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 Book 
 
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WHAT THEY SAY 
 IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 A BOOK OF SIGNS, SAY- 
 INGS, AND SUPERSTITIONS 
 
 COLLECTED 
 
 CLIFTON JOHNSON 
 
 n 
 AUTHOR OF "the NEW ENGLAND COUNTRY' 
 " THE farmer's boy " ETC. 
 
 BOSTON 
 LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 
 
 I O MILK S TREET 
 1897 
 
Copyright, 1896, by Lee and Shepard 
 
 All ris^his reserved 
 
 WHAT THEY SAY IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 7^ 
 
 
 C. J. PETERS & SON, TYPOGRAPHERS, 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 WHAT THEY SAY 
 IN NEW ENGLAND 
 
 (J 
 
 r^ PAGE 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 The Weather 17 
 
 Tea-Grounds 32 
 
 Dreams 34 
 
 Charms 41 
 
 Fortune-Telling 48 
 
 Odds 58 
 
 Friends 70 
 
 Wishes 72 
 
 Medicinal 75 
 
 The Farm 85 
 
 Luck 88 
 
 Snakes 96 
 
 Folks 105 
 
 Money 107 
 
 Death iii 
 
 Warts 116 
 
 6 
 
6 ffl;flnUnt0 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Love and Sentiment 123 
 
 Company 133 
 
 Religious 137 
 
 The Moon 143 
 
 Insects and Other Critters . . . . 149 
 
 Counting out Rhymes 160 
 
 Tricks and Catches 167 
 
 Rhymes and Jingles 174 
 
 Nursery Tales 198 
 
 Spelling 212 
 
 Problems 217 
 
 Old Songs 222 
 
 Old Stories 234 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 When I began to collect these 
 signs and sayings, it was with the 
 idea of gathering them for my 
 own entertainment. In days like 
 the present of universal books and 
 schools, I thought I could hope to 
 get only a few remnants of the 
 thought and notions that have de- 
 scended to us from the illiterate 
 and superstitious ages of the past ; 
 and I supposed that by the time 
 I had picked up two or three scores 
 of these oddities the subject would be 
 exhausted as far as New England was 
 concerned. But when I began to notice, 
 I found that people in their every-day 
 conversation were constantly dropping 
 remarks on the significance of all sorts 
 of things that were a part of this old 
 folk-lore. When questioned, nearly 
 every one, old and young, could repeat 
 a few sayings of the kind I sought, and 
 among these were almost always some 
 I had not heard before. My collection 
 7 
 
8 Introtiui:t0rg 
 
 grew until I saw the possibility of a 
 volume, and I could not but wonder 
 what the superstitions of the Dark Ages 
 were like if these were only remnants. 
 Not only was the number of sayings 
 floating about astonishing, but it was 
 remarkable how much belief there was 
 in them. 
 
 Most New Englanders disclaim a be- 
 lief in signs, — at least, they say a good 
 share of them are all nonsense ; yet a 
 confidential acquaintance is apt to re- 
 veal some they accept. Most of the 
 signs you hear from any particular per- 
 son are repeated because they are sim- 
 ply curious, or because there may be 
 some possible unperceived significance 
 in them. I do not suppose any one 
 believes them all, unless it is some im- 
 aginative small boy. It is the least 
 thoughtful and least educated classes 
 that have most belief in signs. Chil- 
 dren accept them readily, just as they 
 will accept anything told them about 
 which they know nothing to the contrary. 
 Some sayings add charm, some mystery, 
 to the child's life ; others frighten. The 
 person who is not affected at all by 
 these old sayings is the exception. A 
 few of them, as, for instance, certain of 
 
Introtiuctorg 9 
 
 those about the weather, have a scien- 
 tific foundation ; and I do not speak of 
 those, but of such as seem to be en- 
 tirely without sense. It is not always 
 easy to decide which sayings have truth 
 to back them and which only fancy. If 
 you will listen to the relation of them, 
 some of the most fantastic will be told 
 with such detail and so stoutly cham- 
 pioned that you are tempted to question 
 if the days of miracles really are past. 
 A man will tell you about horse-hairs 
 turning into snakes ; and you will hear of 
 wart cures, and of the good or ill effect 
 of one thing and another, — and all of 
 the list "known" to be true, — till you 
 begin to think that perhaps your own 
 knowledge of the supernatural is very 
 narrow and bigoted. 
 
 Perhaps no class is more addicted to 
 sign-telling and belief in signs than 
 those who have emigrated to this coun- 
 try in comparatively recent years. It is 
 their children at the schools who are 
 most apt to keep the rest posted as to 
 what means what, and as to when things 
 portend disaster. 
 
 I do not know that any of the signs 
 gathered are natives of New England 
 by right of invention. I suppose most 
 
10 Introtiuct0rg 
 
 can be traced to a foreign ancestry, just 
 as they say all the old jokes can be 
 traced back to Noah. Yet if Yankee 
 cuteness did not share in the originating 
 of them, it has given its peculiar local 
 twist to a large number of them. 
 
 One man who has made a study of 
 the subject affirms that superstition, in 
 our "most cultured communities, is so 
 general that no woman in Massachu- 
 setts, for instance, would invite a party 
 of thirteen to dine together. There are 
 plenty of women who would not them- 
 selves object to being one of a dinner 
 party of thirteen ; but they would not 
 call together such a number, because 
 among the guests there would be sure 
 to be some who would be disturbed. 
 The statement seems to me too sweep- 
 ing, though I think there is much truth 
 in it; and I have known parties which 
 happened to number thirteen where 
 great pains were taken to procure an 
 extra guest, or to have a part of those 
 present eat at a side-table. It is cer- 
 tain that signs and sayings flourish in the 
 society life of our towns. Indeed, you 
 cannot tell with certainty who will be- 
 lieve them and who disbelieve ; for there 
 are still men of wise repute and high 
 
]lntr0ljuctars[ 11 
 
 position who have superstitions that lead 
 them to performances as odd as that of 
 Dr. Johnson, who would always touch 
 every post in a certain street when he 
 passed through. 
 
 There are many believers in the sig- 
 nificance of dreams, and they can give 
 plenty of instances in their own expe- 
 rience and that of others to show a good 
 foundation for their faith. I suppose 
 this faith and apparent proof grow out 
 of the fact that we remember odd co- 
 incidences, and forget the many times 
 when we dreamed and nothing came 
 of it. 
 
 The moon gets seriously given credit 
 for a good many things too. Yet how 
 its phases could affect the weather, or 
 the crops, or the pork of the hogs that 
 are killed, I do not understand, and 
 probably no one does. I have read 
 that the light of the moon will spoil fish 
 exposed to it; but I am sure I do not 
 see what there could be in moonlight to 
 harm the fish or anything else. 
 
 Wart cures have a good many cham- 
 pions who have proved their virtues in 
 their own persons ; most people who try 
 these cures believe in the last one they 
 tried before the warts left them. It 
 
12 Etitrotmctarg 
 
 doesn't matter how ridiculous it was ; 
 if the warts went, that settles it. Even 
 Lord Bacon, that " wisest of men," tells 
 us at length of a queer performance he 
 once went through to dispose of his 
 warts; and though he did what he did 
 as an unbeliever, when the warts disap- 
 peared he was constrained to credit the 
 value and efficacy of this method of 
 wart cure. 
 
 Luck and snakes and charms, and all 
 the rest of the list, have believers as well 
 as quoters. Least weight is perhaps 
 attached to the sentimental sayings and 
 to fortune-telling. Love signs are re- 
 peated and futures forecast usually for 
 the humor of the thing, though I ima- 
 gine there are persons who find even 
 these oracular. Small children are 
 much concerned over the way their but- 
 tons or the daisy petals count up ; but 
 as their fortune is different with differ- 
 ent daisies or a change of clothes, they 
 soon get over this. There is rarely any 
 one in country regions who makes pre- 
 tensions to fortune-telling, though wan- 
 dering gypsies, when they pass through 
 a district, are ready for a consideration 
 to tell what one's life will be. I think 
 few people believe in the powers these 
 
Entrotiiictorg 13 
 
 gypsies claim, but some say they tell 
 things they themselves had no idea were 
 so, or would be so, until afterward. 
 
 One might fancy, from the number of 
 sayings and superstitions that can be 
 readily picked up, that there was as yet 
 no real folk-lore decadence. But you 
 will find when you talk with people that 
 they are very sure to speak of a father 
 or a grandfather or grandmother, or 
 some other relative, now passed away, 
 whom you " ought to have seen — they 
 had no end of signs, and they knew lots 
 of old rhymes and songs, and believed 
 in witches. They would be just the 
 ones you're lookin' after." Signs are 
 certainly not believed in as unquestion- 
 ingly as they were once, nor are they in 
 so common use. At the same time we 
 lose them gradually, and the survivors 
 will make up a large bulk in common 
 use for a great while to come. Loss is 
 most apparent when we get outside the 
 short jingles and sayings of a sentence 
 or two in length. There is now such a 
 mass of reading, stories and songs, that 
 people gather hastily and forget quickly. 
 In more barren times many tales were 
 handed down by word of mouth, and 
 were remembered and repeated a life- 
 
14 Intratiuctorg 
 
 time through. As for songs, now we 
 have a new one that takes the popular 
 fancy every six months. For half a 
 . year everybody is singing it, and after 
 that nobody sings it. In the olden time 
 the clever ones had a number of ditties 
 and ballads in their heads that were in- 
 - delibly memorized ; and at an evening 
 party, when they were called on for a 
 song, they could sing the particular song 
 they undertook clear through, even if 
 it had twenty-nine verses. They could 
 tell old fairy-tales too, and would scare 
 themselves with witch stories. Now, of 
 all this more elaborate lore, you can pick 
 up only scattered fragments. 
 
 Nearly all of what is in this volume 
 was gathered in western Massachusetts. 
 It is largely put down in the language 
 of the people who made the statements, 
 and I have sometimes added their com- 
 ments. With few exceptions, everything 
 in the book came to me by word of 
 mouth. 
 
 The chapter of Nursery Tales and 
 some other chapters could have been 
 much extended; but I did not care to 
 repeat things found in other books, un- 
 less there was an interesting Individ- - 
 uality in the telling that warranted it. ^ 
 
3Introtiuctorg 15 
 
 I would be glad if New England 
 readers who know of sayings and stories 
 not noted here would send such to 
 me. 
 
 CLIFTON JOHNSON. 
 Hadley, Mass. 
 
 Postscript. This book is one of three 
 New England books that I have writ- 
 ten, each of which in its way supple- 
 ments the others. The titles of the two 
 other books are "The New England 
 Country," a study of old times and of 
 the out-of-doors nature of the present, 
 and "A Book of Country Clouds and 
 Sunshine," a study of life on our farms 
 and in our rural villages. Both books 
 • are very fully illustrated. 
 
»i 
 
THE WEATHER 
 
 When you see the sun drawing water 
 at night, know that it will rain on the 
 morrow. The sun is said to be drawing 
 water when its rays can be seen shining 
 through rifts in distant clouds. 
 
 Rain before seven, 
 Clear before 'leven. 
 
 As the old woman said, " I never knew 
 it to begin in the mornin' and rain all 
 day in my life. But I've known it to 
 begin at noon and rain all day lots of 
 times." 
 
 Six weeks after you hear the first 
 katydid look for a frost. 
 
 Notice your cat when it washes its 
 face. The paw it uses and the direc- 
 tion it faces will show the point of com- 
 pass whence the wind is blowing. For 
 instance, the cat faces the north and 
 washes with its left paw ; the wind is 
 blowing from the north-west. 
 
 Blow out a candle, and if the wick 
 17 
 
18 3Ef|e 
 
 continues long to smoulder, look for bad 
 weather. If it goes out quickly, the 
 weather will be fair. 
 
 When the camphor in its bottle is 
 "riley," it shows that a storm is brewing. 
 
 Red in the morning. 
 Sailors take warning ; 
 Red at night, 
 Sailors delight. 
 
 There is a rainbow jingle much like 
 this, which runs as follows : — 
 
 Rainbow in the morning. 
 Sailors take warning ; 
 Rainbow at night, 
 Sailors delight ; 
 Rainbow at noon, 
 Rain very soon. 
 
 When you hear the first frogs in the 
 spring, you may know the frost is out of 
 the ground. 
 
 The last Friday of each month is the 
 almanac index for the next month. If 
 the weather is fair, the month will be 
 likewise ; if foul, so will the month be. 
 
 The twelve days after Christmas indi- 
 cate the weather for the following year. 
 Each day in order shows the weather 
 for one month. 
 
If it storms the first Sunday in the 
 month, it will storm every Sunday in 
 the month. 
 
 When you take up the tea-kettle and 
 find sparks on the bottom, it is a sign 
 of cold weather. 
 
 Fog on the hills, 
 
 More water for the mills. 
 
 When a person kills a snake he does 
 well to consider what kind of weather 
 he would like. If he hangs the snake 
 up, it will rain ; if he buries it, the weather 
 will be fair. 
 
 Rub a cat's back the wrong way, and 
 if you see sparks, it is a sign of cold 
 weather. 
 
 If the sun sets in a cloud, it will rain 
 on the morrow. The person who takes 
 this saying as literally true would do 
 well to remember that unless the cloud 
 that hides the sun from his sight is 
 extremely large, a spectator a short dis- 
 tance to the north or south would at the 
 same moment see the sun set in clear 
 sky. 
 
 If you see sun-dogs, expect rain soon. 
 
 In winter when you see the wild geese 
 flying south, expect cold weather. They 
 fly south because the ponds to the 
 
20 mjz TOeatfier 
 
 north are frozen over. When the geese 
 are seen flying north, warm weather is 
 to be expected. 
 
 Three white frosts and then a storm. 
 
 When you see whitecaps on the pond 
 or river, it is going to rain. 
 
 When the smoke from a chimney does 
 not rise, but falls to the ground, it is 
 going to storm. 
 
 When the squirrels lay in a big store 
 of nuts, look for a hard winter. 
 
 Three foggy mornings and then a 
 rain. 
 
 Between twelve and two 
 
 You can tell what the day will do. 
 
 An evening red and a morning gray 
 Will set the traveller on his way. 
 But an evening gray and a morning red 
 Will pour down rain on the traveller's 
 head. 
 
 If the corn-husks are thicker than 
 usual, the winter will be colder than 
 usual. 
 
 If the melt of the hog killed in the 
 fall is big at the front end, the winter 
 will be sharpest at the beginning. If 
 the melt is biggest at the rear, the win- 
 ter will be coldest in the latter part. 
 
 If in the autumn you find the skin of 
 
the apples tougher than usual, look for 
 a cold winter. 
 
 When the cattle lie down as soon as 
 they are turned out to pasture in the 
 morning, it is because they feel a rheu- 
 matic weariness in their bones, and you 
 can look for a rain soon. 
 
 If the chickens' feathers are very 
 thick at Thanksgiving time, the winter 
 will be a hard one. 
 
 A sunshiny shower 
 Won't last half an hour. 
 
 A ringing in the ears is the sign of 
 a change of weather. Others say it is 
 a sign that several people are talking 
 about you. 
 
 When the rooster crows at nine 
 o'clock in the evening, expect a change 
 of weather. 
 
 If the chickens come out while it rains, 
 it is a sign that the storm is to be a 
 long one. If they stand around under 
 the shed, the storm will be short. 
 
 If it rains on the first dog-day, it will 
 rain on each of the other thirty-nine. 
 If, on the other hand, the first dog-day 
 is dry, all the rest will be dry. 
 
 If the chickweed blossoms are open, 
 it will not rain for at least three hours. 
 
22 E\jz gggeatf)er 
 
 When the fog goes up the mountain 
 hoppin', 
 
 Then the rain comes down the moun- 
 tain droppin'. 
 
 But if instead of rising the fog de- 
 scends, it is going to clear off. 
 
 If you see froth along the shores of 
 the streams, you may know it is going 
 to rain. 
 
 On such mornings as you see the cob- 
 webs on lawns and grass-fields shining 
 with dew, the day will be fair. 
 
 All signs fail in a dry time. 
 
 When the farm animals are unusually 
 frisky, it is a sign that it is going to rain. 
 
 If the breast-bones of the Thanks- 
 giving chickens are light in color, there 
 will be a good deal of snow in the win- 
 ter following. If the color is dark, there 
 will be little snow. 
 
 When a night passes and no dew falls, 
 it is a sign it is going to rain. This 
 omen loses much of its mystery when 
 one remembers that dew has not fallen 
 because the night was clouded. 
 
 Northern lights are a sign of cold 
 weather. 
 
 After the frogs begin to sing in the 
 spring, if they are frozen in three times, 
 
VL\iZ TOeatber 23 
 
 you may be sure that afterwards you 
 will have warm weather. 
 
 When the fire snaps and sparkles, it 
 is a sign cold weather is coming. 
 
 If some night you hear a cricket 
 chirping in the house, look for cold 
 weather soon. 
 
 When the wind whistles about the 
 house, that is. a sign of a storm. 
 
 When you hear an owl hoot, it is safe 
 to conclude it is going to storm. 
 
 When you hear a cuckoo calling, you 
 may know it is going to rain. Bob 
 White sings at such times too. Some 
 say he is calling, "More wet, more wet." 
 When you hear the tree-toads crying, 
 you can also know it is going to rain. 
 
 If the rooster crows on the fence, it 
 is a sign that the weather is going to 
 change. 
 If the rooster crows when he goes to 
 
 bed, 
 He will get up with a wet head. 
 
 If the water boils out of the kettle, it 
 is a sign that it is going to storm. 
 
 If the snow on the roof melts off, the 
 next storm will be rain. If it blows off, 
 you can calculate on snow. 
 
 The day of the month on which the 
 first snowstorm comes gives the number 
 
24 grtic TOeatfier 
 
 of storms you can expect in the follow- 
 ing winter. 
 
 If the breast-bone of the Thanksgiving 
 goose is dark, it shows that you will 
 have more rain in the succeeding win- 
 ter than snow. 
 
 A mackerel sky 
 
 Won't leave the ground dry. 
 
 Another jingle referring to much the 
 same kind of a clouded sky is this : — 
 
 Mackerel scales and mares' tails 
 Make lofty ships to carry low sails. 
 
 If you see an old cat running and 
 playing and feeling good, it is a sign 
 the wind is going to blow. 
 
 The sun shines every Saturday but 
 one in the year. On some Saturdays 
 there may not be more than a few 
 stray gleams, but with the single ex- 
 ception it will at least shine a little. 
 
 If the sun sets clear on Friday, it will 
 storm before Monday night. 
 
 Whistle when you want the wind to 
 blow. 
 
 A cold, wet May, 
 A barn full of hay. 
 
 If the cat comes in and sits on the 
 
m)z TOeatfjer 25 
 
 hearth with its back to the north, it is a 
 sign of cold weather. 
 
 If you see the cat or the dog eating 
 grass, you may look for rain soon. 
 
 If the children find the dog eating 
 grass when they do not wish it to rain, 
 they will chase him away, with the idea 
 to in that way gain fair weather. 
 
 When the scales are thick on the 
 buds, the winter will be long and cold. 
 
 If it rains while the sun shines, it will 
 rain on the day following. 
 
 When it rains thus, the saying is that 
 " the devil is whipping his wife." 
 
 When in the evening you see the swal- 
 lows flying high, the morrow will be fair. 
 When the swallows fly low, it is a sign of 
 rain. 
 
 When the leaves of the poplars or 
 other trees turn up their under sides, 
 look for rain. Know, too, that it is 
 going to rain when you see the hens 
 " greasing " themselves. 
 
 When of a morning you find tiny heaps 
 of dirt thrown up by the ants during the 
 night in the hard-packed earth of the 
 paths and dooryard, you can calculate 
 on a fair day. 
 
 When the coals in the old fireplace 
 were ruddy, and the fire burned up 
 
26 grf)C TOeatf)er 
 
 brightly, it was said cold weather was 
 approaching. When the fire sparkled 
 and snapped, they expected wind. 
 
 A curdly sky is the sign of a rain 
 within three days. 
 
 If the ice on the trees melts and runs 
 off, the next storm will be rain. If it is 
 cracked off by the wind, the storm that 
 comes next will be snow. 
 
 If you see an unusual number of crows 
 flying about in the autumn, look for a 
 cold winter. This is accounted a very 
 sensible saying by some, on the ground 
 that many more of the birds will nat- 
 urally be hovering about on their way 
 south when a hard winter is approach- 
 ing than when the season promises to 
 be mild. 
 
 If the sky looks brassy in the west at 
 sunset, it is a sign of high winds. 
 
 When the wind is in the east, 
 Then the sap will run the least. 
 When the wind is in the west. 
 Then the sap will run the best. 
 
 Thunder after midnight means that 
 the next day will be lowery. 
 
 If the sun shines clear in the early 
 morning, and then the sky very soon 
 clouds up, it will rain before night. 
 
When you see the frogs jumping 
 around in the meadows with greater 
 activity than common, look for rain 
 soon. 
 
 When you hear the frogs piping of 
 an evening, you can calculate on a fair 
 morrow. 
 
 When the chimney swallows flock out 
 in great numbers, and dart about high 
 in the air, diving and whirling in great 
 excitement, there is soon to be a thun- 
 der-storm or a high wind. 
 
 Snowy winter, a plentiful harvest. 
 The snow is supposed to protect the 
 roots of grass, vines, and trees, so that 
 they put forth more vigorous growths 
 the summer following. 
 
 If March comes in like a lion, it goes 
 out like a lamb. If it comes in like a 
 lamb, it will go out like a lion. 
 
 Kill a beetle, and it will be sure to 
 bring rain. 
 
 Snow that comes in the old of the 
 moon is apt to last. Snow that comes 
 in the new of the moon is apt to melt 
 
 April showers 
 Bring May flowers. 
 
 When you see the pigs carry straws in 
 their mouths, look for high winds. 
 
28 E\)z TOgat!)er 
 
 A peck of March dust is worth a bag 
 of gold. The idea is that when you have 
 much dust blowing about there must be 
 much wind ; and winds at that season 
 dry the mud, and prepare the earth so 
 that all crops can get an early start. 
 
 Open and shet 
 Sign of wet. 
 
 That is, you can expect rain when the 
 clouds open and shut. 
 
 When the wind is in the east, 
 
 'Tis neither good for man nor beast. 
 
 Sun at seven, 
 Rain at 'leven. 
 
 This means that if early in a cloudy 
 morning the sun comes out for a little, 
 it will rain by noon. 
 
 The sunlight always dawns on the 
 wall on Easter morning. 
 
 Whenever after it has been raining 
 you can see through the clouds enough 
 blue sky to make a pair of Dutchman's 
 breeches, you may know it is going to 
 clear off. 
 
 As far as the sun shines in on Candle- 
 mas Day, 
 
 So far the snow blows in before May 
 Day. 
 
Ei)z TOcatfjer 29 
 
 If Candlemas day be fair and bright, 
 Winter will take another flight ; 
 If chance to fall a shower of rain, 
 Winter will not come again. 
 
 If Candlemas Day be bright and clear. 
 Be sure you will have two winters that 
 year. 
 
 If Candlemas Day be fair and clear, 
 All old men wish their wives on the 
 bier. 
 
 This savage rhyme must have de- 
 scended from very ancient times. The 
 idea is, that when the old man found 
 the second of February clear, and re- 
 membered that this meant there was still 
 hard winter weather ahead, he wished 
 his wife dead because of the trouble it 
 would be to support her. 
 
 On Candlemas Day 
 
 Half the wood and half the hay. 
 
 The old farmer at this time takes a 
 critical survey of his woodpile and hay- 
 mow ; and if there is not in them half 
 what there was at the beginning of 
 winter, he lays plans for their replen- 
 ishing before the opening of the new 
 season. 
 
30 grfje TOeattec 
 
 Others say, — 
 
 Half the pork and half the hay- 
 On Christmas Day. 
 
 It is related that there was a time 
 when the men would occupy a part of 
 their leisure on Christmas Day in mak- 
 ing a tour of the neighbors to see how 
 their hay was holding out. 
 
 If the woodchuck comes out on Can- 
 dlemas Day, and sees his shadow, he 
 crawls back to his hole and dozes again. 
 He knows there will still be sharp 
 weather. If the day is cloudy and he 
 sees no shadow, he knows the hardest 
 part of winter is past, and begins to 
 make preparations for warm-weather 
 housekeeping. 
 
 It's a sign of rain when the flies bite. 
 
 As long as the dogstar reigns, there 
 will be dry weather. 
 
 " I was sure 'twas goin' to rain when 
 I started out this mornin', it looked so 
 dark and dull. Then I see one o' these 
 little whirlwinds, and it turned around 
 from right to left like you wind your 
 watch, and I knew we wouldn't have 
 no rain that day anyhow." A whirl- 
 wind has to turn from left to right to 
 mean rain. 
 
grf)c TOeatfrer 31 
 
 On some days of autumn you may 
 see the grass full of stringy lines of cob- 
 webs that make a glistening path sun- 
 ward. They are a sign of frost. 
 
 When it begins to snow, notice the 
 size of the flakes. If they are very fine, 
 the storm will be a long one ; if large, 
 the storm will soon be over. 
 
 When you see a cloud in the sky that 
 grows larger, it is going to storm. When 
 you see a cloud grow smaller and melt 
 away, it is going to be fair. 
 
 There is going to be a change of 
 weather when you hear the telegraph 
 poles buzz. It is going to be either 
 colder or warmer. 
 
 It is a sign of a storm when you see 
 the sheep feeding more eagerly than 
 usual. 
 
 If a storm clears off in the night, you 
 can expect another storm soon. 
 
 The bones of rheumatic people ache 
 when a storm is brewing. 
 
 " Well, boys," says the farmer, " you 
 want to hustle round this morning and 
 get that hay in. My bones have been 
 achin', and there's always a storm within 
 forty-eight hours after they begin to 
 ache." 
 
TEA-GROUNDS 
 
 When you find tea- 
 grounds floating in your 
 cup, know that you are going to have 
 company. If the grounds are soft, it 
 is a woman who is coming ; if hard, a 
 man. If the grounds are long, the per- 
 son coming is tall ; if short, the visitor 
 will be short. When a girl or woman 
 first sights the floating grounds in her 
 cup, the comment is apt to be, "There, 
 got a beau ! " If the grounds are taken 
 out and thrown under the table, the 
 company will stay all night. If the 
 grounds are left in the cup, the visitor 
 will simply make a call. 
 
 After you drink the tea you can get 
 still further enlightenment, if there are 
 grounds in the bottom of the cup. 
 Turn the cup around a few times. 
 Then put it bottom upwards on your 
 saucer, and give it a few more turns. 
 Now turn it over. If you see paths in 
 the grounds, it is a sign that you are 
 32 
 
STea @rattntjg 33 
 
 to go on a journey. If the paths are 
 long, the journey will be long, and vice 
 versa. Turn the cup up sideways, and 
 if any tea runs out you will cry on 
 your journey. If the grounds anywhere 
 form a ring with a dot in the middle, 
 that is a wish, and you must think 
 what you most want. You may see 
 hills, and people walking or working 
 or on horseback. All the things you 
 see have a meaning. But I believe you 
 are at liberty to interpret them pretty 
 much as you choose. It is to be noted 
 that many people can see naught but 
 the tea-grounds, where others see all 
 sorts of objects in them. 
 
DREAMS 
 
 If you dream of falling, and are awa- 
 kened by the fancied jar of landing, it is 
 a sign that you are going to be sick. If, 
 however, you awake while still in mid- 
 air, you may be assured you will continue 
 in .good health. 
 
 Tell your dreams, and you will keep 
 on dreaming. To tell the dreams cul- 
 tivates a habit of remembering what is 
 dreamed ; and that is probably the only 
 effect, though it may apparently seem to 
 make the teller have more dreams. 
 
 Dream of seeing fresh beef, and you 
 will soon hear of a friend who is sick. 
 
 If you dream of water, it is a sign of 
 sickness. 
 
 If you dream of eating, it is a sign that 
 you are going to be sick. 
 
 One woman says, " Well, I always 
 know I'm goin' to be sick when I dream 
 I can't get the table set. When I dream 
 34 
 
ISreamg 35 
 
 there's so many here I can't get my 
 work done, I always have a sick spell." 
 
 It used to be said that if a dream was 
 sufficiently vivid to make the dreamer 
 notice and remember it, there was some 
 occult significance in it that was worthy 
 of study. 
 
 Dreams are often thought to contain 
 information. Sometimes the information 
 is in a realistic, sometimes in a symbolic 
 form. Frequently the dreams contain 
 prophetic warnings. Many still believe 
 in dreams to a limited degree. The fol- 
 lowing are examples of what are repeated 
 as dreams of proved significance. An 
 old lady tells the first : — 
 
 " It was after midnight, and I was 
 dreaming a dream about a terrible thun- 
 der-storm. It grew worse and worse till 
 there was one clap so loud it seemed as 
 if the skies had broken to pieces. Right 
 after it I woke up, and I heard a knock 
 on the outside door of the sitting-room. I 
 knew that instant what my dream meant 
 and who was there. It was Charlie ! I 
 went to the door and it was. There he 
 had been gone seven or eight years. 
 He'd been a sailor on the ocean, and 
 we hadn't heard a word from him, and 
 didn't know but he was dead, and that 
 
36 Bxmm& 
 
 dream came to show me he was alive 
 and near." 
 
