instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn’t ever heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when you’d killed a spider.

I set down again, a-shaking all over, and got out my pipe for a smoke; for the house was all as still as death now, and so the widow wouldn’t know. Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town go boom — boom — boom — twelve licks; and all still again — stiller than ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the trees — something was a-stirring. I set still and listened. Directly I could just barely hear a “me-yow! Me-yow!” down there. That was good! Says I, “me-yow! Me-yow!” as soft as I could, and then I put out the light and scrambled out of the window on to the shed.