midnight
`` Aha ! Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk-water such a blame fool way as that ! Why , that ai n't a-going to do any good . You got to go all by yourself , to the middle of the woods , where you know there 's a spunk-water stump , and just as it 's midnight you back up against the stump and jam your hand in and say : ` Barley-corn , barley-corn , injun-meal shorts , Spunk-water , spunk-water , swaller these warts , ' and then walk away quick , eleven steps , with your eyes shut , and then turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody . Because if you speak the charm 's busted . '' `` Well , that sounds like a good way ; but that ai n't the way Bob Tanner done . '' `` No , sir , you can bet he did n't , becuz he 's the wartiest boy in this town ; and he would n't have a wart on him if he 'd knowed how to work spunk-water .