 A younger woman tells the second : — 
 
 " I dreamed one night I was going 
 to get a scolding letter from Centerville ; 
 and the next day I got a scolding letter 
 from Centerville, and it was word for 
 word just as I dreamed it. Wa'n't that 
 curious ? 
 
 " Don't you believe in dreams ? There's 
 lots do. Our minister does. I asked 
 him one day. 
 
 " ' Don't you believe in dreams ? ' says 
 I. 
 
 " * Yes, I do,' says 'e. Most everybody 
 believes in some of 'em." 
 
 A third woman relates the following : 
 
 " One night toward morning I dreamed 
 I saw Cousin Jane way up on the top of 
 a high mountain ; and I was looking up 
 at her from the valley, and wondering 
 how she got up there. She was so high 
 up it seemed as though her head touched 
 the sky, and she looked down and smiled 
 on me just as pleasant as could be. I 
 hunted around for some way to get up 
 to her, and I found some steps. But 
 when I got half way up, the steps came 
 to an end, and I couldn't get any farther. 
 The next thing I found myself in a river 
 
I9ream0 37 
 
 and in lots of trouble. The waters were 
 muddy, and the wind blew, and the waves 
 dashed over me. Then I woke up ; and 
 there was beginning to be light enough 
 to see things around in the room, so T 
 knew it was time to get up. AH that 
 morning I felt downhearted and de- 
 pressed, and I couldn't think of any 
 reason why. Then at noon there came 
 a telegram that Cousin Jane had died 
 just before sunrise that day." 
 
 Dream of the dead, and you will hear 
 from the living. That means, from a 
 near relative of the deceased. 
 
 To dream of a funeral is a sign of a 
 wedding. 
 
 To dream of a wedding is a sign of 
 a funeral. 
 
 Dreams go by contraries, it is said, 
 and these last two examples are to the 
 point. Nevertheless, it will be noted 
 that most dreams are interpreted in ac- 
 cord with their incidents, and not re- 
 versibly. 
 
 If you dream of snakes, it is a sign 
 you have an enemy. 
 
 If in your dreams you kill the snake, 
 you may know you will get the best of 
 your enemy. 
 
 If you dream of a fire, it is a sign 
 
38 ©reams 
 
 you are going to quarrel. If you dream 
 you put out the fire, you are the one who 
 is to conquer in the quarrel. 
 
 " There ! I think there's more in those 
 two than in all the other signs put to- 
 gether. When I dream of fire, I'm very 
 careful what I do, so's not to get into 
 any quarrel ; and if I dream of snakes, I 
 look out for folks for fear I'll meet an 
 enemy." 
 
 Saturday night dream, 
 Sunday morning told, 
 Sign 'twill come to pass 
 Before it's a week old. 
 
 " You will have great trouble if you 
 dream of a white horse," said Uncle 
 Timothy. " I've always found that to 
 come true. There was one time in par- 
 ticular I remember. It was winter, and 
 I was at work a good many miles from 
 home in a logging-camp. One night I 
 had a terrible dream about a white horse 
 that got angry with me, and bit me. I 
 knew something would happen in con- 
 sequence of that dream, and I was afraid 
 I was going to get killed. I wa'n't 
 good for much workin' that day, I felt 
 so gloomy about my dream ,■ but I went 
 out with my axe same as usual. I 
 
IBreams 39 
 
 wa'n't noticing things as I ought to ; 
 and when I was cutting a tree, it came 
 down and knocked me senseless. The 
 rest of the fellows carried me to camp. 
 I can't tell you how relieved I was when 
 I come to and found myself alive. I 
 thought myself lucky to get off so easy 
 after such a dream." 
 
 There are those, however, who say 
 that to dream of a white horse is a sign 
 you are going to be rich. 
 
 When you sleep in a strange bed, 
 whatever you dream will come to pass. 
 
 " But then one can see that that can't 
 be ; for one dreams horrid dreams and 
 queer things that never could come to 
 pass." 
 
 If you dream of lice, it is a sign that 
 sickness threatens some member of the 
 family. 
 
 Tell your dream before breakfast, and 
 it will come to pass. 
 
 To dream of eggs is a sign of trouble. 
 
 It is a good sign to dream of clear 
 water ; but to dream of muddy water is 
 a sign of trouble. 
 
 Dream a thing three nights in succes- 
 sion, and it will come to pass. 
 
 What you dream Monday morning 
 before daylight will come true before 
 
40 JBreamg 
 
 Saturday night. If what you dream is 
 bad, you can keep it from coming true 
 by not telling your dream till after you've 
 eaten breakfast. 
 
 To dream of picking blackberries is a 
 sign of sickness. 
 
 Sleep with a piece of wedding-cake 
 under your pillow for three nights in 
 succession, and whatever you dream of 
 on the third night will come to pass. 
 
 " You can't always dream, though. I 
 know I tried it when Jenny was married. 
 I took a good hunk of the wedding-cake 
 and put it under my pillow and kept it 
 there five nights and never dreampt a 
 thing. Then the sixth night I woke up 
 about midnight feelin' kind o' hungry, 
 so I ate it up." 
 
CHARMS 
 
 Let a young woman pin a four-leaf 
 elover over the door, and the first un- 
 married man who comes in the door 
 will be the one she is to marry. 
 
 If, instead, the maiden prefers to eat 
 the clover, or to put it in her shoe, she 
 may recognize her fate in the first un- 
 married man she meets afterwards. 
 
 If you have lost your cow, catch a 
 grandpa-long-legs, put a finger on one 
 leg, and he will point with another leg 
 in the direction in which you will find 
 the stray cow. 
 
 Boy : "That's so. They will tell you. 
 Lots of times when I couldn't find a 
 cow, I've just taken a grandpa-long-legs 
 and he'd point just where it was. Then 
 I'd go that way and find it, when I 
 couldn't find it no other Xvay nohow." 
 
 Man : " I've got a cow out here that'd 
 trouble 'em some. The grandpa-long- 
 legs 'd have to point in all directions to 
 keep track of her." 
 
 41 
 
42 Sl^arms 
 
 If a grandpa-long-legs is not handy, 
 spit in the palm of the left hand, strike 
 the spittle with a finger of the right, and 
 the direction the spittle jumps in will 
 show what course to take in looking for 
 the cow. 
 
 A good way to get rid of freckles is 
 to go to a brook, catch a frog, and rub 
 him alive on your face. 
 
 If you have too many rats in the 
 house, take an old tin pan down cellar 
 and give it a good drumming. The 
 rats will hasten off the premises. 
 
 Possess yourself with a four-leaf clover 
 and a stick with a knot-hole in it when 
 you are to witness a sleight-of-hand per- 
 formance. If aught puzzles you, there 
 is need only to witness it through the 
 knot-hole to have the trick made clear 
 as day to you. 
 
 If your ear burns, it is a sign that 
 somebody is talking about you. By 
 wetting your thumb and forefinger and 
 rubbing your ear, you can put a stop to 
 the talk about you. If it is the right ear 
 which burns, some one is saying some- 
 thing good of you. If the left ear burns, 
 some one is saying something bad of 
 you. In the latter case you will do well 
 to pinch your ear, for that will make the 
 
C^^artng 43 
 
 person who is talking about you bite 
 his tongue. 
 
 Repeat the Lord's Prayer backwards, 
 and you will see the Devil. 
 
 If you wish to get rid of the rats 
 which make the walls of your house 
 their home, write them a note couched 
 in the politest terms you are master of, 
 requesting them to go to a neighbor, 
 and they will do as you desire. Be 
 careful, of course, to tell the rats which 
 neighbor you wish them to go to. 
 
 Another method, equally good, is to 
 catch a rat, carry it to a neighbor's, and 
 let it loose there. All the other rats at 
 your house will follow it. 
 
 Again, if you will catch a rat and let 
 it loose with a bell tied to its neck, all 
 the rats will leave. 
 
 If you get a fishbone in your throat, 
 pull your big toe, and the fishbone will 
 immediately come out. 
 
 In the old days when feruling was 
 common in the schools, the boys had a 
 belief that if they spit in their hand 
 before the teacher struck it, the ferule 
 would break in two at the first blow. 
 
 Once in a while there is a rare per- 
 son who is endowed by nature with the 
 power to discover where it is best to 
 
44 Cfjarms 
 
 dig a spring or a well. This person, 
 if you employ him, walks about your 
 premises with a branch of witch-hazel 
 in his hand. At such spots as water 
 can be struck without deep digging, the 
 hazel branch droops downward, even 
 if the medium attempts to prevent its 
 doing so. By the way the twig twists 
 and turns can be determined the exact 
 spot where it will be best for you to dig. 
 A witch-hazel crotch is the favorite 
 instrument of the water-finders. But 
 there is a variation in preference. Some 
 claim it doesn't matter what sort of a 
 tree the crotch comes from. One old 
 man I heard of used an apple-tree 
 crotch. He demonstrated that he could 
 locate waterpipes at the farm where he 
 worked with no previous knowledge of 
 where they were. Every time he came 
 over a pipe the crotch bent downward. 
 He really was able to tell just where 
 the pipes were in spite of their crooked 
 curves. He was a simple, mild old 
 laborer, and was not to be suspected 
 of sleight of hand. He said he couldn't 
 prevent the downward inclination of the 
 crotch if he tried to, but had no expla- 
 nation to offer of the queer performance 
 of the twig in his hand. 
 
C]^artn0 45 
 
 One man gifted with this water-find- 
 ing power is a minister. It is his idea 
 that this is not a special gift, but that 
 all of us have it. He once followed 
 back an underground watercourse to 
 where another watercourse branched 
 away from it. Here a well was dug 
 that gave a most plenteous and never- 
 failing supply of water. He said that 
 by careful calculation a person could 
 determine how deep the water lay. For 
 instance, notice the inclination of the 
 crotch and the spot where the pull of 
 the water first asserts itself. Then dis- 
 cover the spot that brings you right over 
 it. A calculation can be made from 
 the angle and the distance from the 
 place where the pull was first felt that 
 will show just how much digging is 
 necessary. 
 
 A water-finder who uses an elm crotch 
 says any one can find water in this way 
 who has warm hands. This man was 
 something of a professional, and his 
 charge was three dollars for each time 
 he was employed. 
 
 He says he has never failed but once 
 in his water searching, and that was 
 when the man didn't dig where he told 
 him to. 
 
46 Ci^artng 
 
 After he made this statement, he was 
 employed one dry season to locate a 
 spring on a hillside in a village several 
 miles from his home. 
 
 The crotch he used was long and 
 limber; and he wound the ends about 
 his palms, and grasped them very tight. 
 His palms were turned upward, and the 
 stick stood up vertically in the air above 
 them. When he came over water the 
 top tipped outward and downward. The 
 spot where it went down farthest was 
 the place where the best spring was. 
 Where there was water the crotch would 
 go down, even if he tried to prevent it. 
 Sometimes the downward pull was so 
 forcible that when he held the twigs 
 tight the bark would be twisted off in 
 his hands. He said that water in a 
 brook or in a pail did not affect the 
 mystic crotch ; the water must have dirt 
 over it to make the stick turn. 
 
 In the case I speak of the water- 
 finder went over the premises, and the 
 crotch indicated a spot in the corner of 
 a cornfield as the best one for a spring. 
 The man said there was a spring there 
 and a good one, only they would have 
 to dig twelve feet to strike it. 
 
 The corn was cut, and three men 
 
^tjattttg 47 
 
 spent two days d^: yi-^g a great circular 
 hole sixteen iccL deep. They failed to 
 find water. The elm-crotch man was 
 informed, and he came and looked down 
 the hole. He said he couldn't under- 
 stand it. Then he saw yellow stains in 
 some of the dirt, and said there was iron 
 ore there, and it was that that had 
 attracted his wand. 
 
 " There's more'n one way to find a 
 spring," said man number one. " They 
 say you'll always find water where there's 
 ants." 
 
 " Guess you'd find it in our buttery, 
 then," said man number two. 
 
FORTUNE-TELLING 
 
 Find a daisy; ask it any question you 
 please that can be answered by " Yes " 
 or " No," and then, one at a time, pull 
 off the petals. For the first say ''Yes," 
 for the second, " No," and so on. The 
 word that falls to the last one is your 
 answer. 
 
 Have you white marks on your nails? 
 Put your hands together and say this 
 rhyme while in succession you touch 
 finger-tips, beginning with the thumbs : — 
 
 A friend, 
 A foe, 
 A gift, 
 A beau, 
 
 A journey to go. 
 ' 48 
 
jFortimc^gTellfng 49 
 
 Notice on which ^^.nger-nails the marks 
 are, and you will thus gain some inkling 
 of your fortune. 
 
 Some authorities, however, say that 
 the number of white marks on the nails 
 indicate the number of lies the possessor 
 has told. 
 
 "Oh, what a mess of lies ! " comments 
 one child, who notes numerous marks on 
 a mate's nails. If the unhappy pos- 
 sessor of the marks complains to her 
 mother, she is probably told not to mind, 
 as the white blotches are only spots 
 where she has hit the nails in some 
 way. 
 
 CHARACTERS IN EYES. 
 
 First form : — 
 
 Gray eyes, greedy ; 
 
 Blue eyes, beauty ; 
 
 Black eyes, pig-a-pies, 
 
 Sure to tell lies. 
 Second form : — 
 
 Black eyes, tell lies ; 
 
 Blue eyes, pick pies ; 
 
 Gray eyes, greedy gut, 
 
 Eat all the world up. 
 Third form : — 
 
 Blue eyes, pick pies, 
 Turn around and tell lies ; 
 
50 iffaxtunzMtllin^ 
 
 Gray eyes, greedy gut, 
 Eat all the world up. 
 
 Children frequently tell fortunes on 
 their buttons. A boy will find out what 
 his station in life will be, and a girl the 
 kind of person she is to marry, by telling 
 them off, one button at a time, and say- 
 ing this lingo over and over till the last 
 one is reached : — 
 
 " Rich man, poor man, beggar-man, 
 thief. 
 Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief." 
 
 To know what kind of clothes you are 
 to wear, you say, " Silks, satins, calico, 
 rags," over and over down to the last 
 button. 
 
 To know what kind of a vehicle you 
 are to ride in, you say, " Coach, carriage, 
 wheelbarrow, cart." 
 
 To know what kind of a creature will 
 draw your vehicle, you say, " Horse, 
 cow, pig, sheep." 
 
 To know what kind of a house you 
 will live in, you say, "Big house, little 
 house, pigpen, barn." 
 
 The list of possible residences some- 
 times runs in this form : " Palace, man- 
 sion, cottage, hut." 
 
 To know what kind of a wedding-ring 
 
Jortun£=gCelltng 51 
 
 you will wear, you say, " Gold, silver, 
 diamond, brass." 
 
 Instead of buttons you can, in this 
 fortune- telling, pull the petals off from 
 a daisy, or the fronds one by one from 
 a fern. 
 
 Children can tell the time of day by 
 "dandelion clocks." Take a white- 
 headed dandelion, blow it three times, 
 and the number of seeds that still cling 
 indicate the hour. 
 
 BIRTHDAY FORTUNES. 
 
 Monday's child is fair of face, 
 Tuesday's child is full of grace, 
 Wednesday's child is sorry and sad, 
 Thursday's child is merry and glad, 
 Friday's child is loving and giving. 
 And Saturday's child must work for a 
 
 living ; 
 But the child that is born on the Sab- 
 bath Day, 
 Is bonny and merry and glad and gay. 
 
 A rather more vigorous version is the 
 following : — 
 
 Born on a Monday, fair of face ; 
 Born on a Tuesday, full of God's grace ; 
 Born on a Wednesday, merry and glad ; 
 Born on a Thursday, sour and sad ; 
 
52 ffaxtnnZ'MzllinQ 
 
 Born on a Friday, godly given ; 
 Born on a Saturday, work for a living ; 
 Born on a Sunday, never shall want ; 
 So there's the week and the end on't. 
 
 Some young people are fond of tell- 
 ing fortunes by naming an apple and 
 counting the seeds. At times this is 
 done at parties ; but the place may be 
 the back steps, or a seat on a convenient 
 fence. A companion snaps the apple to 
 be eaten with a forefinger, and, grant- 
 ing the eater is a girl, gives it the name 
 of some boy. When the apple is eaten 
 to the core, the apple-seeds are carefully 
 counted with this incantation : — 
 
 One, I love, 
 
 Two, I love. 
 
 Three, I love, I say ; 
 
 Four, I love with all my heart. 
 
 Five, I cast away. 
 
 Six, he loves. 
 
 Seven, she loves, 
 
 Eight, they both love, 
 
 Nine, he comes, 
 
 Ten, he tarries, 
 
 Eleven, he courts. 
 
 Twelve, he marries. 
 
 The sign which goes with the final 
 
Jortune^^ellmg 53 
 
 seed is, as matter of course, the one 
 which determines the character of the 
 fortune. 
 
 Pick a dandehon top that has gone 
 to seed. Say, " Does my motlier want 
 me?" and blow the white top with all 
 your might. If all the seeds fly away, 
 your mother wants you right off. If 
 they do not, keep on blowing. The 
 number of blows it takes to clear the 
 dandelion head indicates in how many 
 hours your mother wants you. 
 
 " There was Grandmother Collins, she 
 used to tell fortius," said the old man I 
 was interviewing. "I recollect about 
 one girl that went to her. She said 
 that girl 'd have three beaux, and that 
 she'd marry the poorest one of the three. 
 It all come out just as she'd said. The 
 girl had three beaux, and she took and 
 married the worst one of the lot. Oh, 
 she got a miserable poor man for a hus- 
 band. There'd be some nights she'd 
 sleep out in the cornfield, she was so 
 afraid of him. 
 
 " There was some gypsies used to 
 come through here, and one of 'em was 
 an Injun woman. She was married to 
 one o' the men. She said she was full- 
 blooded Injun. She was a very pretty 
 
54 JFurtung^gEcIImg 
 
 lookin' woman, and she told fortius, 
 You had to pay her a quarter. . I give 
 her a quarter once ; and she looked into 
 my hand, and said, ' You're goin' to be 
 rich sometime,' and a lot of other stuff — 
 a gret long mess on it. She didn't know 
 any more about fortius 'n I do, but she 
 'tended she did. 
 
 " There is people can tell, though, and 
 tell it true. I was goin' down to Spring- 
 field, and I stopped at Cabotsville to see 
 Jim Tinkham that I'd always known for 
 a long time. We was walking down a 
 street together when we come to a house 
 where we see a fat woman settin' in the 
 winder. Jim said she told fortius. He 
 said, ' Come in, and get your fortin told, 
 an' I'll pay the bill' 
 
 " So we went in. Jim give the woman 
 a quarter, and she took a little grayish 
 stone, and begun to point out the spots 
 on't here and there along with her needle. 
 She told me that on my way down I stop- 
 ped in a house, and asked a young lady 
 for her company, ' And she give you the 
 mitten,' she said. 
 
 " Well, that was just as it had happened 
 to me. Then she told me about three 
 long journeys, one of 'em way out West 
 -that I'd made. She told me everything 
 
jFortune^CelUng 55 
 
 I ever did, and she described out my 
 farm better'n I could myself. 
 
 " I asked if I was ever goin' to get 
 married agin. She looked over her stone 
 and said, ' Here's lots of women I see. 
 Here's lots on 'em. You c'n have 'em 
 if you want 'em.' " 
 
 If at any time you want a yes or 
 no answer to some question, just get a 
 friend to gather the corners of a hand- 
 kerchief up so that his hand is closed 
 over the ends, except a bit of the tips. 
 Then you take hold of two, and when 
 you straighten the handkerchief out if 
 you have got it the long way the an- 
 swer is "yes"; if the short way, "no." 
 
 Take an apple, and pare it round and 
 round so that the skin will come off in 
 one continuous strand. Swing the par- 
 ing around your head three times, and 
 then throw it over your shoulder. It 
 will, when it falls, take the form of some 
 letter of the alphabet, or it ought to. 
 That letter will be the initial of your 
 beau's last name. If the initial won't 
 fit the last name of any person you con- 
 sider attractive, those who practise this 
 art will allow you to try to make it fit 
 some one's first name. On account of the 
 curliness of the paring, the rounded let- 
 
56 iffaxtunZ'-Ezllins 
 
 ters, and in particular S, occur oftenest. 
 However, the letters are seldom so dis- 
 tinct but that an imaginative person can 
 make something satisfactory to himself 
 or herself out of the paring. Some say 
 that it is important that the apple used 
 in this divination should be a red one. 
 
 Pull a hair from your head, and give it 
 to a friend. Next clasp your hands with 
 your forefingers upright and touching 
 tips. Then get your friend to draw the 
 hair down between these two finger-tips. 
 For the first time the hair goes through 
 say "a," for the second time "b," and 
 so on through the alphabet until the hair 
 breaks. The letter it breaks on is the 
 initial of the one you are to marry. You 
 can make your fortune much as you 
 choose in this ; for you have only to 
 press your fingers tightly when you. come 
 to the letter that suits you, and the hair 
 will break on that letter. 
 
 Eat the blossoms of three innocents, 
 and the next person of the opposite sex 
 that you meet will be the one you are 
 to marry. 
 
 Squeeze the yellow centre off from a 
 daisy stem, throw it into the air, and 
 catch what you can of it when it comes 
 down. Now take the pieces you caught, 
 
Jortune^gTellfng 57 
 
 and say a letter of the alphabet for each 
 one, beginning with a, b, c. The letter 
 that comes on the final piece is the 
 initial of the last name of the person 
 who will some day marry you. 
 
 If a girl cuts thick slices of bread, it 
 is a sign she will be a good stepmother. 
 
ODDS 
 
 To cut the finger-nails on Sunday 
 merning is a sign you will do something 
 you are ashamed of before the week is 
 out. 
 
 An old rhyme has it : — 
 
 It is better you were never born, 
 
 Than on the Sabbath pare hair or horn. 
 
 There is a finger-nail jingle for the 
 days of the week : — 
 
 Cut them on Monday, cut them for 
 
 wealth, 
 Cut them on Tuesday, cut them for 
 
 health, 
 Cut them on Wednesday, cut them for 
 
 news, 
 Cut them on Thursday, a new pair of 
 
 shoes. 
 Cut them on Friday, cut them for woe. 
 Cut them on Saturday, a journey to go. 
 Cut them on Sunday, cut them for evil. 
 And be all the week as cross as the 
 
 Devil. 
 
 58 
 
©tibS 59 
 
 Whistle to keep your courage up. In 
 particular it is well to whistle when in 
 the night you have to go along a lonely 
 roadway. 
 
 Formerly many people were afraid to 
 pass a graveyard after nightfall for fear 
 of seeing ghosts. This fearsome feeling 
 has not entirely faded out even yet. 
 
 When the Devil comes among human- 
 kind, he is fondest of taking the form of 
 a black cat, but at times a black dog 
 suits his purposes better. It is said, 
 too, that he is pleased on occasion to 
 exhibit himself in the shape of a black 
 pig on the ridgepole of a house. 
 
 Professor Charles Eliot Norton remem- 
 bers that when he was a boy he, with 
 some companions, met a woman whom 
 the others told him was a witch. They 
 said that if a knife was stuck in one of 
 her footprints it would make her turn 
 and look back. One of the boys got out 
 his knife, and thrust the blade into one 
 of the woman's footprints. The little 
 company turned their eyes half fearfully 
 toward the witch's receding figure ; but 
 for some reason or other she failed to 
 look around. 
 
 Pass me salt, pass me sorrow. 
 
 It used to be taken as a pretty sure 
 
60 ©tJtig 
 
 sign that a man was conceited if he 
 went about with his hat-brim turned up 
 in front. 
 
 To use the side of the thimble instead 
 of the tip to push the needle with is the 
 sign of a good sewer. 
 
 It is well to have a piece of a branch 
 cut from a mountain-ash in the house. 
 It is as good to keep out witches as a 
 horseshoe nailed over the door. 
 
 When a house burns, and another is 
 built on the same spot, that, too, will 
 burn soon. 
 
 Just so many stitches as you take on you. 
 Just so many lies you'll have told about 
 you. 
 
 To " take stitches on you " is to re- 
 pair a garment that you are wearing at 
 the time you do the sewing. 
 
 Always pick up a pin with its head 
 toward you ; for that will insure your 
 having a ride soon. 
 
 When you churn, turn the crank 
 straight forwards all the time. If you 
 turn it backwards, you will undo your 
 work and soon bring the contents of the 
 churn back to cream again. 
 
 Wet your finger and hold it above 
 your head, and it will show you which 
 
©titJS 61 
 
 way the wind blows. It Avill feel coolest, 
 and will dry quickest, on the side whence 
 the wind comes. 
 
 If you wipe at the same time on the 
 same towel with another person, it is a 
 sign you two will quarrel. 
 
 " I don't believe half of these things 
 they say are true." 
 
 If you have a scratch on the back of 
 your hand, and it points toward your 
 thumb, it is a sign you are going to 
 have a ride. If the scratch is a long 
 one, the ride will be long ; if short, the 
 ride will be short. 
 
 Also : — 
 
 Nearer the thumb. 
 Sooner it'll come. 
 
 If the bottom of your foot itches, you 
 may know that you are to step on 
 strange lands. 
 
 When a spark forms on the end of 
 the wick in the candle-flame, moisten 
 the tip of your finger with your tongue, 
 touch the spark lightly with it, and if 
 it adheres to your finger, you can confi- 
 dently look for a letter within a day or 
 two. 
 
 If you put on both stocking and shoe 
 on one foot before putting on the stock- 
 
62 mw 
 
 ing on the other foot, it is the sign that 
 you are to meet with an accident. 
 
 Sing before breakfast, cry before sup- 
 per. 
 
 If your nose itches, you may know 
 that you are going to quarrel. Others 
 have it that this is a sign you are going 
 to get mad. 
 
 Pull out a hair, touch it with the flame 
 of a match, and if it curls up quickly it 
 is a sign you are cross in your disposi- 
 tion. Instead of using fire, you can, if 
 you choose, pull the hair between a finger 
 and the thumb nail to discover whether it 
 will curl up quickly or not. 
 
 Pull out a gray hair, and ten or twelve 
 will come in its place. 
 
 If you pull one of your fingers, and 
 the joint cracks, it is a sign you have 
 told a lie. 
 
 Broad finger-nails indicate generos- 
 ity. Long finger-nails indicate a lack of 
 thrift. 
 
 If you go out visiting on Monday, it is 
 a sign you will go out visiting every day 
 that week. 
 
 On the inner side of a horse's legs is 
 a horny scab about the size of a dollar. 
 It used to be said that flakes from this 
 made excellent bait for fishing. 
 
©tits 63 
 
 A sore on the tip of the tongue is a 
 sign you have told a lie. 
 
 If a person's front teeth are far apart, 
 it is a sign that person is going to be 
 a wanderer. 
 
 Put the wrong foot out of bed first 
 when you get up in the morning, and 
 you will be cross all day. Always get 
 up right foot foremost. 
 
 If you take hold of a chair, and twist 
 it about on one leg, it is a sign you are 
 going to quarrel. 
 
 When we have one fire in town, there's 
 always three in a short time. 
 
 Wash and wipe together. 
 Live in peace forever. 
 
 Bright red auroras were formerly said 
 to be the sign that a great battle had 
 been fought, or was soon to be fought. 
 Its flaming streamers betokened blood 
 and slaughter. There was this fiery 
 omen in the sky at the time of the battle 
 of Bunker Hill, and other contests of the 
 Revolution, as well as of the older French 
 and Indian wars. 
 
 Often when two persons make a bar- 
 gain they at its conclusion " Shake hands 
 on it " to make it binding. 
 
 When you get up in the morning be 
 
64 ©blrs 
 
 sure to dress your right foot first. If 
 you don't, you will meet with a disap- 
 pointment that day. 
 
 When a girl asked her mother on which 
 side she should make the buttonholes in 
 a garment she was making, the mother 
 would respond, " Always make them on 
 the left side. Remember this, that you 
 don't want to be on the buttonhole side 
 of heaven, and you won't have to ask 
 again." This refers to the parable where- 
 in the goats were divided from the sheep, 
 and went to the left of the throne. 
 
 In haying time, if you can " step your 
 shadow," it is noon. This means that 
 you must be able to step on the shadow 
 of your head. You cannot do this in 
 northern countries except on summer 
 noons when shadows are short. 
 
 Step over the graves in the cemetery 
 or go around them. If you walk on 
 them, woe will come to you in some 
 form. 
 
 If you eat crumbs 'twill make you wise, 
 If you leave the crust 
 You're sure to bust. 
 
