Time and again he had told her what she was doing when his back was turned to her, just as if he had been sitting squarely in front of her.

Some laughed at this foolish notion; but others, who knew more of the nebulous sciences, told her it was like's not jes' so.

Folks had read letters laid ag'in' the pits o' their stomachs, 'n' why should n't they see out o' the backs o' their heads?
Now there was a certain fact at the bottom of this belief of Mrs.
Hopkins; and as it world be a very small thing to make a mystery of so simple a matter, the reader shall have the whole benefit of knowing all there is in it,--not quite yet, however, of knowing all that came of it.
It was not the mirror trick, of course, which Mrs.Felix Lorraine and other dangerous historical personages have so long made use of.

It was nothing but this: Mr.Byles Gridley wore a pair of formidable spectacles with large round glasses.

He had often noticed the reflection of objects behind him when they caught their images at certain angles, and had got the habit of very often looking at the reflecting surface of one or the other of the glasses, when he seemed to be looking through them.