew
above ground; and that hogs must be killed in the increase of the moon,
to keep the pork from frying away to gravy!
As Sukey had always lived in the White-Oak Flats, she did not know that
they were dreary, for she was always happy, doing her work cheerfully.
But one of Susan's cousins, who lived a hundred miles away, had made her
a visit. This cousin, like Sukey, lived in the country, but she had
plenty of books and had read many curious and wonderful things, with
which she was accustomed to delight Sukey.
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