 This is schoolboy poetry recited to a 
 mate who, in eating his lunch, throws 
 away the crust. 
 
mtiS 65 
 
 " There's a good deal of pizen in peo- 
 ple, especially in red-headed men. All 
 folks hev some, but there's more pizen 
 in a red-headed man than in a man that 
 has black hair — a good deal. In Lon- 
 don, a red-headed man that was a sailor 
 sold himself to a doctor for quite a sum 
 of money. 
 
 " The doctor strung him up by his 
 heels, and put a toad at his mouth ; and 
 the man died, and a great lot of green, 
 nasty-looking pizen oozed out that the 
 doctor said was very valuable." 
 
 Drop a dish of victuals, and you will 
 hear bad news. 
 
 Grass will not grow under a " gallus " 
 where a man has been hung. 
 
 Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for danger. 
 Sneeze on Tuesday, kiss a stranger, 
 Sneeze on Wednesday, sneeze for a let- 
 ter. 
 Sneeze on Thursday, for something 
 
 better, 
 Sneeze on Friday, sneeze for sorrow. 
 Sneeze on Saturday, see your sweet- 
 heart to-morrow. 
 Sneeze on Sunday, your safety seek, 
 The Devil'll have you the rest of th^ 
 week. 
 
66 ©Utis 
 
 When a child gets dizzy whirling, he 
 needs only to whirl in the opposite di- 
 rection to turn himself back to stability. 
 
 When you comb your hair, don't burn 
 such as gathers on your comb. If you 
 do, it will make you cross. 
 
 Don't have any metal about you when 
 there is a thunder-storm. It will draw 
 the lightning, and you will like enough 
 get struck. The boys who understand 
 this take care not to have a jacknife or 
 any such thing on their persons in thun- 
 der-storms, and some women when they 
 hear the storm's muttering approach take 
 off their rings, hide the scissors, and 
 cover the sewing-machine. There are 
 those who shut the blinds, and draw the 
 curtains to keep out sight and sound, 
 and then lie down on a feather bed to 
 wait for the storm to pass. 
 
 If the back of your legs itch, you may 
 know that you are to go on a long journey. 
 
 When you play hi-spy, and are "it," 
 and want to know where the others have 
 hid, take a stick and put it up on end 
 and let it fall. If it falls three times in 
 the same direction, that shows you the 
 way to go to find the hiders. 
 
 After you have had a tooth pulled out, 
 don't touch the cavity with your tongue. 
 
m^s 67 
 
 and the next tooth that comes will be a 
 gold tooth. 
 
 When you move to a new house always 
 send beforehand a loaf of bread and a 
 new broom. 
 
 Sneeze early and you will hear some 
 news, or get a present that same day. 
 
 Button your coat wrong, or draw on a 
 stocking inside out, and matters will go 
 crooked that day. 
 
 Rock an empty cradle, and you will 
 injure the child that usually sleeps in it. 
 
 When, in pitching up hay, your fork 
 gets caught and taken up on the load, 
 you have lost a day's work. That is, 
 your work won't amount to anything 
 that day, or else you'll never get any 
 pay for it. 
 
 Drop your hoe or your rake, and you 
 will likewise lose a day's work. 
 
 Talk to yourself, and you talk to the 
 Devil. 
 
 If the basting-threads are in a gar- 
 ment, that is a sign it is not paid for. 
 
 It is a sign a man's clothes are not 
 paid for if the little size cards are still 
 on them. 
 
 It is a good sign to take out your 
 work; that is, if you have to pull out 
 your stitches because you have made a 
 
68 m^& 
 
 mistake. It proves that you will live to 
 wear the garment out. 
 
 Do you want to know whether you 
 love butter or not? Get some one to 
 hold a buttercup under your chin. If 
 they can see a yellow reflection from its 
 • burnished petals on your chin, then you 
 do love butter. If not, you don't. 
 
 - Stumpy fingers are a sign that one 
 must work for a living. 
 
 You can get a hundred dollars for a 
 million old postage-stamps. I never 
 heard that any one got that many, nor 
 can I find out who is going to pay the 
 hundred dollars, but a good many young 
 people in the cities have made up their 
 minds to collect the million stamps. 
 They are most successful when they or 
 their friends can pick over the letters 
 that come to offices or stores. I sup- 
 pose if one could average a hundred 
 stamps every week-day the year through, 
 he would be doing pretty well. At that 
 rate, if the collector persevered, he 
 would get his million stamps in about 
 thirty years. If he spent ten minutes 
 a day soaking off, drying, and caring 
 for the stamps, he would in that length 
 of time put in three hundred full days 
 of ten hours each. When he received 
 
(©Ijtis 69 
 
 his hundred dollars, he would therefore 
 be paid for his time at the rate of thirty- 
 three and one-third cents a day. 
 
 When the bars of the northern lights 
 shoot up in a cone shape, like guns 
 stacked, that is a sure sign of war. 
 
 If you want the cake you make to be 
 light, stir the batter only one way. 
 
 Hemlock-trees attract lightning. It 
 is said that you need put no lightning- 
 rods on your buildings if you will only 
 set up a tall hemlock pole near them. 
 The lightning will hit that pole, rather 
 than the buildings, every time. 
 
 All sound-minded people have the 
 largest half of their heads in front of 
 their ears. A man with the heaviest 
 part of his head back of his ears you 
 may be pretty sure is an idiot. 
 
 Sleep before midnight is " beauty 
 sleep." Therefore if you wish to be 
 handsome go to bed early. 
 
FRIENDS 
 
 Gain a day, and you gain a 
 friend ; as, for instance, when it is 
 Thursday and you think it is Friday. 
 Lose a day, and you lose a friend. 
 
 Never give a friend a pin. It 
 
 will spoil your friendship. To guard 
 
 against this, and at the same time 
 
 to accommodate your friend, you 
 
 can say : " I will not give you the 
 
 pin, but I will lend it to you for 
 
 ninety-nine years." 
 
 When a friend leaves you, don't watch 
 
 the friend out of sight, for the person 
 
 who is watched out of sight will never 
 
 be seen by you again if you do. 
 
 When you and a companion are walk- 
 ing together, don't allow a third person 
 to go between you. If you do, it will 
 cut your friendship. Nevertheless, if, 
 in spite of precautions, this should hap- 
 pen, say, " Bread and butter," and the 
 fates will be propitiated. 
 
 Nor should you, when walking with a 
 friend, let a tree separate you. If this 
 70 
 
iFTlEltllS 71 
 
 occurs, the best thing to do is for one 
 of you to retrace your steps, and come 
 past the tree on the side your friend 
 took. 
 
 Don't make a friend a present of a 
 knife ; for, according to every authority 
 versed in sign lore, if you do, it will cut 
 your friendship. All sharp-edged tools 
 are equally unfitted as presents for the 
 same reason. 
 
 "There was Sue Perkins, years ago, 
 and Harry Wright was keepin' company 
 with her. One day he gave her a pair 
 of scissors. They was beautiful scissors 
 too. Some of 'em told her not to take 
 'em, and said it would cut their friend- 
 ship. But she said she didn't care any- 
 thing about their signs. ' We sha'n't 
 have any trouble between us. I know 
 we won't,' she said. But I'll be blamed 
 if they didn't have a row inside of a 
 month, and Harry Wright stopped callin', 
 and Sue Perkins lived and died an old 
 maid." 
 
WISHES 
 
 If for seven consecutive nights you 
 can see one star before any others are 
 in sight, and will repeat this rhyme 
 each time without saying anything to 
 any one, you can make any wish you 
 choose and it will come true. 
 
 Star light, star bright, 
 
 First star I see to-night ; 
 
 I wish I could, I wish I might 
 
 Have the wish I wish to-night. 
 
 Others say this when they see the 
 first star : — 
 
 Star light, star bright, 
 
 The first I've seen to-night, 
 
 I wish — I wish — 
 
 Then they tell what they wish. 
 
 ^2 
 
[isfjes 73 
 
 Still others say : 
 
 The first star bright I've seen to- 
 night, 
 
 May I see somebody I don't expect 
 to see. 
 
 The first form of this wish has to be 
 repeated three times. 
 
 When you see the first robin in the 
 spring, wish, and your wish will come to 
 pass. In this, as in all wishing-spells, 
 you must be careful not to tell any one. 
 If you do, the first robin will be quite 
 ineffectual as an aid to the realization 
 of wishes. You must be careful also 
 not to speak until you have wished, for 
 that, too, will break the spell. " I 
 wished on robins for a good many years. 
 There's no harm in wishing, you know, 
 if you wish good wishes." 
 
 Wish on the first frogs you hear in 
 the spring, tell no one, and the wish will 
 come true. 
 
 Notice the white horses that pass, 
 count them up to three, and shake hands 
 with somebody. Then you can make a 
 wish, and it will come true. 
 
 The forked bone just in front of the 
 breast-bone of a chicken or other fowl is 
 known as the wish-bone. If this bone 
 
74 IKfsfjes 
 
 chances to fall to you, preserve it, and 
 put it on the shelf behind the stove to 
 dry. When properly seasoned you take 
 hold of one end, let a friend take hold 
 of the other, each make a wish, and 
 then both pull. The wish of the one 
 that has the top with his piece when it 
 breaks will come true. 
 
 Find a white-headed dandelion, make 
 a wish, and then try to blow the seeds 
 off with one breath. If the ISeeds all 
 leave at one blow, your wish will come 
 true. Otherwise it will not. 
 
MEDICINAL 
 
 When you have the rheumatism, 
 carry a potato in your pocket. The 
 potato will become hard after a 
 time, and believers in its virtues 
 affirm that this is because of the 
 rheumatism it has absorbed. 
 
 Eat poison ivy, and it will never 
 poison you afterward. When this 
 remedy is mentioned, the com- 
 ment usually is, "Well, I guess it 
 wouldn't. You wouldn't live to 
 give it the chance." 
 
 When a child has fits, the parents 
 sometimes get a puppy for the child to 
 play with and sleep with. The belief is 
 that the dog will take the disease, and 
 that as the dog grows worse the child 
 will grow better. When the dog dies, 
 the child will be completely cured. 
 
 Carry a horse-chestnut in your pocket 
 and you will not be troubled by rheu- 
 matism. 
 
 The child that wears a black silk cord 
 around its neck will not have the croup. 
 75 
 
76 Mt^idml 
 
 The black silk cord so worn is likewise 
 good to keep off the diphtheria. 
 
 If a young person sleeps with an 
 elderly person the latter will weaken the 
 former by drawing vitality from the 
 young person. The elder is not sup- 
 posed to get any benefit from the fact. 
 
 Prick a sty with a pricker off a goose- 
 berry bush, and it will get well at 
 once. 
 
 Rub a sty with a wedding-ring, and it 
 will go off. 
 
 Pull an eyewinker from the sty, and 
 that will be the end of it. 
 
 Some prefer to make sure of a sty's 
 leaving by touching it with the tail of a 
 black cat. 
 
 INDIAN MAGIC. 
 
 In ye olden time one of the farmers 
 at Hadley, Mass., had the misfortune to 
 cut his foot while chopping in the woods. 
 Moreover, the wound was so grievous it 
 refused to heal. Neither the home poul- 
 tices nor the doctor's lotions had any 
 effect, and the man began to fear that 
 these were his last days. While things 
 were thus, going from bad to worse, an 
 Indian woman heard of the case, and 
 offered to heal the man's wound. Her 
 services were accepted, and she asked 
 
iHetiicinal 77 
 
 for the axe which made the cut. When 
 it was given to her, she did the axe-helve 
 up carefully in salve, and the man's 
 wound got well right off. 
 
 Wear a red string around your neck 
 to keep off rheumatism. 
 
 Carry an onion in your pocket, and 
 you will not have fits. 
 
 Carry camphor-gum, and you will not 
 catch small-pox or contagious diseases. 
 
 " I had a great-aunt that used to have 
 the cramp terrible till some one told her 
 to tie a cotton string around her ankle. 
 After that she never had a cramp to the 
 end of her days." 
 
 The gall of rattlesnakes used to be 
 thought excellent as a cure for bilious- 
 ness. 
 
 Wear an eelskin around your waist to 
 keep off rheumatism. Some say they 
 had rather have the rheumatism. 
 
 Carry a piece of brimstone to keep 
 off the itch. Some people carry it to 
 keep off scarlet fever and other conta- 
 gious diseases. Others wear a little bag 
 of sulphur hung by a string around the 
 neck. There are those who carry a 
 lump of sulphur in their pocket, and 
 they will get it out and sniff it vigor- 
 ously when they think themselves in 
 danger, 
 
78 Mttiidml 
 
 If a bald-headed man washes his head 
 with sage tea, it will make a new growth 
 of hair come out. 
 
 The use of tobacco is believed to pre- 
 vent one's taking diseases. 
 
 The sick person that shows an incli- 
 nation to stretch will get well. 
 
 If a sick person itches, he will get 
 well. 
 
 If he is cross, he will get well. 
 
 " That isn't always so. There was a 
 man in our town who was very sick, and 
 his wife did something or other he didn't 
 like, and he sat right up in bed and 
 swore at her, and the next instant he 
 fell over dead." 
 
 Put the first aching tooth you have 
 pulled in a glass of whiskey. Then 
 drink the whiskey, and you will never 
 have occasion to have another tooth 
 pulled because it aches. 
 
 Carry an onion with you to keep off 
 diseases. You can't take a disease from 
 any odor that the onion scent is strong 
 enough to overcome so that you don't 
 smell it. Indeed, whatever you can't 
 smell won't harm you, onion or no 
 onion. But if you think you smell a 
 disease, even if you don't, you are liable 
 to have that disease. 
 
iTOelifcfnal 79 
 
 A good way to keep from having 
 cramps is to wear an eelskin around 
 your ankle. 
 
 Read gravestone epitaphs, and you 
 will lose your memory. 
 
 When you want to go to sleep and 
 can't, count up to twenty-three hun- 
 dred. 
 
 If that doesn't work, just imagine a 
 crow flying round and round up in the 
 sky in large circles. 
 
 Sleep with a piece of steel under your 
 pillow, and you will not have the rheuma- 
 tism,, I have heard of one woman who 
 always put her scissors under her pillow, 
 when bedtime came, for this purpose. 
 
 " Do you ever have the nightmare ? 
 Well, sir, my father used to have night- 
 mare right along every night. He'd be 
 all of a didder — shakin' and shudderin' 
 till my mother'd take hold of him and 
 wake him up. That'd bring him right 
 out of 'em. 
 
 "One time he went away from home, 
 and it come night and they was sittin' 
 around in the tavern bar-room, and he 
 told one o' the men there that he really 
 dreaded to go to bed. He told him how 
 he always had the nightmare, and how, 
 bein' away from home, he wouldn't have 
 
80 MtHidml 
 
 his wife to wake him up. He said he 
 was afraid he might die in it. 
 
 " ' Well,' says the man, ' I'll tell you a 
 cure for that ; and if it don't work when 
 you try it to-night, I'll stand drinks for 
 the crowd in the mornin'. If it does 
 work, you c'n stand the drinks.' 
 
 "There was fifteen or twenty men 
 there ; but father agreed, for he knew if 
 he got a sure cure for those nightmares, 
 it'd be worth it. 
 
 " So the man says, ' Now, when you 
 go to bed, you just smell your stock- 
 in's after you take 'em off. That's all 
 you've got to do, and you won't have no 
 nightmare to-night, I'll warrant you.' 
 
 " Father did it, and it was just as the 
 man said. Now, if any of your friends 
 have the nightmare, you want to tell 
 'em of that, and they'll thank ye for it 
 when they've found out how sure it 
 cures 'em." 
 
 If your right nostril bleeds, you can 
 stop it by tying a cord tight around your 
 left little finger. If it is your left nostril 
 that bleeds, tie the cord around the right 
 little finger. 
 
 " My brother used to be quite a hand 
 to have cramps. Finally some one told 
 him that when he had 'em he must wet 
 
ilEtifcmal 81 
 
 his finger, and make a cross right on the 
 calf of his leg. He done it, and it cured 
 him every time. He says he don't know 
 of anything better'n that for cramps." 
 
 Wear a piece of red woollen yarn 
 around your neck, and it will keep you 
 from having the nosebleed. " My brother 
 had to do that." 
 
 If you have a sore throat, tie one of 
 the stockings you have worn through the 
 day around your neck when you go to 
 bed. The sore throat can't stand that, 
 and will have left by morning. The 
 stocking should be tied on with the hol- 
 low of the foot next to the throat. 
 
 Some people keep themselves from 
 taking contagious diseases by wearing 
 a silver piece on a string around their 
 neck. When, presently, the silver piece 
 turns black, they know the silver has 
 done good work in absorbing diseases 
 that otherwise might have killed them. 
 From a physician's point of view, how- 
 ever, this black on the coin is the effect 
 on the silver of the sulphur in the secre- 
 tions of the skin. 
 
 A good many people have an idea that 
 a person enjoys better health, and lives 
 longer, if he is in the habit of sleeping 
 with his head to the north. The impor- 
 
82 JKBtitcinal 
 
 tant point is not that the head is to the 
 north, but that the electric pole is in that 
 direction. 
 
 Some people prefer to sleep with the 
 head to the east. It is in that direction 
 that the earth turns, and they think it 
 healthier to be projected through space 
 head first. 
 
 Wear a tarred string around your neck 
 to keep you from taking contagious dis- 
 eases. 
 
 If you want to go to sleep and can't, 
 just imagine two hundred sheep going 
 through some bars one at a time. Count 
 'em up slow, and it will put you to sleep 
 sure before you get to the last one. It 
 takes your mind, you see. 
 
 Trim your finger-nails on Friday, and 
 you will not have the toothache for a 
 week. 
 
 Eat pudding and milk, and it will make 
 your hair curl. If it suits your taste 
 better, you can eat crusts of bread ; for 
 that, too, will make your hair curl. 
 
 You can stop another person's bleed- 
 ing by touching the cut, bruise, or what- 
 ever it is, with your finger, and saying, 
 " I bequeath thee not to bleed, not to 
 fester, not to canker, nor to swell, but 
 to heal. In the name of God, amen." 
 
I'cfnal 83 
 
 You need not say this aloud unless you 
 choose. The bleeding will stop at once. 
 This works on animals as well as people. 
 
 If your eyes are weak, have your ears 
 bored just as you would for earrings. 
 That will help make your eyes strong. 
 
 You can cure another person's head- 
 ache by rubbing the aching one's head. 
 The headache will presently leave the 
 sufferer, and you will have it yourself, 
 but less severely. A rheumatic shoulder 
 treated in the same way brings the same 
 results. 
 
 " I don't like to believe in presenti- 
 ments and things of that sort, but I do 
 have spells of believing. It's mostly 
 your imagination that's queer, though. 
 There was a fellow once that worked in 
 a mill in Holyoke, and the fellows got 
 hold of his hat one morning and tight- 
 ened the band. Then they told him his 
 head was swollen dreadfully. 
 
 " He didn't think so ; but they got him 
 to try on his hat, and it wouldn't go on. 
 They said he looked sick, and he looked 
 in the glass and said he believed he did 
 look sick ; he hadn't thought of it be- 
 fore, and he went home feeling pretty 
 badly off." 
 
 Soon after the war, it was discovered 
 
84 :P[elitcinal 
 
 by one of our American physicians that 
 certain rays from the sun possessed 
 marked curative qualities. The blue 
 rays, in particular, had remarkable vir- 
 tues. This gave rise to what was known 
 as " The blue glass craze." For a few 
 months a great deal was published in 
 the papers on the subject, and it was 
 a common topic of conversation. Peo- 
 ple had blue panes of glass put into 
 their windows, or they covered their win- 
 dow panes with blue tissue for the light 
 to fall through. Some had glass sum- 
 mer-houses made all in blue, and lived in 
 them much of their time. Others made 
 blue glass sanitariums of the upper story 
 of their houses by putting in blue sky- 
 lights. 
 
 Many marvellous cures were effected, 
 but the agitation and the interest in the 
 matter passed away as quickly as does 
 a summer day's thunder-storm. It was 
 claimed that a'sunbath imder this blue 
 glass was good for diseases of all kinds, 
 and that blue glass was also good to 
 assist vegetation. In fact, the believers 
 in its virtues used it over their hotbeds. 
 
THE FARM 
 
 If the sun shines through the limbs 
 of the apple-trees on Christmas Day, 
 there will be a good crop of fruit next 
 year. 
 
 Plant a bean with the eye up, and it 
 will grow straight down through the 
 earth to China. 
 
 When you have a kettle of fat pork 
 on the stove that you are trying down 
 into lard, and want to know if it is done, 
 put a match into it. If the match light?, 
 the lard is done. If it doesn't light, 
 keep on cooking your lard. 
 
 When you have land to clear up, chop 
 the trees and cut the brush " when the 
 sign is in the heart," and you will be 
 sure to kill these growths. 
 
 If you have a tree that bears no fruit, 
 put a stone in its first crotch just before 
 blossoming-time. The tree will surely 
 be fruitful after that. 
 85 
 
86 STfje jFarttt 
 
 Great was the belief at one time 
 among the farmers in plaster as a fer- 
 tilizer. Vast quantities were sowed on 
 the land. It was affirmed that its power 
 was such that if you used it in a field 
 next to that of a neighbor who did not, 
 it would draw his manure right over the 
 fence. To-day plaster is a thing of the 
 past, and the farmer questions if he ever 
 got any particular benefit from its use. 
 
 There are now few farmers who have 
 a regular habit of soaking their wagon- 
 wheels, but it is not difficult to find 
 those who, when on a journey, take 
 such opportunities as offer themselves 
 along the road to give their wheels a 
 wetting. The object is to make the 
 wood swell, and keep the spokes from 
 rattling and the wheels themselves from 
 tumbling to pieces. On country roads 
 there is once in a while a place where 
 at one side of a bridge that crosses a 
 little brook is a track by which you can 
 drive down and through the water. If 
 you take this side path and ford the 
 stream, you can accomplish three ob- 
 jects, — wet your wheels, water your 
 horse, and soak the horse's hoofs. But 
 the farmer who wants to do the soaking 
 thoroughly stops at every wayside wa- 
 
SEfje JFarm 87 
 
 tering trough, and pours a few pailfuls 
 over his wheels. 
 
 Years ago a farmer who was going on 
 a long trip would, the night before, 
 sometimes set his wheels in the long 
 log watering-trough in the barnyard, 
 and turn them occasionally to make the 
 soaking complete. In Europe farmers, 
 on the evening before a journey, have 
 been known to throw their wheels into 
 a pond, when one was handy, and leave 
 them over night. 
 
 A New England farmer who took this 
 method of soaking the wheels of one of 
 his old wagons had them all carried off 
 by one of the town deacons who thought 
 they had been thrown away. 
 
 The general effect on the wheels of 
 this soaking process is to keep them 
 expanding and shrinking. The tempo- 
 rary effect is all right, but in the end 
 decay and decrepitude are hastened. 
 
LUCK 
 
 To find a horse- 
 shoe in the road 
 is a sign of good 
 luck. Many of 
 the poorer farm- 
 houses of New 
 England have a 
 horseshoe tacked 
 up over an outer 
 entrance for good 
 luck. 
 
 In times past, 
 and those not 
 very far removed, 
 the object of the 
 horseshoe over 
 the door was to 
 keep out the witches. 
 The horseshoe should be put up 
 with the curve downward. If the open 
 end is down, all your luck will run out. 
 
 Carry a lucky-bone, and nothing will 
 harm you. This bone is from the head 
 of a codfish. It is shell-like and narrow. 
 
Eucfe 89 
 
 with a length of three-fourths of an inch. 
 The edge is notched, and the color is a 
 pearly white — very pretty. 
 
 It is a good plan to carry two lucky- 
 bones. That will make your luck doubly 
 sure. They should be both from the 
 head of the same fish. 
 
 When you drop your bread and but- 
 ter and it falls butter-side down, bad 
 luck is not very far off. There are 
 those that affirm that the bread always 
 drops butter-side down. 
 
 When you move from one habitation 
 to another, don't take the cat with you. 
 Bad luck will follow if you do. 
 
 When you play cards and have bad 
 luck, get up and go around your chair. 
 A still easier way to turn your luck is 
 to blow in the cards. 
 
 When fishing, spit on your bait for 
 good luck. Certain of the most igno- 
 rant class will spit on money for good 
 luck. 
 
 When you start on an errand or a 
 journey, don't turn back, no matter what 
 you may have forgotten. If you do, ill 
 luck in some form will overtake you. 
 
 " Some people who get started, and 
 then think of something they've forgot 
 before they've got out of sight and hear- 
 
90 %uck 
 
 ing of the house, will stand right there 
 and holler half an hour for some one to 
 fetch it, rather than go back." 
 
 See a pin and let it lie, 
 Come to sorrow by-and-by. 
 
 Another version is : — 
 
 See a pin and let it lay, 
 
 Want you will and want you may. 
 
 Another couplet is : — 
 
 See a pin and pick it up. 
 
 All the day you'll have good luck. 
 
 Others repeat this rhyme : — 
 
 See a pin and let it lie. 
 
 Bad luck you'll have until you die, 
 
 Or: — 
 
 You'll want that pin before you die. 
 
 It is a sign of good luck to fall up 
 hill. 
 
 It is unlucky to get out of bed on the 
 side opposite to the accustomed one. 
 The person who shows signs of cross- 
 ness is always liable to be reminded of 
 it by the remark, " Well, guess you got 
 out of the wrong side of your bed this 
 morning." 
 
 If a spider spins down from the ceil- 
 
ILudt 91 
 
 ing toward you, he will bring you good 
 luck. 
 
 If you trip up on something, it is a 
 sign of bad luck, Ttfe best thing for 
 you to do in such a case is to go back 
 and walk it over. 
 
 If it is a stone you have fallen over, 
 go back and touch it. 
 
 When a ring on the finger has been 
 wished on, or was placed there by some 
 one else, it will bring bad luck if you 
 allow it to be removed. 
 
 If, when you start on a journey, you 
 forget something and have to return, sit 
 down before you again start, or the jour- 
 ney will be unlucky. 
 
 If you put on your apron wrong side 
 out, wear it so, or in making the change 
 you will change your luck. This applies 
 as well to the putting on of a stocking 
 wrong side out, or any other article of 
 apparel. 
 
 Some say that it is safe to right the 
 garment if you take pains to ward off 
 the impending woe by spitting on the 
 garment. To do this genteelly, you need 
 only to moisten the finger-tip with the 
 tongue, and touch the wrong garment. 
 Then you can turn the garment again 
 and no harm will result. 
 
92 Hurft 
 
 If you spill your salt at the table, it 
 is a sign you will quarrel with your best 
 friend. You can break the compelling 
 spell of this actident by throwing on 
 the stove the salt that was spilled. 
 
 Others have it that spilling salt means 
 simply bad luck, and that you can break 
 the spell by throw a pinch of it over the 
 left shoulder. 
 
 Along the shores of many of our 
 streams live numerous families of water- 
 bugs that have hard and shiny black 
 backs, and that, when in motion, skim 
 about on the surface with great activity. 
 They are called " Lucky bugs," and it is 
 well known among the boys that to catch 
 one brings good fortune. 
 
 When a pointed ob j ect you have thrown 
 or dropped sticks up in the ground or 
 floor, it is a sign of good luck. 
 
 The finding anything which has any 
 value is a sign of good luck. 
 
 " My brother found a penny one day 
 by the doorstep at the schoolhouse. He 
 had good luck afterwards, but I've for- 
 gotten what 'twas." 
 
 The finding a penny is surer to bring 
 you good luck than almost anything else. 
 Don't spend it, but keep it, and carry it 
 for a " lucky penny." It will bring you 
 
%mk 93 
 
 good fortune ; but if you spend it, or lose 
 it, you will have bad luck, or, at any rate, 
 a sort of indifferent luck such as any one 
 might have. 
 
 If a strange dog or cat comes to you 
 and makes its home with you, it will 
 bring you good luck ; and a black cat 
 brings its owner good luck. 
 
 To cany a hoe into the house is a 
 sign of bad luck. 
 
 Be particular to put your right foot 
 foremost when you leave the house, or 
 ill luck will betide you. 
 
 Carry a large old-fashioned cent for a 
 "pocket piece." It will bring you good 
 luck. 
 
 A iive-dollar gold piece is also sup- 
 posed to be a lucky coin, and a bright 
 new penny has virtues in the same 
 line. The former may be kept laid 
 away in a drawer to hand down as an 
 heirloom. 
 
 If the first object you meet when you 
 start on a journey is a woman or a cat, 
 you will have bad luck before you return. 
 If the woman is barefoot, it portends 
 such a degree of bad luck as makes it 
 best to turn back and not go that day. 
 
 When you start on a journey, have a 
 care not to put your left arm into your 
 
94 SLucfe 
 
 jacket first. Such a proceeding would 
 bring ill luck. 
 
 When you take a piece of cake on 
 your plate, and it tips over on its side, 
 that is a sign of bad luck. 
 
