"

"You'll better believe I know it!" cried Jack, "for I met her again
yesterday, and guess what she was doing!"

"Oh, I couldn't," said Nancy. "No one ever could guess what Arabella
Corryville would do."

"Well, she looked like a witch, and acted like one, too," Jack replied.
"It was yesterday that I saw her. I was going across the field, and had
nearly reached the wall, when I looked up, and saw her sitting on the
top bar of the--the--oh, the place where they take down the bars to let
the cattle through."

"I know where you mean," said Nancy, "but why was it strange that she
was sitting there?"

"It was what she was doing that was funny," Jack replied, "and because
you couldn't guess, I'll tell you.

"She didn't look toward me, though I'm sure she must have heard me
coming, for I was just tramping along, and whistling all the way. She
was looking up at the clouds, and counting, 'one--two--three--' very
slowly, and when I was close behind her, she said:

"'Hush--sh--sh! I'm charming the crows!'

"'How long does it take to do it?' I said, for it sounded like nonsense,
and I wanted to hurry. It was almost lunch time.

"'Hush--sh!' she said again. 'There comes one of them now!' and sure
enough a big, black crow did come flying right down, and perched on the
limb of an old tree near her."

"Why, Jack Tiverton," cried Nancy, "you don't believe Arabella really
_made_ him come down, do you?"

"Of course not," cried Jack, "but she wanted me to think so. Say! She
said she was saying a charm, and when I asked her what it was, she
wouldn't tell me. She said it would spoil the charm to tell it. She
looked funny sitting up there on the top rail, and staring at the crows
till her eyes watered. She didn't look like a 'charmer.' She looked
ever so much more like a scarecrow!"

"Oh, Jack, it's horrid to say that!" cried Nancy, at the same time
trying not to let him see how near she was to laughing.

"Well, she _did_!" Jack insisted, "and you're almost laughing now, Nancy
Ferris, and you'd have screamed if you'd seen her roosting there, and
calling herself a charmer! Why, that old crow just flopped down there
for fun, and when he saw the queer-looking girl, he cawed as if it made
him mad, and I didn't blame him. Say! She had a shoe on one foot, and a
slipper on the other. Her apron was put on back-side-to, and she had a
hen's feather in each hand, and she waved them up and down while she
mumbled some kind of a verse. Sh