ed her not to throw herself away. "These two moles
on your cheek," added she, "show you are in some danger."

"Do they denote husbands or children?" cried Sally, starting up, and
letting fall the song of the Children in the Wood.

"Husbands," muttered Rachel.

"Alas, poor Jacob," said Sally mournfully; "then he will die first,
wont he?"

"Mum for that," quoth the fortune-teller; "I will say no more."

Sally was impatient, but the more curiosity she discovered, the more
mystery Rachel affected. At last she said, "If you will cross my hand
with a piece of silver, I will tell you your fortune. By the power of
my art, I can do this three ways: by cards, by the lines of your hand,
or by turning a cup of tea-grounds; which will you have?"

"O, all, all," cried Sally, looking up with reverence to this sunburnt
oracle of wisdom, who knew no less than three different ways of diving
into the secrets of futurity. Alas, persons of better sense than Sally
have been so taken in; the more is the pity.

The poor girl said she would run up stairs to her little box, where
she kept her money tied up in a bit of an old glove, and would bring
down a bright queen Anne's sixpence very crooked. "I am sure," added
she, "it is a lucky one, for it cured me of a very bad ague last
spring, by only laying it nine nights under my pillow, without
speaking a word. But then you must know what gave virtue to this
sixpence was, that it had belonged to three young men of the name of
John; I am sure I had work enough to get it. But true it is, it
certainly cured me. It must be the sixpence you know, for I am sure I
did nothing else for my ague, except indeed taking some bitter stuff
every three hours, which the doctor called bark. To be sure, I lost
my ague soon after I took it, but I am certain it was owing to the
crooked sixpence, and not to the bark. And so, good woman, you may
come in if you will, for there is not a soul in the house but me."
This was the very thing Rachel wanted to know, and very glad she was
to learn it.

While Sally was above stairs untying her glove, Rachel slipped into
the parlor, took a small silver cup from the beaufet, and clapped it
into her pocket. Sally ran down lamenting that she had lost her
sixpence, which she verily believed was owing to her having put it
into a left glove, instead of a right one. Rachel comforted her by
saying, that "if she gave her two plain ones instead, the charm would
work just as well."