 See that all the wedding-cake is eaten, 
 for then the married pair will have good 
 luck. 
 
 If an even number of crows flies over- 
 head, it is a sign of bad luck. 
 
 Put on your vest wrong side out, and 
 you will change your luck if you turn it 
 right. 
 
 Friday is an unlucky day, and it is 
 therefore unwise to begin any work on 
 that day. Many people would not think 
 of marrying, or starting on a journey, on 
 the " Hangman's Day." 
 
 To have a hen crow is a sign of bad 
 luck. 
 
 It is a sign of good luck to find a 
 four-leaf clover. 
 
 When you are on a journey, and see 
 a squirrel run across the road in front 
 of you, note his direction. If he went 
 across to the right, you will have good 
 luck, if to the left, bad luck. 
 
 If you buy the materials for a new 
 dress and do not make it up before you 
 are married, you will have very bad luck. 
 
%ntk 95 
 
 Spiders carry good luck with them. 
 Some people will not kill them for fear 
 of spoiling their luck. 
 
 If you find the cat sitting with her 
 tail to the fire, expect bad luck. 
 
 You will have bad luck if when you 
 get out of bed you rise backwards. You 
 should get up face forwards. 
 
 There is luck in odd numbers. 
 
 There is, once in a while, a man who, 
 when he sneezes, says, " God bless it," 
 that the sneeze may bring him good 
 luck. If he hears some one else sneeze, 
 he helps them to good luck by saying, 
 " God bless you." 
 
 Don't pass under a ladder ; it will 
 make you have bad luck. 
 
 Rock an empty chair, and you will 
 bring bad luck. 
 
 It is unlucky to meet a flock of sheep. 
 
 It is unlucky to meet a drove of pigs. 
 
 It is bad luck to turn over in bed. 
 The boy who made this affirmation said 
 he had heard of two men who slept to- 
 gether, and who always woke up at mid- 
 night, and got out each on his side of 
 the bed, and ran around the foot and 
 got in on the other side. Thus they 
 adjusted themselves to a new position 
 without turnins: over in bed, 
 
SNAKES 
 
 " The way a snake catches birds and 
 frogs and things is not by chasing and 
 grabbing them, but by charming them. 
 It just gets its eyes on their eyes, and 
 runs its tongue out and in, and then 
 the bird can't move if it wanted to. 
 The snake keeps that up a while, and 
 then he can take his own time about 
 doin' the swallerin'. You have to be 
 kind o' careful yourself about not bein' 
 charmed, specially by black snakes. 
 I know there was some of the children 
 out berrying one time, and Sarah Hill 
 came near bein' charmed. They thought 
 she was comin' along all right, when they 
 noticed she warn't with 'em. They 
 ran back then, and Sarah was standin' 
 96 
 
Snakes 97 
 
 still lookin' right into a bush. They 
 told her to come along, and she didn't 
 say a word. Then they tried to pull 
 her away ; but she said, ' Don't,' be- 
 cause she saw such beautiful sights. 
 Well, there was a black snake in that 
 bush, and she was bein' charmed by it. 
 Little more'n she might a got bit." 
 
 When a snake proposes to charm you, 
 it looks you straight in the eye in such 
 a sinister and unwinking way that you 
 are fascinated and paralyzed. 
 
 I was told the story of a boy who 
 was charmed one day. His companions 
 found him looking at a snake and mak- 
 ing a strange kind of noise. He did 
 not come to himself until they killed 
 the snake, and broke the spell. 
 
 An old farmer told me that one morn- 
 ing when he was out mowing his atten- 
 tion was attracted by a bird fluttering 
 around a bush in a queer kind of way. 
 " It was makin' sort of a mournful 
 noise, and flutterin' round and round 
 close to the bush. I went along up to 
 the bush to see what the matter was. 
 Then I see there was an adder in there 
 watching of it, and its nest was in that 
 bush. The snake was charming it ; for 
 I no sooner give the bush a little shake 
 
98 ^nafees 
 
 and took the snake's attention, than 
 away the bird went as quick as a flash. 
 
 " I s'pose most any kind of a snake 
 will charm birds and such things ; but 
 I don't s'pose these striped snakes 
 are powerful enough to charm people. 
 Black snakes and rattlers will, though. 
 My uncle got charmed once. He was 
 goin' along through the woods with my 
 father when he stopped and was gettin' 
 left behind. My father called to him to 
 come along ; but he didn't pay no at- 
 tention — just kep' lookin' at somethin'. 
 My father see he was gettin' charmed by 
 a snake. So he went back and give him 
 a yank, and then they killed the snake. 
 He said he wanted to come when father 
 called him, but he couldn't. He said 
 that he saw everything that was pretty, 
 — all the colors he ever thought of and 
 more too, and they seemed to be right 
 in the snake's eyes." 
 
 Many still believe that in drinking 
 from brooks one runs the risk of swal- 
 lowing a young snake, which is liable to 
 grow in the stomach, and become large 
 and troublesome. In support of this 
 idea, it is related that once there was a 
 certain child that took large quantities 
 of food, in particular a great deal of 
 
Snakeg 99 
 
 milk, yet became more and more ema- 
 ciated. One night when the child was 
 sitting at the table with a bowl of milk 
 before it, of which it had not eaten, a 
 great snake put its head out of the 
 child's mouth. Apparently it was hun- 
 gry, had scented the milk, and came 
 up out of the child's stomach to get 
 it. The child's father was by, and he 
 gripped the snake by the neck, and 
 pulled it out. It was four feet long. 
 
 Some say that instead of a bowl of 
 milk on the table, it was a pailful on the 
 kitchen-floor fresh from the cow. 
 
 Another telling of the story has it that 
 a woman swallowed the snake. As it 
 grew she was in great distress, so that 
 finally she could not eat. At length her 
 friends laid her down with her stomach 
 on a chair, and put a basin of steaming 
 hot food on the floor before her. That 
 brought out the snake, and the woman 
 got well. 
 
 It is bad enough to have a snake in 
 your stomach, but you are even worse 
 off if you meet with one of these hoop- 
 snakes. Let one of those chase you, 
 and you are a goner. They ain't afraid 
 of a man no more'n nothin', and they 
 can run faster'n any horse goin'. The 
 
100 Snakes 
 
 way the snake does is to pick its tail 
 up in its mouth, and then whirl over 
 and over like a hoop. His tail is sharp- 
 pointed and hard like a spike. When 
 he catches up with you, he just takes 
 his tail out of his mouth, and jabs it into 
 you. Oh, I tell you, you'd better swallow 
 a .dozen snakes rather'n get one o' these 
 hoop-snakes after you. 
 
 It is said that when a hoop-snake 
 strikes a man it " blasts " him. I sup- 
 
 pose that means he is paralyzed, turns 
 black, shrivels up, and like enough 
 blows away. When one of these hoop- 
 snakes strikes its tail into anything 
 wooden, — a hoe-handle, for instance, — 
 it shivers the wood into splinters, just 
 as if it had been struck by lightning. 
 
 Another snake you want to beware of 
 is the "black racer snake." It is said 
 
Snakes 101 
 
 that he has a bluish tinge, and that he 
 will chase a man whenever he gets sight 
 of one. 
 
 Kill the first snake, 
 
 And break the first brake, 
 
 And you will conquer all you undertake. 
 
 That is, the first snake and the first 
 brake seen in the spring. 
 
 Put a horse-hair in water, and it will 
 turn into a snake. This superstition 
 has two facts behind it which give it a 
 semblance of truth. Firstly, a horse- 
 hair put in water will twist and curl 
 quite curiously. Secondly, there is a 
 kind of worm sometimes seen in stag- 
 nant pools which strongly resembles a 
 coarse horse-hair. 
 
 Cut a snake's tail off, and the tail will 
 not die until the sun goes down. The 
 basis of this saying is that it is a fact 
 that the tail will continue to wriggle 
 and show signs of life long after it is 
 separated from the body. 
 
 Some authorities afiirm that you can 
 cut a snake all to pieces, and its parts 
 will not cease to move till the end of 
 the day. 
 
 If, after cutting a snake in two, you 
 put the parts into water, they will unite 
 into a whole snake asrain. 
 
102 ^mkt& 
 
 Most persons who meet a snake either 
 run off or try to kill it. Many snakes 
 are known to be harmless, and even 
 useful. People kill them because they 
 are unpleasant looking creatures, and 
 because it is the fashion. But besides, 
 there is an inherited and underlying 
 reason, which is that it is understood 
 that God put a curse on snakes in the 
 Bible, and has commanded that they be 
 killed. 
 
 " I've hearn 'em tell about how that 
 there was a little girl once that always 
 used to eat her dinner out-doors when it 
 was good weather. She'd get her plate 
 full, and then she'd go off out back o' 
 the barn somewhere, and nobody didn't 
 know what she went off like that for. So 
 after a while her folks followed her ; and 
 she went along out there by a stone wall 
 and set down, and she rapped on her 
 plate, and out there come a big rattle- 
 snake, and went to eatin' off the plate 
 with her. And when the snake got over 
 on to her side of the plate too much, 
 she'd rap him with her spoon, and push 
 him away, and say, " Keep back, Gray- 
 coat, on your own side." Her folks 
 didn't like to have her eatin' with a 
 snake that way, and they sent her off 
 
Snakeg 103 
 
 to stay somewhere else. When she was 
 gone, they went and killed the snake. 
 Bimeby the little girl come home again, 
 and then she found out her snake was 
 killed. Arter that she kind o' pined 
 away and died. 
 
 " I've hearn 'em tell about that a good 
 many times, and I s'pose that's a pretty 
 true story." 
 
 THE POWER OF IRISH EARTH 
 
 " St. Patrick, as is well known, ban- 
 ished all snakes from Ireland some hun- 
 dreds of years ago. There isn't a snake 
 in the whole country — they can't live 
 there. You may take a snake into Ire- 
 land in a big bottle, and as long as 
 you keep the cork in, he's all right ; 
 but let him breathe the air, or let him 
 touch the earth or water anywhere in 
 Ireland, I don't care where, and he's 
 a dead man in less'n no time. 
 
 " Why, there was an Irishman made a 
 bet with an American in Boston, that 
 if he made a ring of Irish earth around 
 a snake, the snake couldn't get out of it. 
 He bet seven hundred dollars, because 
 that was all he had. Then he went 
 over to Ireland, and got a little bag of 
 sand from the shore near Dublin. When 
 
104 ^mkz& 
 
 he got back here, he made a circle with 
 it on the ground, and they put a snake 
 inside the circle. The snake couldn't 
 get over that ring to save himself, and 
 the divil died there, and the man got his 
 seven hundred dollars." 
 
FOLKS 
 
 A POOR man always keeps a dog, 
 and a very poor man keeps two. 
 
 Red-headed people are usually 
 quick-tempered, or, in other words, 
 " spunky." 
 
 The baby who doesn't fall down- 
 stairs before it is a year old will 
 turn out a fool. 
 I Likewise the baby must fall out 
 
 I of bed three times before it is a 
 year old, or it won't know anything. 
 The boy who goes through a door 
 with a hoe over his shoulder will never 
 grow taller. 
 
 Insane persons were thought in days 
 not very remote to be possessed of evil 
 spirits. 
 
 Idiots were thought to be peculiarly 
 under the care of the Deity, and it was 
 believed that those who treated them 
 kindly would be blessed. 
 
 When you see a woman stirring her 
 batter from left to right, you may know 
 she is a good cook. If she stirs from 
 105 
 
106 f olkg 
 
 right to left, that is a sign she is a 
 poor cook. 
 
 It will make a child proud if you let 
 it look in a mirror before it is twelve 
 months old. 
 
 The person whose second toe is longer 
 than his great toe is born to rule. If 
 the person with such a toe is a woman, 
 she says she knows by that she will rule 
 her husband ; or, as one woman put it, 
 " It's a sign I'm going to fight with my 
 old man all my days." 
 
 If three persons of the same first name 
 come together, you may be pretty sure 
 one of them is a fool. 
 
 " When a man goes to sit down in a 
 chair, he always takes hold of its back 
 and moves it. Perhaps he won't move 
 it more'n an inch or two, but ninety- 
 nine cases out of a hundred he will 
 move it a little. When a woman goes 
 to sit down, she sits down in the chair 
 just where it was. If men and women 
 dressed exactly alike, you could tell 
 'em apart that way if you couldn't no 
 other. Now, you notice that." 
 
 A person with very light hair will 
 have poor eyes. 
 
 A person with prominent eyes is sure 
 to be a great talker. 
 
MONEY 
 
 Early to bed and early to rise 
 Makes a man healthy, wealthy, 
 and wise. 
 
 When you see a shooting star, if 
 you can say, " Money before the 
 week's out," three times over be- 
 fore it is lost to sight, you will 
 have some money before the week 
 
 is out. 
 
 ij 
 
 If you see a man going about 
 with his hat brim turned up behind, 
 you may know that he has money to 
 let. Others say it is a sign that the 
 man likes cider. 
 
 It is a sign you are going to be rich 
 if you tumble up-stairs. 
 
 If your eyebrows grow together, you 
 either are rich or are going to be. You 
 may be even surer of this coming true 
 if your eyebrows are bushy. You notice 
 the rich men that you know, and you'll 
 find that they nearly every one have 
 bushy eyebrows that grow together. 
 107 
 
108 Mam^ 
 
 When you see a man with one pant 
 leg in his boot and the other out, you 
 may know that he has money to let. 
 
 If a man has to wear out his wedding 
 clothes, he will never get rich. 
 
 It is a sign that a person is going to 
 be wealthy if he picks up all the pins 
 he finds. There is logic in this, in that 
 it indicates a saving disposition. 
 
 A scratch on the hand is a sign of 
 money. 
 
 When making pies, if the person en- 
 gaged in the work, after putting the 
 crust on the plate, trims it all around 
 without changing hands, it is a sure sign 
 she will be wealthy. 
 
 If the palm of your left hand itches, it 
 is a sign that money is coming to you 
 soon. Have a care about scratching it, 
 for that will break the enchantment. 
 
 But if you will — 
 
 Rub if^n three kinds of wood, 
 'Twill come to good. 
 
 Carry a dice in your pocketbook, and 
 you will always have money. 
 
 The woman who sews between day- 
 light and dark will always be poor. 
 Others have it that the woman who sews 
 at that time, will make her husband poor. 
 
iRoneg 109 
 
 The way in which one's shoes wear 
 out will indicate one's habits in spend- 
 ing money. 
 
 Wear at the toe, 
 
 Spend as you go. 
 
 Wear at the heel, 
 
 Spend a good deal. 
 
 Wear at the ball, 
 
 Spend all. 
 
 If it is a girl or unmarried woman 
 who studies her shoes for omens, she 
 may add another couplet. 
 
 Wear at the side, 
 A rich man's bride. 
 
 There was a time in the earlier half 
 of the century when a great deal of in- 
 terest was taken in the famous pirate, 
 Captain Kidd. He was supposed to 
 have buried a good deal of treasure 
 along the Atlantic coast. It was well 
 understood, however, that it was a dan- 
 gerous thing to attempt to find this 
 treasure ; for every time the captain 
 buried one of his iron chests, he killed 
 one of the pirate crew, and buried his 
 body with the chest, that the dead man's 
 ghost might haunt and guard the spot. 
 
 If you can find the end of a rainbow. 
 
110 JKoneg 
 
 you will be rewarded by also finding a 
 pot of gold at the spot where the rain- 
 bow touches the earth. 
 
 Don't give to the rich. You will surely 
 come to want if you do. 
 
 If you fall up-stairs, that is a sign your 
 credit is rising. 
 
 When you see a white horse, put your 
 little finger against your chin just under 
 your lips, and spit over it. The person 
 who does this will find some money soon. 
 
 A boy out for a walk will sometimes 
 count all the bows he gets from his 
 friends, and make a cross for each one 
 on a piece of paper that he carries for 
 the purpose. Later he buries the paper. 
 This is supposed to insure his finding as 
 many dollars as he received bows. 
 
Wj('-///..,.. /)'■ 
 
 DEATH 
 
 Sneeze twice when you first get up, 
 and you will hear of a death before 
 night. 
 
 If a dog howls under the window, it 
 foreshadows death in the household. 
 
 " There was a dog went and howled 
 under the window of a house up near 
 where I lived. He howled and howled ; 
 and they drove him off, but no sooner 
 done it than he was right back again. 
 And in two or three days an old lady 
 that lived there died." 
 
 Make your own wedding-dress, and 
 you will not live to wear it out. 
 
 When the rain falls in an open grave, 
 it is a sign there will be another death 
 in the same family before the year is 
 out. 
 
 Many people are troubled by this say- 
 ing when the funeral of a friend occurs 
 on a rainy day. 
 
 Ill 
 
112 JBeatf) 
 
 To cut the baby's finger-nails before 
 it is a year old will bring it to an early 
 grave. Others say that to cut the baby's 
 finger-nails before its first birthday will 
 make a thief of it. 
 
 If a whippoorwill sings near the house, 
 it is a sign of death. Some say this is 
 simply a sign of trouble. 
 
 A child must not be allowed to look 
 in a mirror before it is a year old, for 
 that means death to it. 
 
 In " ye olden time " great care was 
 taken of the looking-glass when the 
 family moved, because if it was broken 
 that meant death. Even if the looking- 
 glass was broken in the house and at 
 any time, it was a bad sign. If a pic- 
 ture fell from the wall, that was a very 
 bad omen. There are still those who 
 are " scairt to death " by such acci- 
 dents. 
 
 The sound made by the wood-tick bor- 
 ing in the walls of the old houses was 
 thought to be a forewarning of death. 
 It was known as the "death-watch." 
 
 When a loaf of bread in baking splits 
 clear across the top, it means death. 
 
 A green Christmas makes a full 
 churchyard. The foundation for this 
 saying is the fact that open winters 
 
11^ 
 
 with their constant freezings and thaw- 
 ings are very unhealthy. 
 
 If you go through 
 
 a wood or under 
 
 AxA. a tree in the 
 
 evening, 
 
 and an owl 
 
 hoots right 
 
 above your 
 
 head, it means some 
 
 relative or friend of 
 
 yours is going to 
 
 die within a year. 
 
 Thirteen is an un- 
 lucky number. If 
 that number sit down 
 to eat together, one 
 of them will die be- 
 fore the year is out. 
 If a bird flies in- 
 to the house, there 
 will soon be a death 
 in the family o r 
 among near rela- 
 tives. 
 If a corpse lies over Sunday, there 
 will be another death in town before the 
 end of the week. " Never knew that to 
 fail." 
 
 If a dog howls in the yard, the first 
 
114 'BtRt^j 
 
 person that comes in the door will die 
 very soon. " There was a dog howled 
 in our yard once, and pa was the first 
 one to come in the door. I know ma 
 felt dreadfully about it, and pa died 
 within a year." 
 
 Open an umbrella in the house, and 
 you run the risk of bringing on yourself 
 extremely bad luck. If you hold it over 
 your head, it is a sign you are soon to 
 die. If you hold it over another person, 
 you put that person in the same danger. 
 
 If a dish breaks when no one is near, 
 It is a warning of death in the family soon. 
 
 " When I was a young girl, we had half 
 a dozen slender little wineglasses. They 
 were of thin, clear glass, as pretty as any- 
 thing you ever see. But they all cracked 
 one after the other as they set there on 
 the mantel with nobody near 'em, and 
 that next summer my mother died." 
 
 In the disease called shingles, if the 
 eruption goes way round a person it 
 kills him. Those who recover take a 
 good deal of pride in having it go nearly 
 around. 
 
 If you dream of your teeth falling out, 
 that is a sign of death. Even if you 
 dream of the filling falling out that is 
 a bad sign. 
 
Jeat]^ 115 
 
 A hot May makes a fat graveyard. 
 
 To have a crow Hy over the house is 
 a sign of death. 
 
 If three lamps happen to be set on a 
 table at the same time, the result will be 
 that one of the household will die within 
 the year. 
 
 Don't let a bat fly into your house. 
 If one does get in, kill him, and it will be 
 all right. If the bat gets away, some one 
 of the household will die within a year. 
 In the old country, on warm evenings, 
 when they would keep the door open to 
 cool the rooms, you might see a woman 
 standing in the doorway with a broom in 
 her hand to keep the bats out. Every 
 time one flitted past, she would make a 
 fierce whack at it. 
 
 The child that has long fingers will 
 die young. 
 
 Others say that long fingers are the 
 sign the child will be an artist or a 
 musician. 
 
 If a looking-glass gets cracked, it is 
 understood that it is a sign of the death 
 of the eldest son of the household. 
 
 The person with a wide cheek will 
 have a long life. The person between 
 whose ear and cheekbone the distance 
 is narrow will die young. 
 
WARTS 
 
 Have you warts ? Rub them all with 
 a bean, put the bean in an envelope, 
 and bury it. When the bean sprouts, 
 the warts will be gone. 
 
 To cure a wart, pick it, and let a drop 
 of blood from it fall on a penny ; throw 
 the penny away, and the person who 
 picks it up will have the wart. 
 
 If you have conscientious scruples 
 about making other people carry your 
 warts, you can relieve yourself as fol- 
 lows : Break off a milkweed, rub the 
 milk on the wart, and bury the milk- 
 weed. When it decays, the wart will 
 disappear. Others say that the juice of 
 the milkweed will make you have warts. 
 116 
 
117 
 
 To cure a wart, rub it with a kernel 
 of corn. Tiien throw the corn out in 
 the dooryard, and if a chicken picks it 
 up and eats it tlie wart will disappear. 
 
 Another way is to steal a piece of 
 pork to rub the wart with. To do this 
 so that its use will be effective, you must 
 visit a neighbor's cellar, and abstract the 
 meat from his pork-barrel without his 
 being aware of it. 
 
 To make your warts go off, rub them 
 with sassafras. 
 
 To cure a wart, rub it with a corn, 
 bore a hole in a tree, put the corn in the 
 hole, and then plug it in. Your wart 
 will make haste to leave you when you 
 have done this. 
 
 Put vinegar on a cent, and let it cor- 
 rode. Then put the vinegar on your 
 wart, and the wart will leave. 
 
 Does that wart still trouble you ? 
 Find a snail, rub the wart with it, and 
 throw the snail away. When the snail 
 dries up and withers into nothing, the 
 wart will have gone too. 
 
 There are many ways recommended 
 for getting rid of warts, but very few. 
 ways are suggested by which one can 
 acquire them. One sure method to get 
 warts is to wash your hands in water 
 that eggs have been boiled in. 
 
118 marts 
 
 If you have a wart you wish to rid 
 yourself of, wait until you see some one 
 riding on a white horse. Then put your 
 finger on the wart, look at the rider and 
 say, " I wish you had my wart — I wish 
 you had my wart." Then he will have 
 it, and you won't. 
 
 You can cure your wart if you will 
 steal a dishcloth, rub the wart with it, 
 and then bury the dishcloth. 
 
 To get rid of a wart, steal a bean, 
 split it, rub the halves on the wart, and 
 throw them over your shoulder. At the 
 same time say, " Go, wart," and the 
 wart will leave you. 
 
 Another way is to do the halves of 
 the bean up, after you have rubbed the 
 wart with them, in a pretty package, and 
 put it in a likely place for some one to 
 pick up. The person who unties the 
 package will have the wart, which at 
 the same time will leave you. 
 
 Still another way that is equally good 
 is to sell your warts. A conversation like 
 the following can be held with a friend : 
 
 Friend: Do you want to sell your 
 warts ? 
 
 Self: Yes. 
 
 Friend : Well, I'll buy them. 
 
 Self : How much will you give ? 
 
smarts 119 
 
 Friend : Five cents. 
 
 Self: All right ; you can have 'em. 
 
 No more need be said, and no money 
 need be paid. The warts know they are 
 fixed when they liear such a conversa- 
 tion, and tliey make haste to leave. 
 
 Handle a toad, and you will have warts. 
 
 To cure a wart, rub a piece of raw 
 meat on it, and throw the meat into the 
 well, drain, or other place where it will 
 decay quickly. Tell no one ; and when 
 the meat has decayed, the wart will have 
 disappeared. 
 
 A wart can be charmed away in like 
 manner by the use of a bean instead of 
 the meat. " I know that's so, because 
 I've tried it myself. The wart went off. 
 I don't care whether any one believes it 
 or not — it's so ! " 
 
 Some claim it is best, after rubbing 
 your warts with the bean, to write a 
 polite note to the warts, requesting them 
 to go to somebody else, whose name you 
 give. Wrap the bean in the note, and 
 throw the whole into the well. The 
 warts will presently leave you, and ap- 
 pear on that other person. 
 
 A certain young man was afflicted 
 with warts. Indeed, none of his ac- 
 quaintance was encumbered to any like 
 
120 smarts 
 
 degree. One day he told the tale of his 
 warts to a friend who had been a Shaker. 
 This friend had, when in the Shaker 
 community, formed an attachment for 
 a young Shakeress, who had a like 
 fondness for him. Anything beyond a 
 brotherly and sisterly affection was not 
 countenanced among the Shakers, and 
 the two ran away. Now, this young 
 man whose life had been thus romantic 
 told David, his warty friend, that he 
 would cure his warts. 
 
 Said he, " How many warts have you ? 
 Count them up, and be sure you don't 
 miss any." 
 
 David made a careful enumeration, 
 and found fourteen. 
 
 "Very well," said the ex-Shaker; 
 " now you go out and find fourteen 
 pebbles, and bring them in." 
 
 David brought the pebbles. 
 
 " Put them in a row," commanded his 
 adviser. " Now take the first, and rub it 
 on one of your warts. Remember which 
 one you rub it on. Now you can throw 
 the pebble out of the door, and try the 
 next one." 
 
 In this manner he had David rub each 
 wart with one of the pebbles till the last 
 one had been attended to. 
 
Jiimarts 121 
 
 " Now," the ex-Shaker concluded, " all 
 you've got to do is not to think of your 
 warts for two weeks, and at the end 
 of that time they will all be gone ; " and 
 he went his way. 
 
 David determined to follow the ad- 
 vice given him ; but the harder he tried 
 not to think of his warts, the more they 
 were on his mind. At the end of two 
 weeks, he had still his full quota, and he 
 felt sure the cure was all a hoax. He 
 thought no more of the matter for a 
 fortnight or over. Then he looked for 
 his warts, and lo ! they were all gone ! 
 
 " Did you ever hear of getting rid of 
 warts by swapping 'em off onto some 
 one? That's about as good a way as 
 there is. I had a boy workin' for me 
 that had over thirty of 'em, and he sold 
 'em all for a little piece of a pencil not 
 half an inch long. Of course nobody 
 don't want your warts ; but you keep 
 stumpin' 'em for a trade, till finally they 
 make you an offer. It don't matter what 
 it is, even if it ain't more'n a little bit 
 of a chip — you take the offer, and the 
 wairts '11 leave you and come on that 
 other fellow. I've known ever so many 
 doin' that." 
 
 You can get rid of your warts in this 
 
122 TOartg 
 
 way. Count them, and tie as many 
 knots in a string as there are warts, and 
 bury the string. Dig the string up once 
 a week until the time comes when it has 
 so decayed you cannot find it any more. 
 Then you may be sure your warts will 
 have disappeared. 
 
 If you prefer, you can use a stick in- 
 stead of a string. Cut a notch in it for 
 each wart, bury it, and as the stick de- 
 cays, and the notches disappear, your 
 warts will do likewise. 
 
 It is said there used to live a woman 
 in Savoy, Mass., who could "talk a per- 
 son's warts away." 
 
LOVE AND SENTIMENT 
 
 When you go to a wedding, carry away 
 with you a piece of the wedding-cake. 
 Sleep with it under your pillow that 
 night, and the person you dream of 
 will be the one. you are to marry. 
 
 A ring is sometimes put in the wed- 
 ding-cake. The person who gets the 
 ring will marry within a year. 
 
 The person who wishes to know whom 
 he is to marry may settle the question 
 in the following manner : Roll up your 
 stockings when you go to bed at night, 
 name them, put them under your pillow, 
 and get into bed over the footboard, 
 backwards. If you have a bedfellow, 
 don't speak a word to him after this, 
 and the one of the two girls the stock- 
 ings were named after that you dream 
 about will be the one you are to marry. 
 
 Keep track of the white horses you 
 see, and count them up to ninety-nine, 
 and the next person of the opposite sex 
 you shake hands with will be the one 
 you are to marry. 
 
 123 
 
124 ILobe auli ^EntimEnt 
 
 ' ' Why ! a girl is sure to marry the 
 first man she shakes hands with after 
 counting ninety-nine white horses, even 
 if he is eighty years old." 
 
 The modern girl, particularly if she 
 lives in the city, has it that after covmt- 
 ing the requisite number of white horses, 
 she is to note the first person v/ho tips 
 his hat to her. He is her fate. 
 
 If three of the same first name sit at 
 table together, one of them will marry 
 within a year. 
 
