256 Old Stories
wood, and picked a crooked stick after all.”
the three maids who went to seek their fortunes
One time there was three girls went off to seek their fortunes. They walked along until they come to a place where the road split, and went off in three different directions. The girls sot down there and talked things over, and then each one on ’em took one o’ the roads.
The youngest one she walked along all day, and it got to be night, and she stopped at a little house she come to. There was an old witch woman lived at that house, but the girl didn’t know nothin’ about that. That night she was moanin’ and moanin’ because she hadn’t made nothin’ that day.
So the next mornin’ the old witch woman told her not to be so downhearted, and she gave her an egg. She said to the girl that when she got so sorrowful she couldn’t stan’ it any longer, to break the egg, and it would bring her good fortin.
The girl took the egg, and travelled all that mornin’, and there never nothin’ happened; and at noon she was so sor-
