Mulvey. "If you'll be so kind," Mrs. O'Brien
said, "sit here by the baby till I'm back, and I'll not be long. And
mind you keep everything as it is, unless she wakes, and then you'll
know what to do as well as I, for you've children of your own. But
don't disturb the pair of scissors that's there beside her, and don't
take off the horseshoe nail that's hung round her neck."
"And what's them things for?" Mrs. Mulvey asked, with wonder in her
eyes.
"Why, to keep the Good People from stealing the child," Mrs. O'Brien
answered. "Did you never hear of those things? Don't you know the Good
People can't stand the touch of iron, or even to be near it? And
especially a horseshoe nail they can't stand. And the scissors, too,
they couldn't come near, and then leaving them open they make a cross,
and that keeps the child all the more from the Good People."
John and his mother left Mrs. Mulvey with little Kathleen and went
with Peter. "And what's wrong with Ellen, then?" Mrs. O'Brien asked.
"I dunno that there's so much wrong with herself, as you might say,"
Peter answered.
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