 As long as you keep a piece of wed- 
 ding-cake in the house, you will have 
 good luck. 
 
 Crock mark, 
 Sign of a spark. 
 Nearer the thumb. 
 Sooner he'll come. 
 
 On Halloween hang up a cabbage- 
 stump over the door. The first person 
 *of the opposite sex that comes in is the 
 one you will marry. 
 
 Children sometimes try this process 
 to determine whom they like best. Sup- 
 pose it is a boy who is to make the 
 trial. He gets a companion to name two 
 apple-seeds. Then he takes the apple- 
 seeds, wets them, puts one on the upper 
 
%ahe antJ SenttTnent IL'o 
 
 lid of each eye, and proceeds to wink as 
 fast as he can. When one falls off, the 
 companion tells him what girls he named 
 the seeds for, and which was which. 
 The seed which stayed on longest indi- 
 cates the girl he loves best. 
 
 LUCKY DAYS FOR MARRIAGE 
 
 Monday for health, 
 
 Tuesday for wealth, 
 
 Wednesday the best day of all, 
 
 Thursday for losses, 
 
 Friday for crosses. 
 
 And Saturday no day at all. 
 
 If the day on which you marry is 
 stormy, it is a sign you are to have a 
 stormy married li-fe. If it is pleasant, 
 the married life will be pleasant. 
 
 On the first night that you sleep in a 
 strange bed, name each of its four posts. 
 If you dream about one of the four per- 
 sons you named the posts after that 
 ^person will be the one you will marry. 
 
 Unhappily, the person who tries this 
 frequently fails to dream of any one of 
 the four, and, indeed, may not dream 
 at all. 
 
 If you sit on a table, it is a sign you 
 will not be married for one year. 
 
126 ILcibe anti ^EnthitEnt 
 
 Others say that this a sign that you 
 want to get married. 
 
 If you braid your hair and accidentally 
 leave out a little strand, it is a sign you 
 will be married within a year. 
 
 A lowery day, 
 A lowery bride. 
 
 This is said with reference to the wed- 
 ding-day. 
 
 Never get married until you are able 
 to cut the nails neatly on both hands. 
 
 A right-handed person has to acquire 
 skill by practice to enable him to hold 
 the knife in his left hand, and cut the 
 nails on his right nicely. Apparently 
 the logic of the saying is that a person 
 will, before acquiring this accomplish- 
 ment, lack the maturity or capability 
 which would fit him for such a respon- 
 sibility. Hence the saying is esteemed 
 very sensible. 
 
 If from three lamps set in a row some 
 person unthinkingly takes one, that is 
 a sign that person will marry within a 
 year. 
 
 When, of an evening, three persons, 
 one after another, come into a room and 
 set a lamp down, it can be accepted as 
 
%abz anti ^'gnti'ment 127 
 
 settled that the third person will marry 
 within the year. 
 
 When a person's nose bleeds, it is a 
 sign that the person is lovesick. 
 
 If by chance you tread on some one's 
 toes, it is a sign that you love that per- 
 son. 
 
 If you are married in a snowstorm; 
 it is a sign that you will be rich. 
 
 Girls sometimes determine whom they 
 are to marry in this way. On each of 
 twelve slips of paper the girl writes the 
 name of some boy. These she puts in 
 an envelope, aad sleeps with them under 
 her pillow. Each morning she draws 
 one of the slips at random, and throws 
 it away. The last one left names the 
 one she is to marry. 
 
 When a girl trims pie-crust, and the 
 trimming falls over her hand, it is a sign 
 she is going to marry young. 
 
 If, when a young woman tries on a 
 dress in the process of making, it is 
 accidentally pinned to the clothing be- 
 neath, that is a sign she will marry 
 soon. 
 
 The person who tips a chair over 
 backwards will not marry that year. 
 
 May is an unlucky month to marry in. 
 
 When three of the same Christian 
 
128 %ahz anil Sentiment 
 
 name meet under the same roof, one of 
 them will marry within the year. 
 
 Happy the bride the sun shines on. 
 
 The girl who puts on a bridal veil and 
 
 orange blossoms on any occasion but 
 
 . for her own wedding will never marry. 
 
 The girl who mops crossways of the 
 boards will marry a drunken husband. 
 
 The girl who wets the front of her 
 dress on washing-day will also marry a 
 drunkard. 
 
 The girl who in baking scrapes the 
 dough-dish clean will marry a poor man. 
 In such a case the wife's thriftiness will 
 tend to keep her husband from remain- 
 ing poor. 
 
 Let a boy light a match, and burn it 
 till a charred end drops. See which 
 way the big end of this points, and 
 that will show where his " best girl " 
 lives. 
 
 Light another match, and when one 
 end is charred take hold of that end, and 
 see if you can hold it without breaking 
 till the flame eats clear through to the 
 other end. If you can, it proves that 
 your girl loves you. But if the match 
 breaks in burning, your girl does not 
 care for you. 
 
 If a girl can comb and do up her hair 
 
Eflbe ant) ^enttment 129 
 
 neatly without looking in the glass, it is 
 a sign she won't be an old maid. 
 
 Wear a bit of yarrow in your button- 
 hole, if you are anxious to know whom 
 you are to marry. The first person of 
 the opposite sex you meet afterward is 
 your fate. 
 
 A girl tickles another on the knee 
 and says, — 
 
 Tickle, tickle on the knee. 
 
 Laugh or smile, an old maid you'll be. 
 
 If a laugh or smile results, then both 
 know the tickled one will be an old 
 maid always. 
 
 When this is tried on a boy, you have 
 to insert the word bachelor in the place 
 of maid in the rhyme. 
 
 A variation of this theme is the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 If you're an honest boy (or girl), 
 As I take you to be, 
 You'll neither laugh nor smile 
 While I tickle your knee. 
 
 If a girl has thirteen after-dinner cof- 
 fee cups given to her within a twelve 
 month, she will be engaged within the 
 year following. To bring about this 
 
130 SLobE ant) ^enttrngnt 
 
 result the one who gave the first one 
 must also present the thirteenth. 
 
 Change the name and not the letter, 
 Change for the worse and not the better. 
 
 That is, the girl who marries a man 
 whose last name begins with the same 
 letter as her last name will be worse oiT 
 than she was before. 
 
 When a girl out walking stubs the toe 
 of her right foot, she knows her beau 
 has gone along the same street not long 
 before. If she hurries, she can usually 
 catch up with him. 
 
 The boy who dreams of the same girl 
 three nights in succession may know 
 that she is the one he is to marry. 
 
 An unhappy life will result if the 
 bride is married in black silk. 
 
 The girl who makes a good-looking 
 bed will have a good-looking husband. 
 
 If a girl pulls a cabbage, and only a 
 little earth clings to its roots, she is to 
 marry a poor man. If a heavy clod of 
 earth comes up with the cabbage-roots, 
 she will marry a rich man. 
 
 Put some apple-seeds on the stove. 
 Get a friend to name them. The one 
 that pops first reveals the person you 
 love best. 
 
3Loiie anti Sentiment 131 
 
 WEDDING SIGNS 
 
 Married in white, you have chosen all 
 
 right. 
 Married in gray, you will go far away. 
 Married in black, you will wish yourself 
 
 back. 
 Married in red, you will wish yourself 
 
 dead. 
 Married in green, ashamed to be seen. 
 Married in blue, he will always be true. 
 Married in pearl, you will live in a whirl. 
 Married in yellow, ashamed of your 
 
 fellow. 
 Married in brown, you will live out of 
 
 town. 
 Married in pink, your fortune will sink. 
 
 With a straw or something of the sort 
 tickle a girl's face or hands. The first 
 thing she says after the tickling will be 
 the first thing she will say after she is 
 married. 
 
 The young woman who is fond of cats 
 will be an old maid. 
 
 After a wedding ceremony, it is the 
 custom for the bride when she leaves 
 the room, or when she is driving away in 
 the carriage, to throw back her bouquet 
 of roses into the midst of the company. 
 
132 iLobe anti ^enttmmt 
 
 The one who gets the bouquet will 
 marry within a year. 
 
 If a girl likes cats better than dogs, 
 that is a sign she will never marry. 
 
 A girl who finds a crooked pin should 
 hasten to throw it away. If she saves 
 it, she will be an old maid. 
 
 if a young man at the supper-table 
 or at a party takes the last biscuit on a 
 plate, he will be an old bachelor. The 
 young woman who does this is likewise 
 fated to live single. 
 
 Be careful to sweeten your coffee or 
 tea before you put in the milk. The 
 person who puts in milk first will be 
 crossed in love. 
 
COMPANY 
 
 If you drop the scissors, and they 
 stick up in the floor, it is a sign 
 you are going to have company. 
 
 Drop a fork, and if it sticks up 
 in the floor or ground, it is a sign 
 you will have a lady visitor from 
 the direction in which it points. If 
 a knife is dropped and sticks up, a 
 man visitor is coming from the 
 direction in which it points. 
 " There's no end to these little signs. 
 There's signs for everything." 
 
 When a bumblebee flies in at an open 
 window, look for company soon. 
 
 If a visitor leaves any article behind 
 when he goes, it is a sign that he is 
 coming again. Few sayings come true 
 as often as this. The sceptical, how- 
 ever, afiirm that natural causes are suf- 
 ficient to account for the fact. 
 
 If the cat in washing its ear rubs its 
 paw way over it, that is a sign of com- 
 pany. 
 
 If you knock over the pepper-box, 
 133 
 
134 etompang 
 
 it is a sign company is coming. The 
 direction it falls in shows the direction 
 the company is coming from. 
 
 If you get two pieces of butter on 
 your plate, that is a sign of company. 
 
 An itching eyebrow is a sign of com- 
 pany. If the right one itches, the vis- 
 itor will be a gentleman; if the left one 
 itches, the visitor will be. a lady. 
 
 When the palm of the right hand 
 itches, it is a sign of company. 
 
 At your home, when you go in at one 
 door and out at another, you may know 
 you are going to have company before 
 the day is out. 
 
 You may also know that company is 
 coming when you find the backs of two 
 chairs together. 
 
 If you drop a dish-rag, it is well to 
 expect company that day. 
 
 If, in sweeping, a bit of charcoal 
 brushed by the broom makes a straight 
 black mark on the floor, it is a sign of 
 company. 
 
 In the days of the big wood fires in 
 open fireplaces, it was a very common 
 occurrence for a spark to snap out into 
 the room, and when its fire faded to leave 
 behind a bit of charcoal. This saying 
 had more pertinence then than now. 
 
Compang 135 
 
 Sneeze between twelve and one, 
 
 Sure sign somebody'll come. 
 
 Sneeze between one and two, 
 
 Come to see you. 
 
 Sneeze between two and three. 
 
 Come to see me. 
 
 Sneeze between three and four, 
 
 Somebody's at the door. 
 
 If you have company on Monday, it is 
 a sign you will have company each day 
 through the week. 
 
 If the rooster comes up on the step 
 and crows, it is a sign that company is 
 coming. 
 
 To go up one flight of stairs, and come 
 down another, is a sign that company is 
 coming. 
 
 If you make a rhyme unwittingly in 
 your talk, it is a sign company is coming. 
 
 When a woman forgets to wash the 
 spider, it is a sign that she is going to 
 have company. 
 
 If you get black on your fingers when 
 making a fire, look out for company. 
 
 School visitors are coming when a 
 scholar drops his pen, and it sticks up 
 in the floor. 
 
 If you go around the chimney, it will 
 bring company. 
 
136 ffl;ompang 
 
 An extra plate at table set, 
 
 A hungry guest you soon will get. 
 
 Of course the plate must be set by 
 accident, not purposely, or it will bring 
 no guest. 
 
 You may expect company when you 
 see your cat washing herself. Notice 
 in what direction she faces, for that 
 shows from what direction the company 
 will come. 
 
 If your company comes in at one door, 
 and goes out at another, it is a sign of 
 bad luck. 
 
 Some people are sufficiently affected 
 by this idea that they will be at con- 
 siderable pains to keep visitors from 
 going out of any door other than the 
 one they came in by. 
 
 If you drop your dishcloth, it is a sign 
 that a caller is coming whom you don't 
 want to see. 
 
 If you drop the towel, somebody is 
 coming that you do want to see. 
 
RELIGIOUS 
 
 Thunder, by some, is thought to 
 be the voice of God. To speak 
 lightly of it, or jokingly, would be 
 apt to provoke God's wrath, and 
 the offender runs the risk of being 
 punished by getting struck by light- 
 ning. 
 
 It is supposed that God some- 
 times punishes people for sin as 
 soon as it is committed, and with 
 unmistakable suddenness. Ana- 
 nias and Sapphira, struck dead for lying, 
 have many modern counterparts. Sud- 
 den death which comes to a bad man, 
 or a man who has just been swearing 
 or doing something evil, is by many 
 thought to be a punishment inflicted 
 by God. On the other hand, a man 
 who narrowly escapes death is said to 
 escape by reason of God's intervention. 
 Ministers tell such stories as the fol- 
 lowing : A man was chopping in the 
 woods. His axe slipped, and gashed his 
 foot. If the cut had been a quarter-inch 
 137 
 
138 Eelisioug; 
 
 deeper it would have severed an artery, 
 and he would very likely have lost his 
 life. God in his mercy stopped the axe 
 in its course. 
 
 Here is another example : A man had 
 prepared to leave this country, and go to 
 Asia as a missionary. He bought his 
 steamer ticket, and was in New York 
 ready to sail. On the morning the boat 
 was to leave he had his coffee served 
 in bed. The waiter was careless, and 
 spilled the hot coffee on the man, so 
 that he was severely scalded. He had 
 to give up his intended journey. He 
 bewailed the accident at the time as a 
 great misfortune ; but the ship that he 
 was to have gone in was lost at sea, and 
 all on board perished. The man went 
 later to his chosen field, and did great 
 work for the good. cause. God's hand 
 was in the accident that kept him from 
 making that fatal voyage. 
 
 When right is apparently worsted, or 
 good men are stricken, with only loss 
 and pain discernible, it is considered a 
 mysterious dispensation of Providence, 
 or it is argued that there is nevertheless 
 some unseen good in what seems on the 
 surface evil. 
 
 When a church is struck by lightning, 
 
Beltgious 139 
 
 or is burned, that is supposed to come 
 in the order of nature. But God's wrath 
 is discerned by many when a theatre or 
 saloon is destroyed. Some said that 
 President Lincoln met his death be- 
 cause he had gone to see a play at a 
 theatre. 
 
 In 1848 the first Holyoke dam built 
 across the Connecticut was finished. 
 After the escape of the water had been 
 shut off, and the flood was piling up 
 against the new structure, it is said that 
 the builder exclaimed, " God Almighty 
 couldn't sweep that dam away ! " The 
 words were no sooner out of his mouth 
 than there was a cracking of timbers, 
 and the whole structure gave way, and 
 crumbled from sight in the torrent of 
 water that then broke loose. 
 
 People commonly say that the days 
 of miracles ceased nearly two thousand 
 years ago. But in reality most people 
 continue to believe that miracles still 
 frequently occur. Not many think any 
 person has now the power to make a 
 sick man immediately well by laying 
 on of hands, or in any other way. To 
 tell a very sick man to " rise up and 
 walk " with any expectation that he 
 could do so, would be good proof that 
 
140 3^elfg:0us 
 
 you were crazy. Yet it is thought that 
 God in answer to prayer frequently re- 
 stores to health those who would natu- 
 rally die. This he rarely, if ever, does 
 suddenly and at once, as in the days of 
 old, but gradually, through the ordinary 
 -processes of nature. In 1881, when Gar- 
 field was shot, a national day of prayer 
 for his recovery was appointed. 
 
 No person is so sick but that God, if 
 he chooses, can restore health ; but when 
 a person is dead no one now expects God 
 to give life back again, or prays for it. 
 Nor does any one expect if a person 
 loses a limb that God will make it whole 
 again. It is not believed that such mir- 
 acles have ever been done since Bible 
 times ; not but that God could do 
 them, but he never does, and to ask 
 that kind of impossibility of him is use- 
 less. The less likely a thing is to come 
 about in the usual workings of nature, 
 the less it is expected that God will in- 
 terfere and make it come about. Rain 
 is frequently prayed for privately, and 
 in churches on Sunday, and, in extreme 
 cases, on week days in mass-meetings, of 
 people that have left business and come 
 together for the purpose. It is not rain 
 that will come of itself that is expected. 
 
i^eligious 141 
 
 but rain that God will send because it is 
 needed, and is fervently prayed for by 
 many people. Something supernatural 
 — a miracle — is hoped for. 
 
 On such occasions, when the rain 
 comes, it is by many thought that the 
 rain was sent in response to the prayers 
 without which it would have continued 
 dry. There are those who think the 
 people of the present are quite wicked, 
 and bring much evil on themselves by 
 not praying for what they need with the 
 constancy and fervor and trust which 
 characterized our grandparents' prayers. 
 
 It is a quite common belief that any 
 unnecessary work done on Sunday will 
 bring to grief the project with which 
 it was connected, and that Sunday pur- 
 suit of pleasure is very apt to end in 
 mishap. 
 
 In some New England families, no 
 one is allowed to read anything but 
 the Bible, the Sunday-school quarterly 
 and Sunday-school books, the Home 
 Missionary, and the Boston Congrega- 
 tionalist. They expect persons who go 
 outside these lines to come speedily to 
 some bad end. 
 
 An egg laid on Easter Sunday will 
 never spoil. It will not rot, though it 
 
142 9£v£ligf0us 
 
 may dry up. This is equally true of 
 an egg laid on Good Friday. 
 
 Wear three new things on Easter, and 
 you will have good luck all that year. 
 
 The Baptists in times past used to 
 immerse their converts in the streams. 
 The immersing was done entirely inde- 
 pendent of weather and seasons. Fre- 
 quently baptism occurred in midwinter, 
 and a hole had to be cut through the ice 
 for the rite. It was said that in these 
 baptizings no one ever took cold, or was 
 harmed in any other way. In our pres- 
 ent days faith has weakened, and the 
 rite is performed in-doors, the converts 
 are clad in suits of waterproof, and the 
 water is warmed. 
 
^:|^.i;X'^^^.^m\\ 
 
 THE MOON 
 
 If there is a circle around the moon, 
 that is a sign it is going to storm. The 
 number of stars you can see within this 
 circle shows how many days distant the 
 storm is. There is some sense in this, 
 in that there would be no circle were the 
 air not hazed with moisture, and the 
 thicker the moisture, of course the fewer 
 the stars that can be seen within the 
 circle — or anywhere else for that mat- 
 ter — and the nearer the storm. 
 143 
 
144 E\)t jMoon 
 
 Look at the moon some night and 
 say, — 
 
 " I see the moon, the moon sees me ; 
 The moon sees somebody I want to 
 see." 
 
 Then name the person you wish to 
 "see, and in a day or two you will see 
 that person. 
 : You mustn't sow onions in the new of 
 the moon. They won't amount to much 
 if you do. 
 
 Plant corn in the old of the moon. 
 It will ear out better. 
 
 When you see the new moon, jingle 
 the money in your pocket, and you will 
 have money until the next moon comes. 
 
 What you are doing when you first 
 see the new moon, you will do much of 
 while the moon lasts. 
 
 When the moon changes, expect a 
 change of weather. 
 
 Never expect much of a storm in the 
 old of the moon. 
 
 'Plant beans in the old of the moon so 
 that they won't run to vines. 
 
 Always set out the slips for your 
 hovise-plants in the new of the moon in 
 August. "They always do so much 
 better," you will never regret it. 
 
E\it Moon 145 
 
 Some say that no work prospers un- 
 less begun in the new of the moon. 
 
 When the new moon appears, observe 
 whether you can hang a powder-horn on 
 its curve or not. If you can, the month 
 will be a pleasant one. If you cannot, 
 the month will be wet. 
 
 This, in the days of the fathers, was 
 known as '' An old Injun sign." 
 
 It was put in words like these : " If 
 the Indian finds he can hang his pow- 
 der-horn on the new moon, he takes it 
 down, and goes off for a hunt. If he 
 can't, then he stays at home." The 
 idea is that the moon is the place 
 whence rains come — that it is a sort of 
 dish which, when sufficiently level, re- 
 tains the water, but when too much 
 tipped up, allows it to run over the 
 edge. 
 
 Wish on the new moon, and you will 
 get whatever you wish for. 
 
 Have your hair cut in the new of the 
 moon and it will come out fine and nice. 
 
 " When I trim Ben's whiskers and cut 
 his hair in the new of the moon, it grows 
 out as fast again." 
 
 The nearer it is to noon when the 
 moon changes, the nearer the next storm 
 is. 
 
146 gr^g JHaon 
 
 But — 
 
 The nearer to midnight, 
 The fairer the weather. 
 
 If, when you first catch sight of the 
 new moon, you see it over your right 
 shoulder, it is a sign of good luck. If 
 the moon is seen over the left shoulder, 
 it is a sign of bad luck. If you see it 
 straight in front of you, it is a sign you 
 are to have a fall. There is a jingle for 
 this last calamity which says, — 
 
 Moon in the face, 
 Open disgrace. 
 
 Kiss the first person you meet after 
 you see the new moon, and you can get 
 whatever you wish for. At any rate, you 
 will at the very least get a present within 
 a month. 
 
 Do not kill hogs in the full of the 
 moon. The pork will surely " shrink 
 bilin' in the pot if you do." Neither 
 will you get as much lard when you try 
 the fat. 
 
 Kill hogs only in the old of the 
 moon, so that the pork will swell in 
 the spider. 
 
 A girl's hair will grow much better if 
 
E])z Moon 147 
 
 she is particular to cut it off a little each 
 new moon. 
 
 Of the moon's influence on crops, 
 hair-growing, and such things, John 
 Burroughs says : "A second thought 
 must convince one of the absurdity of 
 these notions ; since we always have the 
 moon with us, whether we see it or not, 
 and its effect on the earth in causing 
 the tides is just as marked one time 
 as another. If the moon really grew 
 in the sky, and then faded away again, 
 as to the eye alone it appears to do ; 
 if the moon was really only the frag- 
 ment of the sphere, the half-moon only 
 what the eye reports it to be, etc., — its 
 influence might be much more marked 
 at some times than at others. But we 
 know the full orb passes over us every 
 day, though not always visible. We 
 know the tides are higher when the 
 sun and moon pull together than when 
 they are in opposition ; but that these 
 circumstances have any effect on vege- 
 tation there is no proof. 
 
 " The notion that there is a dry moon 
 and a wet moon is equally erroneous ; 
 since it is always dry on some parts of 
 the continent, and always wet in some 
 other parts, or in some other country, 
 
148 E\)t Moan 
 
 and the one moon serves for all. When 
 New England and New York are burn- 
 ing up, the Western or Southern States 
 are usually being drowned out." 
 
 When the moon is far north, expect 
 cold weather. When it is far south, 
 expect warm weather. 
 
INSECTS 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER 
 
 CRITTERS 
 
 Hang on to your ears when 
 you sight one of these darning- 
 needles flying around out-doors. If 
 you don't, they will like enough sew 
 up your ears so that you can't hear. 
 If they don't do that, they are liable 
 to make it uncomfortable for you by 
 going right through your head, — in at 
 one ear and out at the other. Besides, 
 they might sting you. 
 
 Many New England children are so 
 afraid the darning-needles will do some 
 of these dreadful things that at sight 
 of them they clap their hands over their 
 ears, and run in great terror. 
 
 Some say the darning-needles will sew 
 up your mouth or your nose, or they 
 think the creatures will dart straight 
 through your body. 
 
 If you kill a toad, and one of your 
 cows catches sight of the dead toad and 
 smells of it, she will give bloody milk. 
 149 
 
150 Inggctg ant fltf)cr Critters 
 
 This will come true, even if it is one 
 of the children of the household that 
 kills the toad. 
 
 It is a common belief among children 
 that angleworms and little toads are 
 rained down. Visible proof of this they 
 find in the fact that these creatures are 
 seen most just after rains. I suppose a 
 heavy rain draws them both out, — the 
 worms come up from their holes and 
 crawl about, and the toads leave the 
 spots where they have buried them- 
 selves in the dust the night before, 
 and jump about for some time after 
 the shower is over. 
 
 Some say that the worms come out 
 to get a drink, and the toads come out to 
 get the worms. 
 
 In case these creatures really are 
 rained down, they ought to be found 
 after showers on city pavements as 
 well as along country roads. 
 
 Red lizards are also supposed to be 
 rained down. 
 
 If you meet with a lion or a mad bull, 
 or anything of that kind, all you have 
 to do is to look them right in the eye, 
 and they won't touch you. If they do, 
 that proves you did not properly catch 
 the eye of the creature that charged you. 
 
Insects anb otfjcr Critters 151 
 
 If you should ever take a nap out in 
 the fields, sleep with your mouth shut. 
 If you don't, like enough a lizard will 
 crawl in, and go down into your stomach 
 and make trouble there. 
 
 It brings bad luck to kill daddy-long- 
 legs and lady-bugs. 
 
 Don't buy a horse with one white leg. 
 It is a sign of a weak horse. 
 
 Give a dog burnt brandy, and it will 
 stunt him so he will stop growing. That's 
 the way these poodles and little terriers 
 are made. 
 
 When you buy a horse remember 
 this : ~ 
 
 One white foot try him, 
 Two white feet buy him. 
 Three white feet refuse him, 
 Four white feet and a white nose. 
 Knock him in the head, and give him to 
 the crows. 
 
 It is said that a light-colored hoof is 
 softer than a black, and has to be shod 
 oftener. Light-hoofed horses are there- 
 fore not as good as dark. The sense of 
 " Two white feet buy him," is explained 
 by the fact that there was a time when 
 a good deal of pride was taken in a 
 horse with white socks or stockings on 
 
152 Ingectg ant) o tf)er Critters 
 
 his hind legs. " Stockings " were white- 
 haired legs up to the knee, while in 
 socks the white stopped lower down. 
 
 If a lamb's ears lop over, it is a sign 
 the lamb will die. 
 
 It is well for children to remember 
 that if they go out to play on Sunday, 
 the bears will eat them up. 
 
 If you don't do what your mother tells 
 you to, the boogers will get you. 
 
 The little fellows used to be greatly 
 frightened when they heard a hound 
 baying in the woods ; for they under- 
 stood that a hound dog liked nothing 
 better than to eat up a small boy when 
 he found one handy. 
 
 See two white horses, and then the 
 one'll come that you want to go with. 
 
 Corner a toad, and it will spit poison 
 at you. 
 
 Dogs are said to be healthy animals, 
 and cats unhealthy. 
 
 To play with and fondle a cat much 
 will give a person poor health. 
 
 The child that plays with a cat that is 
 shedding its hair is liable to get the hair 
 into its stomach and be killed by it. 
 
 Many believe that cats will cause the 
 death of babies by sucking their breath. 
 The only reason they suggest for the 
 
gnSEcts anb otfjcr Critterg 153 
 
 action is that the cats are attracted by 
 the baby's breath because it is sweet. 
 They will tell you that cats have been 
 caught in the act, and give much de- 
 tailed evidence. The story ends with 
 the killing of the cat, and a great com- 
 motion to restore the gasping baby's 
 breath. Physicians do not credit the 
 breath-sucking part of the stories, and 
 I will suggest one or two partial expla- 
 nations of the phenomena. Firstly, there 
 might have lingered about the baby's 
 mouth fragments of a recent lunch that 
 the cat was removing when found with 
 its mouth near the baby's ; and sec- '' 
 ondly, the baby's gasping may have 
 been caused by fear of the cat, or by 
 the alarming commotion on its account 
 among its relatives. 
 
 Hold your breath, and you can handle 
 wasps and bees without fear of being 
 stung. This recipe has often been tried 
 with complete success. Some say that 
 the philosophy of it is that holding the 
 breath closes the pores of the skin, and 
 thus makes a person impregnable to the 
 wasp's sting. I fancy, however, that 
 the believer insures his safety by hand- 
 ling the wasps much more surely than 
 the timid unbeliever would, and does 
 
154 Ineectg anti atljer Crttterg 
 
 not give them a chance to use their 
 stingers. 
 
 If your cows eat the chestnut blos- 
 soms when they fall, it will dry them up. 
 
 Others simply say, " The cows dry up 
 when the chestnuts begin to blossom," 
 and affirm that the eating has nothing 
 to do with the matter. 
 
 Notice your hens' eggs. The long 
 ones will hatch roosters, and those more 
 nearly round will be pullets. 
 
 When you have a tooth pulled, don't 
 leave it lying about. Burn it up. If 
 the cat gets hold of it, the next tooth 
 that comes will be a cat's tooth. 
 
 A swarm of bees in May 
 Is worth a load of hay. 
 
 A swarm of bees in June 
 Is worth a silver spoon. 
 
 A swarm of bees in July 
 Isn't worth a fly. 
 
 If the rooster crows in the middle of 
 the night, you may expect soon to hear 
 bad news. It is understood that the 
 direction the rooster's head is pointed 
 indicates whence the bad news will 
 come ; and there have been persons 
 who, hearing the rooster's midnight call, 
 
gngectg anb oti^er gTrt'tterg 155 
 
 would get up and visit the henroost to 
 find out in which quarter trouble was 
 brewing for them. 
 
 Set a hen on Sunday night, and all the , 
 eggs will hatch. If thirteen eggs are 
 set, there will hatch from them twelve 
 pullets and one rooster. 
 
 " Eat hog, and you become a hog," 
 said one old man to me. " The only 
 feller in the world that'd gain anything 
 by it is the shoemaker, because, when he 
 got turned into a hog, he could reach 
 around to his back, and pull out a bristle 
 when he wanted one." 
 
 If the breast-bone of the fowl you 
 have boiled is soft, it was young. If it 
 is hard, it was old. 
 
 There is a saying that on the night 
 before Christmas when the clock strikes 
 twelve the cows kneel in their stalls. 
 Some young girls in Hadley, years ago, 
 sat up to discover whether this was true 
 or not. At midnight they went out to 
 the barn, and sure enough when the 
 hour struck the cows knelt. At any 
 rate, that was what the girls said. 
 
 A still older story told in the town 
 with the same theme is that at midnight 
 when the Christmas Day begins, all the 
 cattle in the yards and fields might be 
 
156 gneectg anb otfier Critterg 
 
 seen keeeling with their heads turned to 
 the east in adoration. Two girls of the 
 olden time, Avho were eager to see for 
 themselves whether this was true or not, 
 sat up on Christmas Eve until the spell- 
 bound hour, and then visited the farm 
 cattleyard. But the cattle made no sign 
 that they were at all affected. 
 
 What you are doing when you hear 
 the first frog in the spring, you will be 
 doing much of during the year. 
 
 If you catch a fish you don't care to 
 keep, don't throw it back into the water 
 until you have finished fishing. If you 
 throw it in before, it will tell all the 
 other fish what you are up to, and no 
 more will bite. 
 
 If you see a white horse, take notice 
 and in a few moments you will see a 
 red-headed girl. Even the unbelieving, 
 if they try it, are astonished at the truth 
 there is in this statement. 
 
 Likewise, if you see a red-headed girl, 
 take note, and a white horse will soon 
 come to sight, even if it is not in sight 
 at the moment. 
 
 If your bees swarm, and show signs of 
 making away, or if a wild swarm flies on 
 to your premises, you and all your folks 
 had better "run out and ring bells and 
 
gngerts anti otfjcr CrittEts 157 
 
 blow horns for all you're worth." The 
 bees, if not too contrary, will then be 
 either so charmed or confused that they 
 Mall settle down, and all you need do is 
 to hive them. 
 
 Another way to make a swarm of bees 
 settle is to throw dirt or water at them. 
 They cannot fly when their wings are 
 wet. Even the bee that gets drabbled 
 in the dew has to dry his wings before 
 he proceeds on his travels. 
 
 It is often said that when a bee stings, 
 it leaves its stinger in the wound, and 
 that the loss of the stinger later causes 
 the bee's death. I have at first-hand a 
 story that tends to disprove this idea. 
 A man was whetting his scythe when a 
 bee flew into his face, and stung him on 
 the tip of his nose. The man dropped 
 his scythe and whetstone, and grabbed 
 the bee in his right hand. Before he 
 could crush the bee, it had stung him 
 again on his palm. It plainly did not 
 leave its stinger in the man's nose, else 
 how could it sting his palm ? Both 
 wounds became equally swollen and 
 painful. 
 
 One old farmer commented on this 
 statement with regard to the bee in this 
 way, " Oh, no ! a bee doesn't lose his 
 
158 jtnsgcts antj at^zx Critters 
 
 stinger when he stings half the time. 
 When he does, and he gets back to the 
 hive, the old king bee '11 kill him, "cause 
 if he ain't got no stinger he can't help 
 defend 'em any more. If a bee stings 
 you, and leaves his stinger, you'd better 
 - get it out as quick as you can, or it will 
 pain you a long time." 
 
 The truth of the matter is that a honey 
 bee does lose its stinger when it stings 
 a person, and this loss causes its death. 
 It is different with wasps and bumble- 
 bees. They will sting a person again 
 and again with no bad result to them- 
 selves. The stings in a series, how- 
 ever, grow less virulent from first to 
 last. 
 
 A rat won't go through a soaped hole. 
 
 Ants won't cross a chalk mark. You 
 simply have to take a piece of chalk, and 
 draw a circle around the dish you wish 
 to protect. 
 
 In Hadley there was once a dog who 
 used always to howl when the nine 
 o'clock evening bell rang. This was 
 the occasion of not a little talk and 
 ominous wagging of heads among the 
 townspeople, who thought it portended 
 misfortune of some sort. 
 
 If you sell a calf, have it taken out 
 
£ni5£ctg anti otijer gDn'tterg 159 
 
 of the barn backwards, and the cow will 
 not mourn its loss so much. 
 
 When a horse lies down on the ground 
 to roll, notice whether it rolls over or not. 
 The number of times it rolls over, indi- 
 cates the number of hundred dollars it 
 is worth. 
 
 A cat knows it can go through any 
 hole that it can get its whiskers through 
 without touching. Therefore when a cat 
 comes to a doubtful hole it just puts its 
 head in, and notices whether its whiskers 
 touch or not. If they do, it lets that 
 hole alone. 
 
 A girl does well to notice the color of 
 the first butterfly she sees in the spring. 
 That will be the color she will wear 
 mostly in her clothes for the next twelve 
 months. 
 
I COUNTING 
 
 OUT 
 RHYMES 
 
 I 
 Ene, mene, moni, mi, 
 Tusca, lona, bona, ski, 
 Uldy, guldy, boo, 
 Out go you. 
 
 2 
 
 Ene, mene, moni, mi, 
 Barci, loni, boni, stri, 
 Kay bell, broken well, 
 We — wo — wack. 
 
 3 
 Ene, mene, moni, mi, 
 Barca, lona, bona, stri. 
 Air, wair, from, wack, 
 Harico, barico, be, bi, bo, buck. 
 
 4 
 
 Ene, mene, mini, mo, 
 Catch a nigger by the toe. 
 When he hollers let him go, 
 Ene, mene, mini, mo. 
 
 5 
 As I climbed up the apple-tree. 
 All the apples fell on me. 
 Did you ever tell a lie .'' 
 You did, you know you did, 
 160 
 
®0unttng out i^j^gmcs 161 
 
 Because you stole your mother's tea- 
 pot lid. 
 
 Variation of the foregoing : — 
 
 As I climbed up the apple-tree, 
 
 All the apples fell on me. 
 
 Bake a pie, bake a pudden. 
 
 Did you ever tell a lie .'' 
 
 Yes, you did, you know you did, 
 
 You stole your mother's teapot lid. 
 
 6 
 Red, white, and blue, 
 All out but you. 
 
 7 
 One, two, three. 
 Mother caught a flea. 
 Flea died, 
 And mother cried, 
 One, two, three. 
 
 8 
 Eggs, cheese, butter, bread ; 
 Stick, stack, stone dead. 
 Stick 'em up, stick 'em down, 
 Stick 'em in the old man's crown. 
 
 9 
 Little boy driving cattle, 
 Don't you hear his money rattle ? 
 One, two, three, out goes he. 
 Or she as the case may be. 
 
162 Counting out i^I)gm£0 
 
 Monkey, monkey, bottle of beer. 
 How many monkeys have we here ? 
 One, two, three, out goes he. 
 Wire, brier, limber lock, 
 Six geese in a flock. 
 Two flew east, 
 ■ Two flew west. 
 
 Two flew over the cuckoo's nest. 
 
 II 
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, 
 All good children go to heaven. 
 
 12 
 
 My father built a little house, 
 How many .nails did he put in it .-• 
 
 The one pointed out as " it " may say 
 any number he pleases, but the common 
 answer is " fifteen." Then those in the 
 game are counted on, and the one who 
 is fifteen " is out." 
 
 13 
 
 A rhyme with the same idea was put 
 in words like the following : — 
 
 My father had a horseshoe. 
 How many nails did he put in it ? 
 
 The one to whom the last word comes 
 shuts his eyes, and tries to guess a num- 
 ber which, when the counting begins with 
 
Counting out l^fjgi ncS 163 
 
 him and goes around, will end with him. 
 That would count him out. The guess 
 has to be made at once ; and if there are 
 a number in the party, the guess is apt 
 to be wrong. 
 
 In some communities the initial ques- 
 tion is as follows : — 
 
 My father has a horse to shoe, 
 How many nails do you think'll do .'' 
 
 14 
 Nigger in the woodpile. 
 Don't you hear him holler ? 
 Bring him down to my house, 
 Give him quarter of a dollar. 
 
 15 
 Nigger on the woodpile. 
 Don't you hear him squeal ? 
 Bring him down to my house. 
 Give him a peck of meal. 
 
 16 
 One is all, two is all, zickerzall, zan, 
 Poptail, vinegar, tickle and tan, 
 Harum, scarum, English mare-um. 
 See, taw, buck — uldy, guldy, goo. 
 Out goes y-o-u. 
 
 17- 
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, 
 Count the lovely arch of heaven. 
 
164 (taunting out ^figtneg 
 
 Seven colors make a bow, 
 Sweetest, fairest thing I know. 
 See the rainbow in the heaven. 
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. 
 
 One-ery, u-ery, ickery, Ann, 
 Fillisy, fallasy, Nicholas John, 
 Quevy, quavy, Irish Mary, 
 Stinkelum, stankleum, Johnny co 
 buck. 
 
 A variation of the first two lines runs 
 as follows : — 
 
 Hokey, pokey, winkey, wong, 
 Chingery, chongery, Nicholas John. 
 
 A variation of the third and fourth 
 lines is this : — 
 
 Quevy, quavy, English navy, 
 Stringelum, strangelum, jolly co 
 buck. 
 
 19 
 
 E-ry, i-ry, ickery Ann, 
 
 Bobtail, vinegar, tickle and tan, 
 
 Hare-um, scare-um, buckram, bare- 
 
 um. 
 Tea, tie, toe, tis. 
 
(JTouuting out ^f)gmeg 165 
 
 20 
 The vingle, the vangle, 
 The goose and the gander, 
 Come roly me bony brandy dip. 
 
 21 
 Two, four, six, eight, 
 Mary at the garden gate 
 Eating cherries off a plate, 
 Two, four, six, eight, 
 
 22 
 As I went up Salt Lake, 
 I met a little rattlesnake. 
 He e't so much of ginger cake, 
 It made his little belly ache. 
 
 23 
 Onery, ary, dicory, seven, 
 Halibone, cralibone, ten or eleven, 
 Pe, po, must be done, 
 Twiggle, twaggle, twenty-one. 
 
 24 
 Engine number nine. 
 Stick your head in turpentine, 
 Turpentine make it shine. 
 Engine number nine. 
 
 25 
 Dickery, dickery, dare. 
 The pig flew up in the air ; 
 The man in brown 
 Soon brought him down ; 
 Dickery, dickery, dare. 
 
166 Counting out i^^S^^s 
 
 26 
 Impty, mimpty, tibbity, fig, 
 Delia, dahlia, dominig, 
 Ocher, pocher, dominocher, 
 Om, pom, tuss. 
 Oily, golly, goo. 
 Out goes you. 
 
 27 
 Nigger, nigger, hoe potater, 
 Half past alligater, 
 First man killed, a nigger, boo ! 
 
 28 
 Ibbity, bibbity, sinity, salve, 
 Ibbity, bibbity, mellow. 
 
 29 
 Acker, backer, soda cracker. 
 Acker, backer, boo ! 
 My father chews tobacker, 
 Out goes you. 
 
 Monkey in the match-box. 
 Don't you hear him holler ? 
 Take him to the station-house, 
 And make him pay a dollar. 
 
 31 
 Finally, here is a formula for counting 
 
 out made up of the first nine letters of 
 the alphabet. The one to whom the let- 
 ter / comes is the one each time who 
 drops out. 
 
 A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I. 
 
TRICKS 
 
 AND 
 
 CATCHES 
 
 Boy: Now you say, "Just like 
 me," every time I stop, and I'll 
 tell you a story. 
 
 Friend: All right. 
 
 jBoy: I went up one flight of stairs. 
 
 Friend : Just like me. 
 
 Boy : I went up two flights of stairs. 
 
 Friend : Just like me. 
 
 Boy : I went up three flights of stairs. 
 
 Friend : Just like me. 
 
 Boy : I went up four flights of stairs. 
 
 Friend : Just like me. 
 
 Boy : I went into a little room. 
 
 Fi-iend : Just like me. 
 
 Boy : I looked out of a window. 
 
 Friend : Just like me. 
 
 Boy : And I saw a monkey. 
 
 Friend : Just like me. 
 
 Boy : Oh, ho, ho, ho ! Just like you / 
 
 The friend collapses, and seeks an- 
 other boy whom he can try the same on. 
 The boy who knows the catch turns the 
 tables by going through everything right 
 but his final sentence. That he changes 
 167 
 
168 gEricfeg ant» gPatcfjgs 
 
 to " Just like yoii / Ha, ha, ha ! You 
 didn't get me that time ! " 
 
 There are various rough tricks that 
 have their outbreaks and periods of in- 
 fliction among school-boys just like mea- 
 sles or whooping-cough. One of these 
 ' is. the making another fellow "walk 
 Spanish." You catch him by the collar 
 and the slack of his pants behind, and 
 make him step along on the tips of his 
 toes. The walker feels very awkward 
 and helpless, and the other fellows are 
 very much amused by his manner. This 
 performance is also called "The Shirt- 
 tail Run." 
 
 " The Dutch Whirl " is considered a 
 very clever thing among the boys. Two 
 of them catch a third between them, each 
 with a grip on his coatsleeve and "pant- 
 leg," and turn him over and land him on 
 his feet again. It makes the whirled one 
 a little dizzy and disconcerted, but has 
 no serious effect if his clothing holds. 
 
 Say the following over and over as 
 fast as you can : — 
 
 1. Six gray geese in a green field 
 grazing. 
 
 2. Six, slick, slim saplings. 
 
 3. Theophilus Thistledown, the sue- 
 
gTricks anti gDatc|)gg 169 
 
 cessful thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve 
 full of unsifted thistles, thrust three 
 thousand thistles through the thick of 
 his thumb. If, then, Theophilus This- 
 tledown, the successful thistle sifter, in 
 sifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles, 
 thrust three thousand thistles through 
 the thick of his thumb, see that thou, in 
 sifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles, 
 dost not "get the thistles stuck in thy 
 tongue. 
 
 4. Six, thick, thistle sticks. 
 
 5. A cup of coffee in a copper coffee- 
 pot. 
 
 6. The cat ran up the ladder with a 
 raw lump of liver in its mouth. 
 
 This is likewise repeated in this 
 form : — 
 
 The cat ran over the roof of the 
 house with a lump of raw liver in her 
 mouth. 
 
 7. Round and round the rugged rock 
 the ragged rascal ran. 
 
 A boy asks a friend to play a number 
 game with him. After he has given 
 the friend the necessary rudimentary 
 instruction, the game proceeds in the 
 foUowins: dialogue : — 
 
170 EvickQ anH (!tatc|)eg 
 
 Boy : I one it. ■ 
 
 Friend : I two it. 
 
 Boy : I three it. 
 
 Friend : I four it. 
 
 Boy : I five it. 
 
 Friend : I six it. 
 
 Boy : I seven it. 
 
 Friend : I eight it. 
 
 ^(?y.- Oh, you ate the old dead horse ! 
 (or some otlier subject equally choice for 
 eating purposes). 
 
 If the friend knows the trick, he', at 
 the end, changes the final sentence to 
 " You ate it." 
 
 ANCIENT JOKE 
 
 First person : Did you ever notice that 
 when you get up in the morning it is 
 always your left foot that you dress last ? 
 
 Second person : No ; and I don't be- 
 lieve it is, either. 
 
 Fii'St person : Well, whichever foot 
 you dress first, the other must be the 
 /e/t one, mustn't it ? 
 
 When this point has been made, it is 
 proper that the company should laugh. 
 
 A CHICKEN QUESTION 
 
 Boy to companion : Which would you 
 rather have, a rooster or a pullet ? 
 
gErt'ckg anti Catc|)e0 171 
 
 If boy number two says " a rooster," 
 boy number one goes behind him, and 
 gives him a hoist with his knee. 
 
 Is he says " a pullet," number one 
 pulls number two's nose. 
 
 Number one considers himself very 
 smart in either case. 
 
 A PRESENT 
 
 Boy : Don't you want me to give you 
 a little red box ? 
 
 Companion : Yes. 
 
 The boy then gives the other a box 
 on the ear. 
 
 THE ARREST 
 
 Boy tinmber one : You're going to be 
 'rested. 
 
 Boy number two : When ? 
 
 Boy number one : When you go to bed 
 
 to-night. 
 
 A mother's call 
 
 Boy to cojnpanion : Your mother calls 
 you, Harry (or whatever the other fel- 
 low's name is). 
 
 Harry : What for ? 
 
 Boy : Because that's your name. 
 
 A serious charge 
 
 Boy : You're going to be arrested. 
 Friend: What for ? 
 
172 EiithQ mt} Catcf)g0 
 
 Boy: For stealin' your grandpa's toe- 
 nails. 
 
 INNUENDO 
 
 When two boys in school go for a 
 drink to the waterpail at the same time, 
 number one hands the glass to number 
 ' two and says, " Age before beauty." 
 Number two takes it, and says, " Men 
 before monkeys." Number one finishes 
 the dialogue and keeps up his end by 
 responding, " The dirt before the broom," 
 
 THE MONKEY AT SCHOOL 
 
 J^trsf child: Do you want to see a 
 monkey? 
 
 Second child : Yes. 
 
 Then number one holds up a mirror 
 before number two, or goes outside 
 and holds a dark shawl up against 
 the window-pane for number two to 
 look into. 
 
 A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 
 
 Hog Latin : " Igry knowgry somegry 
 thinggry yougry don'tgry knowgry." 
 
 Tra?islation : " I know something you 
 don't know." 
 
 A conversation carried on in this lan- 
 guage between two children is as blind 
 to their uninitiated mates as real Latin. 
 
ExickQ ant Catdjeg 173 
 
 How the speakers can make anything 
 out of such outlandish grunting talk is a 
 great puzzle. But children find it even 
 more diflicult than grown people to keep 
 a secret, and this accomplishment is not 
 long in becoming a common possession. 
 
RHYMES AND JINGLES 
 
 When about to run a race or 
 engage in a jumping-match, this 
 rhyme is appropriate : — 
 
 One to begin, 
 Two to show, 
 Three to make ready, 
 And four to go. 
 
 At the end of the race the one 
 who came in last sometimes con- 
 soles himself by calling out : — 
 
 First's the worst. 
 
 Second's the same. 
 
 Last's the best of all the game. 
 
 Question : What's your name ? 
 Answer : Pudden tame ; 
 Ask me again 
 And I'll tell you the same. 
 
 Some of the boys give a much ruder 
 answer to this question in these words : — 
 
 John Brown, 
 
 Ask me again and I'll knock you down. 
 174 
 
3^f)2mrs ant Jingles 175 
 
 Second form : — 
 
 Question : What's your name ? 
 Aiiswer : Pudden tame. 
 Question : What's your natur' ? 
 Answer: Pudden tater. 
 Question : W^hat's your will ? 
 Answer: Pudden swill. 
 
 Third form : — 
 
 Question : What's your name ? 
 Answer: Pudden tame. 
 Question : What's your other ? 
 Answer : Bread and butter. 
 Question : Where do you live ? 
 Answer : In a sieve. 
 Question : What's your number ? 
 Answer: Cucumber. 
 
 Crowing hens and jumping sheep 
 Are the worst property a farmer can 
 keep. 
 
 Boys often say it in this way : — 
 
 Whistling girls and crowing hens 
 Always come to some bad ends. 
 
 Another version is : — 
 
 Whistling girls and blatting sheep 
 Are the worst property a farmer can 
 keep. 
 
176 Bj^gmeg artli Jingleg 
 
 Still another way to say the same 
 thing is : — 
 
 Whistling girls and hens that crow 
 Are always sure to get a blow. 
 
 The girl's response to this innuendo is, 
 " That is not right. It's like this : — 
 
 Whistling girls and merino sheep 
 
 Are the best property a farmer can keep." 
 
 When a boy gets mad at another he 
 will sometimes call out derisively : — 
 
 Paddy Whacker, chew tobacker. 
 If he dies, it is no matter. 
 
 In the following, two children stand 
 and take hold of hands, and swing their 
 arms from side to side in time to the 
 rhythm of the verse they repeat. With 
 the final words, hands still clasped, they 
 turn the arms on one side over their 
 heads and at the same time turn around 
 themselves. The verse runs as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 Wash your mother's dishes. 
 Hang 'em on the bushes. 
 When the bushes begin to crack. 
 Hang 'em on the nigger's back. 
 When the nigger begins to run. 
 Shoot him with a leather gun. 
 
l^j^gntES anil Singles 177 
 
 The following is a programme for 
 Thanksgiving week : — 
 
 Monday — wash, 
 Tuesday — scour, 
 Wednesday — bake, 
 Thursday — devour. 
 
 In a game of tag, it is the proper thing 
 to shout out to the one in chase : — 
 
 Fire on the mountain, 
 Fire on the sea, 
 You can't catch me. 
 
 A variation : — 
 
 Fire on the mountain, 
 Run, boys, run ; 
 The cat's in the cream-pot. 
 Run, girls, run ! 
 
 A quick way of counting up to one 
 hundred : — 
 
 Ten, ten, double ten, forty-five, fifteen. 
 
 William Blake, William Austin, and 
 William Bond all lived in the same town. 
 This fact inspired some local poet with 
 the following strains, that proved quite 
 popular among the young people : — 
 
178 El^gmeg anti gmgleg 
 
 Bill Blake made the cake, 
 Bill Austin made the frostin , 
 And Bill Bond put it on. 
 
 Rhyme addressed to a person who 
 has red hair : — 
 
 - Redny, redny, fire on top, 
 
 All the rednys come flipperty flop. 
 
 When you are getting ready to jump, 
 swing your arms and say this : — 
 
 One, two, three, 
 The bumble bee. 
 The rooster crows, 
 And away he goes. 
 
 Lazy folks work the best 
 When the sun is in the west. 
 
 This rhyme the women folks like to 
 repeat to the men folks when the latter 
 find it necessary to work in the evening. 
 
 A suitable address to a Frenchman is 
 the following : — 
 
 Frenchy baboo 
 
 Lived in a shoe, 
 
 Never got up till half-past two. 
 
 A French citizen can respond to the 
 American in terms like these : — 
 
3^fjpm£0 antj Sitigles 179 
 
 Yankee Doodle went to town, 
 Stuck a feather in his, crown, 
 Called him Macaroni. 
 
 Another derisive rhyme employed 
 against the French is this: — 
 
 Pea-soup and Johnny-cake 
 Make a Frenchman's belly ache. 
 
 There was a little man. 
 He had a little gun, 
 He put it in his pocket, 
 And away he did run. 
 
 Variation : — 
 
 There was a little man. 
 
 He had a little gun. 
 
 His bullets were made of lead, 
 
 And he went out to shoot the duck. 
 
 And shot him right in the head. 
 
 Then away he did run to old Granny 
 
 Jones 
 Because there was a fire to make, 
 Saying, " Here is the duck I shot in the 
 
 brook, 
 And now Fll go after the drake." 
 
 Little Dick, 
 
 He was so quick. 
 
 He tumbled over the timber. 
 
180 i^f)gmeg anti gmgleg 
 
 He bent his bow, 
 To shoot a crow, 
 And shot the cat in the winder. 
 
 If a body meet a body in a bag of beans, 
 Can a body tell a body what a body 
 
 A MODERN MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 The hero of this tale was probably 
 very like many of the makers of the 
 chance jingles that have caught the 
 children's ears, and become immortal 
 by much repetition. 
 
 He is said to have lived in Enfield, 
 Conn. One morning, in schooltime, he 
 wrote something on a slip of paper and 
 passed it round among his fellows. It 
 made a good deal of ill-concealed mer- 
 riment, and the teacher was fortunate 
 enough to capture the offending bit of 
 paper and to ferret out its author. The 
 words on the paper were, — 
 
 Three little mice ran up the stairs 
 
 To hear Miss Blodgett say her prayers. 
 
 The teacher realized that she was 
 being made fun of, but was so impressed 
 by the clever expression of the lines that 
 she said, " John, I give you five minutes 
 
3^tlg^g8 anti 3tngl£8 181 
 
 to make another two lines. If you fail, 
 I shall punish you." 
 
 The boy scratched his head, and went 
 to work. The result was as follows : — 
 
 When Miss Blodgett said " Amen," 
 The three little mice ran down again. 
 
 One person says to another : — 
 
 Adam and Eve and Pinchme 
 Went out for a swim ; 
 Adam and Eve got drowned. 
 Who was saved ? 
 
 The second person answers, " Pinch- 
 me." 
 
 Number one responds by giving num- 
 ber two a pinch. 
 
 Old rhyme : — 
 
 Said Aaron to Moses, 
 
 " Let's cut off our noses." 
 
 Says Moses to Aaron, 
 
 " It's the fashion to wear 'em." 
 
 Indian counting up to twenty : — 
 
 Een, teen, tether, fether, fip, 
 Satra, latra, co, tethery, dick, 
 Eendick, teendick, tetherdick, fether- 
 dick, bump, 
 
182 Ef)gmgs anti Jingleis 
 
 Eenbump, teenbump, tetherbump, feth- 
 erbump, jicket. 
 
 A boy ties another's stockings to- 
 gether, and then hollers as loud as he 
 can, — 
 
 " Charlo beef, 
 The beef was tough, 
 Poor little Charley 
 Couldn't get enough." 
 
 The name in the third line is changed 
 to suit the case in hand. 
 
 This stocking-tying is usually done 
 by a boy's friends while he is in swim- 
 ming, and the jokers try to tie such a 
 knot that the owner can only untie it by 
 using his teeth. The appropriate time 
 to say the poetry is when the boy be- 
 gins to work with his teeth on the knot. 
 
 Here is a variation : — 
 
 Chew, chew — the beef. 
 The beef is tough, 
 If you don't chew hard. 
 You'll never get enough. 
 
 If a boy has a friend named Joseph, 
 he can entertain him by the following 
 rhyme : — 
 
 Joe, Joe, 
 Broke his toe 
 Riding on a buffalo. 
 
^f^gtneg anti 3ingl£g 183 
 
 If the friend's name is Frank, the fol- 
 lowing will suit : — 
 
 Frank, Frank, 
 
 Turned the crank, 
 
 His mother come out and gave him 
 a spank. 
 
 And knocked him over the sand- 
 bank. 
 
 If his name is Bert the following is 
 appropriate : — 
 
 Bert, Bert, tore his shirt 
 Riding on a lump of dirt. 
 
 If his name is Samuel, he will very 
 likely be interested in this : — 
 
 Sam, Sam, 
 
 The dirty man. 
 
 Washed his face in a frying-pan, 
 
 Combed his hair with the back of a 
 
 chair, 
 And danced with the toothache in the 
 
 air. 
 
 Something like the above ditty is ap- 
 propriate for a boy named John. The 
 accepted way to repeat the jingle is as 
 follows : — 
 
 My son John is a nice old man, 
 Washed his face in a frying-pan. 
 
184 3^f)gmg0 anb Jingleg 
 
 Combed his hair with a wagon-wheel, 
 And died with the toothache in his 
 heel. 
 
 Take the baby's foot in your hand, 
 wiggle the toes one after the other, be- 
 ginning with the big one, and recite : — 
 
 This little pig says, " I go steal wheat ; " 
 This little pig says, " Where'll you get 
 
 it?" 
 This little pig says, " In father's barn ; " 
 This little pig says, " I go tell ; " 
 And this little pig says, " Quee, quee, 
 
 quee ! " 
 
 A variation of this story is the follow- 
 ing : — 
 
 This little pig goes to market, 
 This little pig stays at home, 
 This little pig has plenty to eat. 
 This little pig has none, 
 This little pig says, " Wee, wee, wee ! " 
 all the way home. 
 
 One of close resemblance to the above 
 is this : — 
 
 This little pig says, " I want some corn ; " 
 This little pig says, " Where'll you get 
 
 it?" 
 This little pig says, " In grandpa's barnj" 
 
i^fjgmes nnti Singles 185 
 
 This little pig says, " It'll do no harm; " 
 
 This little pig says, " Quee, quee, quee, 
 
 I can't get over the barn door-sill ! " 
 
 Another toe refrain is the following, 
 which begins with the smallest of the 
 five : — 
 
 Little Pee, 
 
 Penny Rue, 
 
 Ludy Whistle, 
 
 Mary Hustle, 
 
 Great big Tom, gobble, gobble ! 
 
 A burlesque : — 
 
 The boy stood on the burning deck, 
 
 Peeling potatoes by the peck. 
 
 When all but he had fled. 
 
 He cried aloud and said, • 
 
 " Say ! father, say ! 
 
 Shall I throw the peels away ? " 
 
 Second form : — 
 
 The boy stood on the burning deck. 
 Eating peanuts by the peck. 
 His father called ; he could not go, 
 Because he did love peanuts so. 
 
 Third form : — 
 
 The boy stood on the burning deck, 
 Eating peanuts by the peck. 
 
186 Etgmgs ant Jingles 
 
 A girl stood by all dressed in blue, 
 And said, " I guess I'll have some too." 
 
 A verse for a small boy : — 
 
 Fishy, fishy, in the brook. 
 Papa catch him with a hook, 
 Mama fry him in a pan, 
 Georgy eat him fast's he can. 
 
 The last line sometimes ends, "like a 
 man." 
 
 The last two lines may also be changed 
 to read : — 
 
 Mama fry him in the spider, 
 Georgy eat him like a tiger. 
 
 The boy's name can be varied to suit 
 the speaker. 
 
 One way of counting to ten : — 
 
 Onery, twoery, fithery, sithery, san, 
 Wheelerbone, whackerbone, inery, 
 ninery, tan. 
 
 A verse said by a boy who parts from 
 his companion in the evening : — 
 
 Good-night, 
 Sleep tight. 
 Don't let the bedbugs bite, 
 
 A political couplet shouted by school- 
 boys : — 
 
9^f)gmeg KXits Jtnglgg 187 
 
 Republican rats, take off your hats, 
 And make way for the Democrats. 
 
 A jingle to say when churning : — 
 
 Come, butter, come, 
 Peter's at the gate. 
 Waiting for a patty cake. 
 
 This used to be said as a charm to 
 make the butter come quickly. 
 
 The schoolhouse at the little Massa- 
 chusetts village of Hockanum seventy- 
 five years ago was far too small to 
 accommodate the outpouring of the 
 population on the momentous occasion 
 of a "last day," and it was the custom 
 to have the exercises in the long hall of 
 " Granther " Lyman's tavern. The piece 
 which created the greatest sensation on 
 one of these last days was delivered be- 
 fore a crowded audience by a certain 
 small boy in the following words : — 
 
 A woodchuck lived far over the hills, a 
 
 good way off. 
 And died with the whooping-cough. 
 
 It bears every mark of being original 
 poetry, and it was repeated and laughed 
 over for a long time afterwards. 
 
 Whether this boy originated the idea 
 
1^8 j^f)gmgg anti Jtngleg 
 
 and expression or not, there are at the 
 present time extended variations of the 
 tale. The best of these is the follow- 
 ing : — 
 
 Over the hills and a good way off, 
 
 A woodchuck died with the whooping- 
 cough. 
 
 The thunders rolled, the lightnings 
 flashed, 
 
 And broke grandma's teapot all to 
 smash — down cellar. 
 
 When you have the baby in your lap, 
 you can amuse it by saying, — 
 
 " Pat a cake, pat a cake, baker's man." 
 
 " So I will, master, as fast as I can." 
 
 " Roll it, roll it, roll it, 
 
 Prick it, prick it, prick it, 
 
 Toss it up in the oven and bake it." 
 
 You at the same time take the baby's 
 hands in yours, and pat them together 
 to suit the two first lines, rub them 
 against each other to suit the third, 
 take one finger and dig it into the palm 
 of the other hand to suit the fourth, and 
 toss both hands up, and the baby too if 
 you choose, to suit the final line. Then, 
 if the baby is anything like the babies 
 
S^Ijgmeg anti JingUs 189 
 
 used to be, it will crow and be very 
 happy. 
 
 Here is a variation of the same 
 theme : — 
 
 Pat a cake, pat a cake, baker's man, 
 Pat it and pat it as fast as you can, 
 Pat it and prick it, and mark it with B, 
 And toss it in the oven for baby and me. 
 
 This is acted out in the same way, 
 and the letter B is marked with a finger 
 on the child's palm. B, of course, stands 
 for baby. 
 
 Jog the baby up and down on your 
 knees, and say, — 
 
 Trot, trot to Boston, 
 To buy a loaf of bread. 
 Trot, trot home again, 
 The old trot's dead. 
 
 Trot the baby on your knee, and say. — 
 
 Seesaw, Jack in the hedge, 
 
 Which is the way to London Bridge ? 
 
 When you have the baby in your 
 arms and are rocking it to sleep, say, — 
 
 Bye baby bunting, 
 Papa's gone a-hunting ; 
 
190 Ef)gtnE0 ant) JJtngks 
 
 Mother's gone to milk the cow ; 
 Sister's gone — /don't know how ; 
 Brother's gone to get a skin 
 To wrap the baby bunting in. 
 
 Whether it is a nurse or one of the 
 sisters of the infant that is supposed to 
 say this is not quite clear. 
 
 Catch a grasshopper, and say to it, — 
 
 Grasshopper, grasshopper, give me some 
 molasses, 
 
 Or I'll kill you to-day, and bury you to- 
 morrow. 
 
 When you are asked to tell a story, or 
 to furnish amusement of most any sort, 
 you can say, — 
 
 I'll tell you a story 
 About old Mother Morey, 
 And now my story's begun ; 
 I'll tell you another 
 About her brother. 
 And now my story is done. 
 
 Or you can put it in this form : — 
 
 I'll tell you a story 
 About Jack a Nory ; 
 And he had a calf, 
 And that's half ; 
 
Ef)gmeg anti Jingles 191 
 
 And he threw it over the wall, 
 And that's all. 
 
 Two children sit opposite each other 
 with their palms on their knees. They 
 say this rhyme together, and clap each 
 other's hands in time to the metre : — 
 
 Bean porridge hot. 
 Bean porridge cold, 
 Bean porridge's best 
 When nine days old. 
 
 In the English version, it is pease por- 
 ridge or pease pudding, but New Eng- 
 landers are not acquainted with those 
 dishes. 
 
 The child's hands in the following are 
 put palm down on the table. Go over 
 the fingers one word to each to the end 
 of the incantation. The finger that has 
 the final word is turned under. Go over 
 the remaining nine with the same lingo, 
 and turn under the one that comes last. 
 Repeat the process till all are turned 
 under. 
 
 Intra, mintra, cute-ra corn, 
 Apple-seed and apple-thorn. 
 Wire, brier, limber lock. 
 Six geese in a flock. 
 
192 Btgmeg anti gfngleg 
 
 Sit and sing by the spring, 
 0-u-t, out ; up on yonder hill 
 There sits old Father Wells ; 
 He has jewels, he has rings, 
 He has many pretty things. 
 Whip-jack, two nails, blow the bel- 
 lows out, old man. 
 
 This is also said as follows : — 
 
 Intra, mintra, cute-ra, corn, 
 Apple-seed, and apple-thorn. 
 Wire, brier, limber lock, 
 Six geese in a flock. 
 Seven sit by the spring, 
 0-u-t, out. 
 
 Hang mother's dishcloth out. 
 Fling, flang, flash it off. 
 
 THE WEEK 
 
 Wash on Monday, 
 Iron on Tuesday, 
 Bake on Wednesday, 
 Brew on Thursday, 
 Churn on Friday, 
 Mend on Saturday, 
 Go to meeting on Sunday. 
 
 A girl will sometimes make the follow- 
 ing remarks to the new moon. I have 
 never heard that the revelation was made 
 
I^j^gmes attti gtn gks 193 
 
 to her that she prayed for — at any rate, 
 not by the moon. 
 
 New moon, new moon, pray tell to me 
 
 Who my true lover is to be. — 
 
 The color of his hair, 
 
 The clothes he will wear. 
 
 And the day he'll be wedded to me. 
 
 If before April first one boy tries to 
 fool another, boy number two squelches 
 the would-be fooler by saying, — 
 
 April fool's a-coming. 
 And you're the biggest fool a-run- 
 ning. 
 
 If the attempt is made after April first, 
 he says, — 
 
 April fool is past, 
 
 And you're the biggest fool at last. 
 
 A rhyme that does service for both 
 occasions is this : — 
 
 Up the ladder, and down the tree, 
 You're a bigger fool than me. 
 
 A JINGLE FOR THE BABY'S FEET 
 
 Shoe the old horse, shoe the old mare. 
 Drive a nail here, and drive a nail there ; 
 But let the little nobby colt go bare. 
 
194 E|)gmcg aixt) 3 ingles 
 
 When you say, " Shoe the old horse," 
 pat the bottom of the baby's right foot 
 to imitate the driving of nails. When 
 you say, " Shoe the old mare," pat the 
 left foot. Continue this process in the 
 second line, first the right foot, then 
 the left. In the final line it is imagined 
 that the little nobby colt kicks up its 
 heels, and you must catch the baby's 
 ankles, and give them a grand toss to 
 suit this idea. 
 
 Boy number one inquires of boy num- 
 ber two, "What do you do when your 
 mother licks you ? " 
 
 Boy number two replies, — 
 
 " Ice-cream 
 Made by steam, 
 Sold by a donkey in a charcoal team." 
 
 At picnics you will sometimes hear the 
 children say, — 
 
 Lemonade, 
 Made in the shade, 
 Stirred with a spade. 
 By an old maid. 
 
 The children at one time used to enjoy 
 shouting at each other the following 
 poem : — 
 
iElf)gme!3 ant gmgleg 195 
 
 Oh, what is the use 
 Of chewing tobacco, 
 And spitting the juice ? 
 
 Whether it was the rhythm and rhyme 
 of the piece or its moral sentiment that 
 was so pleasing to them is uncertain. 
 
 Here is one way to amuse a child. 
 Clasp your hands with the fingers turned 
 inward, and repeat the following ditty, 
 which you illustrate by changing the 
 position of your fingers and hands : — 
 
 Here's a meeting-house, there's the 
 
 steeple. 
 Look inside and see all the people. 
 Here's the singers going up-stairs, 
 And here's the minister saying his 
 
 prayers. 
 
 To make the steeple, elevate your 
 forefingers with the tips joined. To 
 suit the second line open your hands 
 a little, and wiggle the ends of your 
 clasped fingers. Illustrate the singers 
 going up-stairs by making the fingers of 
 your right hand walk up those of your 
 left. Lastly, clinch your hands, put one 
 fist on top of the other, and that is the 
 minister. 
 
 When a schoolboy wishes to be humor- 
 
196 3^f)2m£0 anti Singles 
 
 ous, he will sometimes call out to a com- 
 panion, — 
 
 " Can you read, can you write, 
 Can you smoke your daddy's pipe ? " 
 
 A small girl who wishes her compan- 
 ions to understand that she is overcome 
 by ennui will sometimes sighingly re- 
 mark, — ■ 
 
 " Oh, dear, bread and beer, 
 If I was home I shouldn't be here ! " 
 
 A FINGER POEM 
 
 Five little rabbits went out to walk ; 
 They liked to boast as well as talk. 
 The first one said, " I hear a gun ! " 
 The second one said, " I will not run ! " 
 Two little ones said, " Let's sit in the 
 
 shade ; " 
 The big one said, " I'm not afraid! " 
 Bang, bang ! went a gun. 
 And the five little rabbits run. 
 
 The child holds up one of its hands 
 while it repeats these lines. The fingers 
 are the five rabbits. With his other 
 hand he takes hold of each finger in 
 turn as he speaks of the rabbit it rep- 
 resents. " The first one " is the thumb. 
 '•' The second one " is the forefinger. 
 
Efjgmeg anti gmgleg 197 
 
 " The two little ones " are the two final 
 fingers. " The big one '' is the middle 
 finger. 
 
 A SCHOOLBOY JINGLE 
 
 " Fire, fire ! " 
 Said Mrs. McGuire. 
 " Where, where ? " 
 Said Mrs. Ware. 
 " Down town ! " 
 Said Mrs. Brown. 
 " Oh, Lord save us ! " 
 Said Mrs. Davis. 
 
 ANOTHER JINGLE 
 
 Two's a couple. 
 Three's a crowd, 
 Four on the sidewalk 
 Is never allowed. 
 
NURSERY TALES 
 
 THE OLD WOMAN AND HER PIG 
 
 Once there was an old woman found 
 a sixpence while she was sweeping, and 
 she took it to the village and bought a 
 little pig with it. 
 
 She got part way home, and she came 
 to a stile, and the pig wouldn't go over 
 the stile. 
 
 So she told her little dog to bite the 
 pig, and he wouldn't. 
 
 Then she went along a little way, 
 and she came to a stick that was lying 
 by the side of the road. And she said, 
 " Stick, stick, beat dog, dog won't bite 
 pig, piggy won't jump over the stile ; 
 I see by the moonlight 'tis half-past 
 midnight, time pig and I were home an 
 hour and a half ago." 
 
 But the stick wouldn't. 
 
 Then she went along a little way, and 
 198 
 
^itrserg Caleg 199 
 
 she came to a fire that was burning by 
 the side of the road. And she said, " Fire, 
 fire, burn stick, stick won't beat dog, dog 
 won't bite pig, piggy won't jump over the 
 stile ; I see by the moonlight 'tis half- 
 past midnight, time pig and I were home 
 an hour and a half ago." 
 
 But the fire wouldn't. 
 
 Then she went along a little way, 
 and she came to a puddle of water in 
 the road. And she said, " Water, water, 
 quench fire, fire won't burn stick, stick 
 won't beat dog, dog won't bite pig, 
 piggy won't jump over the stile ; I see 
 by the moonlight 'tis half-past mid- 
 night, time pig and I were home an 
 hour and a half ago." 
 
 But the water wouldn't. 
 
 Then she went along a little way, 
 and she saw an ox standing in a field. 
 And she said, '•' Ox, ox, drink water, 
 water won't quench fire, fire won't burn 
 stick, stick won't beat dog, dog won't 
 bite pig, piggy won't jump over the 
 stile ; I see by the moonlight 'tis half- 
 past midnight, time pig and I were home 
 an hour and a half ago." 
 
 But the ox wouldn't. 
 
 Then she went along a little way, 
 and she came to a butcher standing in 
 
200 Hurserg gTaks 
 
 the door of his shop. And she said, 
 " Butcher, butcher, kill ox, ox won't 
 drink water, water Avon't quench fire, 
 fire won't burn stick, stick won't beat 
 dog, dog won't bite pig, piggy won't 
 jump over the stile ; I see by the moon- 
 light 'tis half-past midnight, time pig and 
 I were home an hour and a half ago." 
 
 But the butcher wouldn't. 
 
 Then she went along a little way, 
 and she saw a rope tied to the limb 
 of a tree. And she said, " Rope, rope, 
 hang butcher, butcher won't kill ox, ox 
 won't drink water, water won't quench 
 fire, fire won't burn stick, stick won't 
 beat dog, dog won't bite pig, piggy won't 
 jump over the stile ; I see by the moon- 
 light 'tis half-past midnight, time pig and 
 I were home an hour and a half ago." 
 
 But the rope wouldn't. 
 
 Then she went along a little way, 
 and she saw a rat. And she said, "Rat, 
 rat, gnaw rope, rope won't hang butcher, 
 butcher won't kill ox, ox won't drink 
 water, water won't quench fire, fire won't 
 burn stick, stick won't beat dog, dog 
 won't bite pig, piggy won't jump over 
 the stile ; I see by the moonlight, 'tis 
 half-past midnight, time pig and I were 
 home an hour and a half ago." 
 
But the rat Avouldn't. 
 
 And the little old woman said to the 
 rat, " I'll cut off your tail, then." 
 
 So the rat began to gnaw the rope, 
 and the rope began to hang the butch- 
 er, and the butcher began to kill the 
 ox, and the ox began to drink the water, 
 and the water began to quench the fire, 
 and the fire began to burn the stick, and 
 the stick began to beat the dog, and the 
 dog began to bite the pig, and the pig 
 began to jump over the stile, and the 
 little old woman got home that night. 
 
 This story has a number of variations, 
 and in the following paragraphs is given 
 a fragment of one of them : — 
 
 " As I was passing over London bridge 
 I found a kid. And I said, ' Kid, kid, 
 jump over the moon.' 
 
 " Kid wouldn't jump over the moon. 
 'Tis past midnight ; time kid and I were 
 home an hour and a half ago. 
 
 "Then I went along a little farther, 
 and 1 came to a dog. And I said, ' Dog 
 dog, bite kid; kid won't jump over the 
 moon, 'Tis past midnight, time kid and 
 I were home an hour and a half ago.' '' 
 
 It was an old farmer over ninety years 
 old who was husking corn in a hillside 
 field that tried to repeat this to me. I 
 
202 NursErg gTalcs 
 
 told him I did not see what the woman 
 wanted the kid to go over the moon for. 
 " I don't see any sense in that," I said. 
 
 "Well," was the response, "what's 
 the sense of any of it ? All these things 
 you're gettin' are just like that. There 
 - ain't no sense in any on 'em." 
 
 I was not convinced, but I could 
 think of no satisfactory answer. 
 
 The following is probably a more cor- 
 rect version of what this old farmer tried 
 to repeat : ■ — 
 
 " As I went over London Bridge I lost 
 a guinea and found a kid, and the kid 
 wouldn't go. See, by the moonlight, 
 'tis half-past midnight — time kid and 
 I were home an hour and a half ago. 
 
 " Then I went along a little way, and I 
 found a staff ; and I said, ' Pray, staff, 
 lick kid ; kid won't go,' " etc. 
 
 In still another telling, the old woman, 
 instead of remarking the lateness of the 
 hour by the moon, says, " Piggy won't 
 jump over the stile, and I sha'n't get 
 home in time to get my old man's sup- 
 per to-night." 
 
 THE FOX AND THE LITTLE RED HEN. 
 
 Once upon a time there was a little 
 red hen lived in the edge of some woods. 
 
llsFurg crg EbIzq 203 
 
 On the other side of the woods lived 
 an old fox with his mother. 
 
 One day the old fox said to his 
 mother, " Now, mother, you have the 
 pot boiling ; I'm going to catch the little 
 red hen, and we'll have her for dinner." 
 
 So he slung a bag over his shoulder, 
 and started for the little red hen's house. 
 
 The little red hen was out in the yard 
 picking up chips to make a fire to boil 
 her teakettle with. So the old fox 
 slipped into the house, and hid behind 
 the door. 
 
 Pretty soon the little red hen came in 
 with her apron full of chips. She turned 
 around to lock the door, and she saw the 
 old fox. Then she was so frightened 
 that she dropped all her chips, and flew 
 up to a peg in the wall. 
 
 The old fox laughed and said, " Ha, 
 ha ! I'll soon bring you down off from 
 there." 
 
 Then he began running round and 
 round after his tail. 
 
 The little red hen kept turning around 
 on the peg to watch him, and she got so 
 dizzy after a little that she fell off. 
 
 Then the old fox picked her up, and 
 put her in his bag, and started home 
 feeling very fine. 
 
204 Nurgcrg Eslt^ 
 
 By and by the little red hen began to 
 wonder if she could get out. She didn't 
 want to be eaten for dinner that night, 
 and she happened to think she had her 
 scissors in her pocket. So she took 
 them out, and snipped a hole in the bag 
 . and jumped out. 
 
 Then she picked up some stones in 
 the road, and put them in the bag in her 
 place, and ran home as fast as she could 
 go. 
 
 By and by the old fox said to him- 
 self, " How heavy this little red hen is. 
 She's so plump and fat, won't she make 
 a good dinner ! " and he smacked his 
 lips to think of it. 
 
 When he came in sight of the house 
 his mother stood in the door watching 
 for him ; and he called out, " Hi, mother, 
 have you got the pot boiling } " 
 
 His mother said, " Yes, yes ; have 
 you got the little red hen } " 
 
 And he answered, " Yes ; and she'll 
 make a fine dinner. Now, when I say 
 three, you take the cover off, and I'll 
 pop her in." 
 
 "All right," says his mother. 
 
 "All ready," says the fox, "one, two, 
 three." 
 
 His mother took the cover off, and 
 
]!!^urgerg gTales 205 
 
 plump went the stones into the boiling 
 water, and the pot tipped over and 
 scalded the old fox and his mother to 
 death. 
 
 But the little red hen lives in the 
 M^oods by herself yet. 
 
 JACK AND THE BEANSTALK 
 
 One day there was a woman sweep- 
 ing her floor, and she swept up a little 
 bean. She didn't know nothing where 
 it came from, and she swept it along 
 and along, and might 'a' swept it into 
 the fireplace ; but her little boy saw 
 it, and he picked it up, and said, " I'm 
 goin' to plant this bean, mother." 
 
 He took it out in the garden, and dug 
 a hole and planted it. After that he 
 was all the time runnin' out to see if 
 his bean had come up, and when it did 
 come up he was all the time runnin' 
 out to see how it was growin'. 
 
 It didn't take it but a day to get as 
 high as the window-sill. Next day it 
 was as high as the house. Next day 
 after that it was as high as the meet- 
 in'-house steeple. So it kept growin' 
 until it got so high the top hitched 
 on to one of the horns of the moon. 
 
 Then the little boy said he was goin' 
 
206 ]!!<Fur0Erg gTales 
 
 to climb it. He climbed up till he got 
 to the moon, and when he got there he 
 went along till he came to an old giant's 
 house up there. 
 
 That night he crep' into the house, 
 and got in where the giant was sleep- 
 in'. The bed was covered with a great 
 nice quilt, and Jack thought he'd have 
 it. All along the edge was lots of little 
 bells that went tinkle, tinkle, when he 
 began to pull it. 
 
 The giant heard him and called out, 
 " Who's round my house this dark, bloody 
 night ? " 
 
 Jack didn't say nothin', and when all 
 was quiet he pulled the bedquilt off a 
 little farther. The bells went tinkle, 
 tinkle, and the giant woke up and called 
 out, " Who's round my house this dark, 
 bloody night ? " 
 
 Jack kept still ; and every time the 
 giant fell asleep he pulled off a little 
 more of the bedquilt, till finally he had 
 it all, and ran away. He got to the 
 beanstalk, and called out, " Hump it 
 and bump it, and down I go." 
 
 Then he slid down, and carried the 
 bedquilt in to his mother. 
 
 After a while the little boy thought 
 he'd go up again, and he brought away 
 
Kurgerg gTalES 207 
 
 something more of the giant's. He 
 kept on that way goin' up every few 
 days till I s'pose he got pretty much 
 all that the old giant up there in the 
 moon owned. 
 
 But there was one time the old giant 
 caught Jack at it, and he put after him. 
 Jack was a good runner, and he got to 
 the beanstalk first ; and he called out, 
 " Hump it and bump it, and down I 
 go." 
 
 He slid down so fast that he got to 
 the ground before the giant was half- 
 way down. Then he took his hatchet 
 and chopped off the beanstalk, and the 
 giant came tumbling down and was 
 killed. 
 
 After that Jack and his mother were 
 rich people. 
 
 THE LITTLE MOUSE WITH THE LONG 
 TAIL. 
 
 The children in old times thought 
 this one of the best stories that ever 
 was. The oven spoken of was the brick 
 opening at the side of the old kitchen 
 fireplace where baking was done. When 
 not in use it was a very comfortable 
 place for the cat to jump up to and nap 
 in. The mouse could come down the 
 
208 :^urgerg Caleg 
 
 flue that connected the oven with the 
 chimney, or in at some crevice. 
 
 Once there was an old cat in the oven 
 spinin' and spinin'. 
 
 Bimeby there came along a little 
 mouse, and the old cat bit its tail off. 
 
 Then the little mouse said, " Pray, 
 cat, give me my great long tail again." 
 
 And the old cat said, " Well, go to 
 the cow and get me some milk." 
 
 So first he hopped and then he jumped, 
 and quickly he came to a good old cow 
 again. 
 
 Then the mouse said, " Pray, cow, 
 give me milk, I give cat milk, cat give 
 me my great long tail again." 
 
 And the old cow said, " Well, go to 
 the barn and get me some hay." 
 
 So first he hopped and then he jumped, 
 and quickly he came to a good old barn 
 again. 
 
 Then the mouse said, " Pray, barn, 
 give me hay, cow give me milk, cat 
 give me my great long tail again." 
 
 And the barn said, " Well, go to the 
 smith and get me the key." 
 
 So first he hopped and then he jumped, 
 and quickly he came to a good old smith 
 again. 
 
 Then the mouse said, " Pray, smith. 
 
NurgErg gEaleg 209 
 
 give me key, barn give me hay, cow give 
 me milk, cat give me my great long tail 
 again." 
 
 And the smith said, "Well, go to the 
 coaler, and get me some coal." 
 
 So first he hopped, and then he jumped, 
 and quickly he came to the good old 
 coaler again. 
 
 Then the mouse said, " Pray, coaler, 
 give me coal, smith give me key, barn 
 give me hay, cow give me milk, cat give 
 me my great long tail again." 
 
 So the coaler gave him the coal, and 
 the smith gave him the key, and the 
 barn gave him hay, and the cow gave 
 him milk, and the little mouse gave the 
 milk to the cat, and got his great long 
 tail again. 
 
 The teller of the story made every rep- 
 etition of the word " tail " long drawn 
 out and emphatic. 
 
 In a variation of this story the mouse 
 is sent by the cow to the men at work in 
 the meadow for the hay. The men send 
 the mouse to the brook for water ; but 
 finally, after various trials and tribula- 
 tions, the mouse gets his great long tail 
 again. 
 
 At the beginning of the story, where 
 it speaks of the cat spinning, it means 
 that she was purring. 
 
210 NurSEtp scales 
 
 THE LITTLE RED HEN AND THE WHEAT 
 
 Once there was a little red hen found 
 a grain of wheat in the barnyard, and 
 she said, "Who will plant this wheat?" 
 
 " I won't," says the dog. 
 
 "I won't," says the cat. 
 
 " I won't,''' says the goose. 
 
 "I won't," says the turkey. 
 
 "I will, then," says the little red hen. 
 
 So she planted the grain of wheat. 
 After a while the wheat grew up and 
 was ripe, 
 
 " Who will reap this wheat ? " says the 
 little red hen. 
 
 " I won't," says the dog. 
 
 " I won't," says the cat. 
 
 "I won't," says the goose. 
 
 " I won't," says the turkey. 
 
 "I will, then," says the little red hen. 
 So she harvested the wheat. 
 
 " Who will thrash this wheat ? " says 
 the little red hen. 
 
 " I won't," says the dog. 
 
 " I won't," says the cat. 
 
 " I won't," says the goose. 
 
 " I won't," says the turkey. 
 
 "I will, then," says the little red hen. 
 So she thrashed the wheat. 
 
 " Who will take this wheat to mill to 
 
!Nur8Erg EalzQ 211 
 
 have it ground ? " says the little red 
 hen. 
 
 " I won't," says the dog. 
 
 " I won't," says the cat. 
 
 " I won't," says the goose. 
 
 " I won't," says the turkey. 
 
 " I will, then," says the little red hen. 
 So she took the wheat to mill, and by 
 and by she came back with the flour. 
 
 " Who will bake this flour ? " says the 
 little red hen. 
 
 " I won't," says the dog. 
 
 " I won't," says the cat. 
 
 " I won't," says the goose. 
 
 " I won't," says the turkey. 
 
 "I will, then," says the little red hen. 
 So she baked the flour, and made a loaf 
 of bread. 
 
 " Who will eat this bread ? " said the 
 little red hen. 
 
 " I will," says the dog. 
 
 " I will," says the cat, 
 
 " I will," says the goose. 
 
 "I will," says the turkey. 
 
 "/will," says the little red hen, and 
 she ate the loaf of bread all up. 
 
SPELLING 
 
 In the old-time spellin'-school, 
 that met in some places as often 
 as once a week, there was one ex- 
 ercise the spellers frequently went 
 through in concert. When sides 
 had been chosen, and the long line 
 of each of the contending forces 
 had ranged itself along the school- 
 room wall, facing its opponent, the 
 master gave out the word, — 
 Cisnecristovervanprovant imtamtire- 
 liremackfamewelldonesquire. All togeth- 
 er the school pronounced the word, and 
 spelled it as follows, in a resounding 
 chorus : — 
 
 C-i-s, cis ; n-e, ne, cisne ; c-r-i-s, cris, 
 cisnecris ; t-o, to, cisnecristo ; v-e-r, ver, 
 cisnecristover ; v-a-n, van, cisnecristover- 
 van ; p-r-o, pro, cisnecristovervanpro ; 
 v-a-n, van, cisnecristovervanprovan ; 
 t-i-m, tim, cisnecristovervanprovantim ; 
 t-a-m, tam, cisnecristo vervanprovantim- 
 tam ; t-i-r-e, tire, cisnecristovervanpro- 
 vantimtamtire ; 1-i-r-e, lire, cisnecristo- 
 212 
 
^'pellfng 213 
 
 vervanprovantimtamtirelire ; m - a - c - k , 
 mack, cisnecristovervanprovantimtam- 
 tireliremack ; f-a-m-e, fame, cisnecristover- 
 vanprovantimtaratireliremackfame ; w-e- 
 double 1, well, cisnecristovervanprovan- 
 timtamtireliremackfamewell ; d - o - n - e , 
 done, cisnecristovervanprovantimtam- 
 tireliremackfamewelldone; s-q-u-i-r-e, 
 squire, cisnecristovervanprovantimtam- 
 tireliremackfamev^'elldonesquire ! 
 
 In some -day-schools the word was 
 also spelled by the scholars in unison, 
 just after they came in from recess. It 
 took their attention, and had a quieting 
 effect on them. 
 
 To new scholars the spellin'-master 
 sometimes put the word " Constantino- 
 ple." The scholars began, " C-o-n, Con ; 
 s-t-a-n, Stan, Constan ; t-i, ti, Constanti " 
 — " No," said the teacher at this point ; 
 and the scholar thought he had made a 
 mistake, and let the word go on to the 
 next. So it went until some one noted 
 the joke, and saw that the master was 
 pronouncing the next syllable of the 
 word. 
 
 The word Constantinople was likewise 
 capable of being put through the follow- 
 ing gymnastics : — 
 
 C-o-n, Con, with a Con ; isn't that a 
 
214 Spelling 
 
 Con ? S-t-a-n, stan, with a stan ; isn't 
 that a Stan, and isn't that a Constan ? 
 T-i, ti, with a ti ; isn't that a ti, and isn't 
 that a stanti, and isn't that a Constanti ? 
 N-o, no, with a no ; isn't that a no, and 
 isn't that a ti-no, and isn't that a stan-ti- 
 no, and isn't that a Con-stan-ti-no ? P-l-e, 
 pie, with a pie ; isn't that a pie, and isn't 
 that a no-ple, and isn't that a ti-no-ple, 
 and isn't that a stan-ti-no-ple, and isn't 
 that a Con-stan-ti-no-ple ? and isn't that 
 a Constantinople ? 
 
 " Spell elderblow tea with four let- 
 ters " was a request sometimes made 
 fifty years ago. 
 
 Answer. " L, double o, t." 
 
 A third party might comment, " Well, 
 I c'n spell it with two letters." 
 
 First person, " Let's hear you, then." 
 
 Answer. " I-t, it." 
 
 Spell Habakkuk. 
 
 H and an <?, and a b and an «, and a 
 k and a k, and a u and a k ; Habakkuk. 
 
 Spell woodchuck. 
 
 Double u, doublC'U, 
 Double o, d, 
 C-h-u-double u, 
 Double k, e ; 
 woodchuck. 
 
^p£lling 215 
 
 Spell potato. 
 
 Put one o, put two o, put three o, put 
 four o, put five o, put six o, put seven o, 
 put eight o. 
 
 Spell Mississippi. 
 
 M-i-double s, i-double s, i-double p-i. 
 
 Spell backache. 
 
 B-a-c — k-a — c-h-e. 
 
 Spell huckleberry pie. 
 
 H-u, huckle .; b-u, buckle ; c-u, cuckle ; 
 y ; huckleberry pie. 
 
 Spell Tennessee. 
 
 One a see, two a see, three a see, four 
 a see, five a see, six a see, seven a see, 
 eight a see, nine a see, Tennessee. 
 
 Spell pumpkin-pie. 
 
 P double-unkin, p double i ; p double- 
 unkin, punkin-pie. 
 
 When a company gathered for an even- 
 ing, years ago, they sometimes amused 
 themselves by spelling, or learning to 
 spell, the phrase, " Abominable bumble- 
 bee with his tail cut off." Here is the 
 way they spelled it : " A, there's your a ; 
 b-o, bo, there's your bo and your a-ho ; 
 m-i, mi, there's your ;;?/, and your bo-\i\\, 
 and your a-ho-mx ; n-a, na, there's your 
 na, and your mi-wBt., and your bo-rm- 
 na, and rt'-bo-mi-na ; b-l-e, ble (pronounced 
 "bell"), there's your ble, and your na- 
 
216 ^pglling 
 
 ble, and your ;;n'-na-ble, and your bo- 
 mi-na-ble, and your (7-bo-mi-na-ble." 
 
 Thus they spelled on down to the 
 final syllable, and the matter ended 
 thus : " O double f, off^ there's your off, 
 and your cut off, and your tail cut oft', 
 and your his tail cut oft", and your with 
 his tail cut off, and your bee with his tail 
 cut off, and your ble bee with his tail cut 
 off, and your (5'//;.v-ble-bee with his tail 
 cut off, and your ble bum-ble-bee with 
 his tail cut off, and your na-\A& bum-ble- 
 bee with his tail cut off, and your mi- 
 na-ble bum-ble-bee with his tail cut off, 
 and your <^(?-mi-na-ble bum-ble-bee with 
 his tail cut off, and there''s your abomi- 
 nable bumblebee with his tail cut off ! " 
 
 This spelling was very exciting, tongue- 
 tripping, and laughable, and not many 
 could carry it clear through to the end. 
 
 Spelled in the same way was the word, 
 " Ho-no - ri-fi - cabili - ni-tudini - tu - tebus - 
 que." 
 
 Also the word " Incomprehensibility." 
 
PROBLEMS 
 
 Question. A man wanted to cross 
 a river. He had with him a fox, a 
 goose, and half a bushel of corn. 
 His boat was sucli that he could 
 only take one of these across at a 
 time. Now, if he left the fox and 
 goose together on either shore, the 
 latter would be eaten. If he left 
 the goose and corn together, the 
 corn would be eaten. How did the 
 man get across and not sacrifice any 
 of his property ? 
 
 Ansiver. He carried across the goose 
 first. Then he came back and got the 
 corn. He carried that over, and took 
 the goose back with him. He left the 
 goose, and carried across the fox. Fi- 
 nally he went back and got his goose, 
 and there he was. 
 
 n. 
 
 Question. A man with an eight-quart 
 pail full of milk and empty five-and- 
 three-quart pails was requested by a 
 
 217 
 
218 ^rofalemg 
 
 friend to sell four quarts. How did he 
 give exact measure with only the help of 
 his three pails. 
 
 Answer. He filled the three-quart 
 pail and emptied it into the five. Then 
 he poured out another three-quart pail 
 ■full and filled the five-quart pail from it. 
 That left one quart in the small pail. 
 Then he emptied the five-quart pail into 
 the big pail and the one-quart into the 
 five-quart pail. Next he filled the three- 
 quart pail, and that left four quarts in 
 the large pail. 
 
 III. 
 
 Question. Three Indians and three 
 white men were travelling together 
 They came to a river, and found a canoe, 
 but the boat would only carry two at 
 a time. Now, if more Indians were left 
 on a bank, while a crossing was made, 
 than white men, the latter ran the risk 
 of being treacherously killed. If more 
 white men than Indians were left on a 
 bank while the canoe ws^s crossing, the 
 savages were likely to be foully dealt 
 with. How did the whole party get 
 across, and always have white men and 
 Indians on either bank evenly matched ? 
 
 Answe?-. An Indian and a white man 
 
^^roilems 219 
 
 cross first. The Indian is left on the 
 farther shore, and the white man takes 
 the canoe back. He gets out, and the 
 remaining two Indians cross. One of 
 the Indians brings back the canoe, gets 
 out, and two white men go over. One 
 of them gets out, an Indian gets in, and 
 the two in the canoe go to the other 
 shore. The white man gets out, and the 
 two Indians cross. Now all the Indians 
 are over, and the single white man on 
 the farther shore gets in, takes the canoe 
 over, and brings back a comrade. They 
 both get out, and one of the Indians 
 takes the canoe over and brings over the 
 last of the white men. The party can 
 then go on. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Question. 
 
 A goose between two geese, 
 And a goose ahead of two geese. 
 And a goose behind two geese : 
 How many geese were there ? 
 Answer. Tnree. 
 
 How many feet have forty sheep, a 
 shepherd, and a dog ? 
 
 Two. Only the shepherd has feet. 
 The sheep have hoofs, and the dog 
 paws. 
 
220 ^rofclemg 
 
 Read the following : — 
 
 bed. 
 
 If you do it correctly you will say, 
 "A little dark e in bed." 
 
 A inan had twenty sick sheep. One 
 _ died. How many had he left ? 
 Anstiier. Nineteen. 
 
 Ask this question : — 
 
 Which is right, six and five is thirteen, 
 or six and five are thirteen ? 
 
 Of course the answer is neither, but 
 the one questioned will puzzle over the 
 use of " is " and " are." 
 
 Another puzzler is this : — 
 
 Forty sheep went through a gap ; 
 
 Forty men went after that ; 
 
 Six, seven, twice eleven. 
 
 Three and two, how much is that ? 
 
 This makes an extended problem if 
 one attempts to figure from the first 
 line. 
 
 What is it has four legs and only one 
 foot? 
 
 A bedstead. 
 
 Mississippi went to town, 
 Mississippi tore her gown ; 
 
Protrlms 221 
 
 All the women in the town 
 Couldn't mend Mississippi's gown. 
 
 What's that ? 
 
 Answer. A butterfly. 
 
 The spelling of the butterfly in the 
 conundrum is as it appears in the minds 
 of those who do not know the answer. 
 After the answer is given, the proper 
 spelling seems to have been Mrs. Sippi. 
 
 rTicv-- 
 
<A, 
 
 OLD SONGS 
 
 THE TRAVELLER 
 
 I TARRIED all night until the next 
 day; 
 
 I thought it high time to be jog- 
 ging away ; 
 
 I asked the landlady what was to 
 pay. 
 
 " Come, kiss me, kind sir and go 
 your way." 
 
 Sing bug o' the Dutch, 
 
 Li fal de ding day, 
 
 I' in my pocket but one pennay. 
 
 I saw some gentlemen throwing at dice, 
 I see them throw them once or twice. 
 As I stood by a-lookin' on. 
 They took me to be some gentlemon. 
 
 Sing bug o' the Dutch, 
 
 Li fal de ding day, 
 
 I' in my pocket but one pennay. 
 
 They had a mind I should throw it 
 
 again, 
 I had the good fortune for to win. 
 222 
 
Songs 223 
 
 If they had a-won and I had lost 
 
 I should had to pull out an empty puss. 
 
 Sing bug o' the Dutch, 
 
 Li fal de ding day, 
 
 I' in my pocket but one pennay. 
 
 The story here told is fragmentary, 
 and there were undoubtedly more verses 
 in the original poem. 
 
 THE courtin' 
 
 On Thanksgivin' Day, I've heard them 
 
 say, 
 I mounted on my dapple gray, 
 And away I rode to Stanton Green, 
 To court one farmer's daughter Jane. 
 
 Rarefala, rarefala. 
 
 Whack for la for larry for la. 
 
 When I arrived unto the hall, 
 Aloud for my true love I did call ; 
 And I trust the servant led me in 
 That I my courtship might begin. 
 
 Rarefala, rarefala. 
 
 Whack for la for larry for la. 
 
 " My mammy sent me here to woo, 
 And I can fancy none but you. 
 If you'll consent and marry me now, 
 I'll treat you as well as I know how." 
 
224 ®Iti &ongg 
 
 Rarefala, rarefala, 
 
 Whack for la for larry for la. 
 
 " 'Tis I can reap and I can mow, 
 And I can plough and I can sow ; 
 And away to market to sell my hay, 
 And that'll bring me twopence a day." 
 
 Rarefala, rarefala, 
 
 Whack for la for larry for la. 
 
 "Twopence a day will never do. 
 For I wear silks and satins too. 
 Besides a coach to take the air " — 
 Oh, curse the lady, she makes me 
 
 stare ! " 
 
 Rarefala, rarefala, 
 
 Whack for la for larry for la. 
 
 " 'Tis silks and satins you shall wear, 
 
 Besides a coach to take the air ; 
 
 And if you won't consent to marry me 
 
 to-day, 
 I'll take my Dobbin and ride away." 
 
 Rarefala, rarefala. 
 
 Whack for la for larry for la. 
 
 " Pray, young Johnny, take me now, 
 For I can spin and milk your cow ; 
 And away to church on the Sabbath Day, 
 Johnny and I and the dapple gray." 
 
mti ^ongg 225 
 
 Rarefala, rarefala, 
 
 Whack for la for larry for la. 
 
 This song was sung at evening gather- 
 ings by a single voice. The parts where 
 the lady spoke were sung in a higher key 
 than the rest. 
 
 THE BALLAD OF LORD LOVELL 
 As sung ill New England hi 1830 
 
 Lord Lovell he stood at his castle gate, 
 A-combing his milk-white steed, 
 When along came Lady Nancy Bell 
 To wish her fond lover good speed. 
 
 " Oh, where are you going. Lord Lovell .'' " 
 
 she said, 
 " Oh, where are you going ? " said she. 
 " I'm a-going, my Lady Nancy Bell, 
 Strange countries for to see." 
 
 " Oh, when will you be back 1 " Lady 
 
 Nancy she said, 
 " Oh, when will you be back ? " said she. 
 " In a year or two, or three at the most, 
 I return to your fair bodee." 
 
 He hadn't been gone but a year and a 
 
 day 
 Strange countries for to see, 
 When languishing thoughts came into 
 
 his mind. 
 Lady Nancy Bell he would go see. 
 
226 @It) ^ongg 
 
 He rode and he rode his milk-white 
 
 steed, 
 Till he came to fair London town, 
 And there he heard St. Varney's bell. 
 And the people mourning round. 
 
 " Is there any one dead .'' " Lord Lovell 
 
 he said ; 
 " Is there any one dead ? " said he. 
 "The Lord's daughter is dead," the lady 
 
 replied ; 
 " And some call her the Lady Nancee." 
 
 He ordered the grave to be opened 
 
 forthwith. 
 And the shroud to be folded down ; 
 And then he kissed her clay-cold cheeks 
 Till the tears came trickling down. 
 
 Lady Nancy she died, as it might be 
 
 to-day, 
 Lord Lovell he died to-morrow ; 
 And out of her grave there grew a red 
 
 rose. 
 And out of Lord Lovell's a brier. 
 
 They grew and they grew, till they 
 reached the church top, 
 
 And so they could grow no higher ; 
 
 And there they twined in a true-lover's 
 knot. 
 
 Which true lovers always admire. 
 
mti ^ongg 227 
 
 THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY 
 
 Ye've heard of New Orleans, 
 Its fame for \¥ealth and beauty ; 
 There's girls of every hue, it seems, 
 From snowy white to sooty. 
 
 We made a little bank of cotton bags. 
 Not that we were afraid of dying, 
 But because we choose to rest 
 Unless the game be flying. 
 
 Lord Packingham, he made his brags, 
 If he in flight was lucky. 
 He'd have those girls and cotton bags 
 In spite of old Kentucky. 
 
 Jackson led us down to a cypress 
 
 swamp, 
 Where the ground was low and mucky. 
 There stood John Bull in marshalled 
 
 pomp. 
 Here stood old Kentucky. 
 
 Jackson he was wide awake. 
 And was not scat at trifles ; 
 And well he knew 
 
 What aim we take with our Kentucky 
 rifles. 
 
 They came so near we could see 'em 
 wink ; 
 
228 m-Ji ^^ottga 
 
 We thought it was time to stop 'em. 
 Oh, 'twould done you good I think 
 To see Kentuckians drop 'em ! 
 
 The above is a fragment of a song 
 sung in the time of Jackson's political 
 campaigns. 
 
 THE SONG OF THE DARBY RAM 
 
 As I was goin' to Darby 
 
 On a market's day, 
 
 I saw the biggest ram, sir, 
 
 That was ever fed on hay. 
 
 He had four feet to go on, 
 
 And also for to stand ; 
 
 And every foot he had, sir. 
 
 Would cover an acre of land. 
 
 The wool that grew on his belly 
 
 Went dragging to the ground ; 
 
 The wool that grew on his back, sir, 
 
 Would weigh ten thousand pound. 
 
 Taralal de do, 
 Taralal de diddledy, 
 Taralal de day. 
 
 The butcher that butchered this ram, sir. 
 Was drownded in his blood ; 
 And he that held the basin 
 Was carried away in the flood. 
 
mXi $ans& 229 
 
 The man that owned this ram, sir, 
 Must needs be very rich ; 
 And the man that made this song, sir, 
 He died last year with the itch. 
 
 Taralal de do, 
 Taralal de diddledy, 
 Taralal de day. 
 
 THOSE YOUNG MEN 
 
 Those young men that trot about the 
 town. 
 
 You'd think they were worth one thou- 
 sand pound ; 
 
 Look in their pockets — not a penny 
 you'll find ; 
 
 False and fickle is a young man's mind. 
 
 These young men when they first begin 
 
 to love, 
 It's nothing but " My Honey " and " My 
 
 Turtle-dove ; " 
 But once they are married, it's no such 
 
 a thing ; 
 It's trouble, trouble, trouble, and it's 
 
 trouble again. 
 
 MARCHING TO QUEBEC 
 
 The singers marched, went through 
 several odd manoeuvres, and the couples. 
 
230 mti ^ongg 
 
 as they were chosen, joined hands, 
 kissed, and went to their seats. 
 
 We're marching down to old Quebec, 
 
 Where the drums are loudly beating ; 
 
 We shall meet with no attack, 
 
 'For the British are retreating. 
 
 The war's all over. 
 
 So we'll turn back, 
 
 Nevermore to be parted ; 
 
 We'll open the ring, and choose a couple 
 in, 
 
 For we trust you're all true-hearted. 
 
 Now you want a fine companion, 
 
 Want to soothe the cares of life ; 
 
 Now you have a mind to marry, 
 
 Choose you one and handsome wife ; 
 
 Now you're joined in love and friend- 
 ship. 
 
 Love and serve him while he's here ; 
 
 Kiss, and swear that you'll prove con- 
 stant 
 
 So long as he remains your dear. 
 
 BILLY BOY 
 
 Oh, where have you been, Billy Boy, 
 
 Billy Boy ? 
 Oh, where have you been, charming 
 
 Billy ? 
 
$ans& 231 
 
 I have been to seek a wife, 
 She's the joy of my life ; 
 But she's a young thing, and cannot 
 leave her ma. 
 
 Can she sweep up the house, Billy Boy, 
 
 Billy Boy ? 
 Can she sweep up the house, charming 
 
 Billy ? 
 Yes ; she can sweep up the house, 
 Quick's a cat can catch a mouse ; 
 But she's a young thing, and cannot 
 
 leave her ma. 
 
 Can she make mince-pies, Billy Boy, 
 
 Billy Boy? 
 Can she make mince-pies, charming 
 
 Billy ? 
 Yes ; she can make mince-pies 
 With a very few flies ; 
 But she's a young thing, and cannot 
 
 leave her ma. 
 
 Second Version. 
 
 Can she make a pumpkin-pie, Billy Boy, 
 
 Billy Boy ? 
 Can she make a pumpkin-pie, charming 
 
 Billy ? 
 Yes ; she can make a pumpkin-pie. 
 Quick's a cat can wink its eye ; 
 
232 #Iti ^ongg 
 
 And she's a young thing, and cannot 
 leave her mither. 
 
 Does she Hght you up to bed, Billy Boy, 
 
 Billy Boy ? 
 Does she light you up to bed, charming 
 
 Billy ? 
 Yes ; she lights me up to bed 
 With a nightcap on her head ; 
 And she's a young thing, and cannot 
 
 leave her mither. 
 
 Oh, how old is she, Billy Boy, Billy Boy ? 
 Oh, how old is she, charming Billy ? 
 Twice six, twice seven. 
 Twice twenty and eleven ; 
 Isn't she the young thing that cannot 
 leave her mither ! 
 
 Neither of these versions is like those 
 given in the song collections. In old 
 times, after the usual verses had been 
 sung, the singers, if they were clever, 
 would make up new ones. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE NILE 
 
 When an old-time party wished to 
 amuse itself, it would sometimes be pro- 
 posed that they all join in singing this 
 battle-song. The words were these : — 
 
$an5Q 233 
 
 Where were you all the while ? 
 Oh, I was at the battle of the Nile, 
 I was there all the while. 
 
 Some one then requests that the com- 
 pany sing the forty-ninth verse of that 
 song. The words are repeated. Other 
 verses are called for, but the joke is 
 that every verse is the same as the 
 first. 
 
 ft*c 
 
OLD STORIES 
 
 In the early part of the century, the 
 people were very fond of telling ghost 
 stories of an evening about the kitchen 
 fire, and some people of great general 
 intelligence were very superstitious. As 
 
 an instance, I speak of Squire H , a 
 
 man who was esteemed one of the pillars 
 of the town. He said of his first wife 
 that she saw her own apparition. One 
 winter day she had been washing clothes 
 in the kitchen. When she had finished 
 she went to the glass, and combed her 
 hair. While thus engaged she happened 
 to look out of the window, and saw her- 
 self walking on the snow. The Squire 
 had gone to the village, but when he 
 returned he found his wife in tears. 
 She told him what she had seen, and 
 234 
 
&taxm 235 
 
 said she knew that such an appear- 
 ance meant she was not to live long. 
 She died within a year. 
 
 The Squire's second wife did not be- 
 lieve in Avitches, and never would accept 
 this story ; but the Squire explained her 
 unbelief by stating that she was the 
 first-born in her father's family, and that 
 over such the witches had no power. 
 All authorities agree that to see one's 
 double is a very bad sign. Such affirm 
 that Abraham Lincoln saw his double 
 before he was assassinated, and that 
 he told his friends he knew from that 
 he would not live his term out. 
 
 The following is an example of an 
 old-time witch story. It involves no 
 less a personage than a clergyman. 
 This clergyman's name was Hooker. 
 He was travelling on horseback when, 
 one evening, night overtook him at 
 Springfield, Mass., and he sought an 
 inn. Other travellers were before him ; 
 and the landlord informed Rev. Mr. 
 Hooker that he had only a single vacant 
 room left, and, unfortunately, that room 
 was haunted. The clergyman said he 
 did not mind that, and took the room. 
 
 He had retired, and everything was 
 still when twelve o'clock came, and with 
 
236 ®Itj S>taxiz& 
 
 it the witches. In they flocked through 
 keyholes and cracks, until they filled 
 the room. The visitors brought 
 with them many shining dishes 
 of gold and silver, and pre- 
 pared for a feast. 
 When everything 
 was ready they in- 
 vited the clergyman to partake. Al- 
 though he knew very well that if he 
 ate with witches he would become one, 
 he accepted the invitation. 
 
 " But," he said, " it is my. habit to 
 ask a blessing before eating ; " and at 
 once began it. 
 
 The witches couldn't 
 stand blessings, and 
 fled helter-skelter, leav- 
 ing feast and plate in 
 possession of the 
 preacher. Whether 
 he ate the whole feast 
 himself or not is 
 not related. At 
 any rate. Rev. Mr. 
 Hooker secured 
 the gold and silver dishes ; and the 
 next morning, while continuing his jour- 
 ney, a crow flapping along overhead 
 shouted to him, " You are Hooker by 
 
 
 I' '■ '-It; 
 
^taxm 237 
 
 name, and Hooker by nature ; and 
 you've hooked it all." 
 
 THE DEVIL AND THE CARD-PLAYERS 
 
 In a Connecticut village four men 
 were visiting together one evening. At 
 length one of them proposed that they 
 should have a game of cards. They 
 were aware of the wickedness of card- 
 playing, and knew very well how scan- 
 dalous the proposal was. Nevertheless, 
 after a little argument, they agreed to 
 play for a short time. On a stand in 
 the corner of the kitchen was a candle 
 whose flame had eaten nearly down to 
 the socket. Said one of the men, " We'll 
 just play till the candle burns out. There 
 can't be much harm in that, I'm sure." 
 
 " Very good," said the others ; " we'll 
 stop when the candle burns out." 
 
 They played one game, two games, 
 three games, and still the candle burned. 
 The candle burned, and game followed 
 game until morning came, and the first 
 rays of daylight startled the four players. 
 
 Then they knew that Satan himself had 
 been their companion through the night. 
 Who but the Devil would have kept that 
 candle burning for so many hours for 
 such a purpose ? 
 
238 ©in ^toriES 
 
 BEWITCHED CREAM 
 
 Daniel Smith was churning. He 
 looked into the churn now and then 
 to see what progress he was making, 
 but the butter was no nearer coming 
 the last time he looked in than it was 
 the first. The suspicion grew on Mr. 
 Smith that there was something uncanny 
 about this fact. The more he thought 
 about it the more certain he became 
 that there was a witch in the cream. 
 To expel this evil spirit he dipped up 
 a little of the cream, and threw it into 
 the fire. Immediately after that the 
 butter came. That same day it was 
 reported that Widow Brown had burned 
 herself. Then Mr, Smith knew it was 
 the Widow Brown who had bewitched 
 his cream. 
 
 RAISING THE WIND 
 
 " My father," said the narrator, 
 " worked, for a man in Longmeadow, 
 Mass. The man he worked for was 
 the doctor there. One day the doctor 
 says he guessed he'd send some rye to 
 mill. But the wind didn't blow none 
 so't they could winnow it. In them 
 times they used to have to shake it out- 
 
mti ^taxizQ 239 
 
 doors somewhere so't the wind'd blow 
 the chaff away. There warn't a mite 
 of wind stirrin' that mornin' ; and so the 
 doctor, he and my father, sot there in 
 the kitchen a-talkin,' and guessin' they'd 
 have to let it go till next day. While 
 they was a-doin' o' this in comes the 
 doctor's wife, and says the wind was be- 
 ginnin' to blow up a little. And sure 
 enough ! when they come to go out the 
 wind was blowin' considerable, and my 
 father went right to cleanin' up the rye. 
 There might not be nothin' in it, but my 
 father always thought that woman was a 
 witch. 'Twarn't nateral the wind should 
 come up sudden that way, without no 
 help. That woman she wanted the 
 flour, and so she just went out and made 
 the wind blow up the way it did. 
 
 THE CAT WHICH LOST A CLAW 
 
 There was a man by the name of 
 Jones had a sawmill. He was so driven 
 with work that he frequently was obliged 
 to run the saw evenings. One night he 
 was going down to the mill to work ; and 
 his wife said she didn't want him to, but 
 he went just the same. He got the saw 
 running, and a log rolled on, when along 
 came a black cat he'd never seen before. 
 
240 (BXii ^tortes 
 
 She purred around very friendly, rubbing 
 up against the man, and trotting along 
 on the log he was sawing. Finally she 
 got to fooling around the saw, and got a 
 claw cut off. Then she ran away up 
 the hill toward the man's house. When 
 the man got through work, and went 
 home, he found his wife had one of her 
 fingers done up. He asked her what 
 the matter was, and she wouldn't tell 
 him. But he kept at her, and after a 
 while she let him see her hand. One 
 finger was cut clean off. Then the man 
 knew his wife was a witch, and that she 
 was that same black cat which got its 
 claw sawed off at the mill. 
 
 HOW TO KILL A WITCH 
 
 It was a common trick in the olden 
 time of such women as were witches to 
 turn into cats, and go scooting along the 
 top rails of fences. It was useless try- 
 ing to shoot these witch cats with any 
 ordinary load. Leaden bullets would 
 not touch them. To kill them, the gun 
 had to be loaded with a silver ball. It 
 was needful for the person who went 
 witch-killing to use great care about 
 his ammunition ; for they said about 
 the ball, that, — 
 
@It( ^taxizQ 241 
 
 " If it isn't pure silver 
 It only maims and doesn't kill her." 
 
 CHEATING THE DEVIL 
 
 A farmer who had no money wanted 
 a barn. Indeed, he wanted the barn very 
 badly. The man had just a shed or two 
 back of his little house, and it did not 
 seem to him he could get along without 
 a barn much longer possibly. Now, the 
 Devil knew very well how the man was 
 feeling ; and one day he went to the man, 
 and said he'd build him a barn. So 
 they fixed up a bargain between them. 
 For putting up the barn the Devil was 
 to have the man's soul when he died; 
 but the work must be done before the 
 first rooster crew in the morning, or the 
 bargain was off. All that night the man 
 heard the Devil hammering and ham- 
 mering away up the hill a little ways, 
 where he was building the barn. A 
 while before daylight the man got up, 
 and went out the back door to where he 
 had a slab shed he kept his hens in. 
 He stopped before the door, and made 
 an imitation of crowing, and the old 
 rooster answered him. That knocked 
 the bargain all to pieces, and the Devil 
 scot well cheated that time. The man 
 
242 (BVO &taxiz& 
 
 got his barn free ; but being of the 
 Devil's building I don't suppose it was 
 a very good one, or lasted very long. 
 
 THE WILBUR WITCHES 
 
 These witches made themselves fa- 
 mous about seventy-five years ago in the 
 hill country of western Massachusetts. 
 
 Their pranks were played in a secluded 
 hamlet known as Simpson Hollow, and 
 they particularly afflicted the Wilbur 
 family there. The Wilburs were a good, 
 respectable, church-going family; but, 
 by some mysterious dispensation of 
 Providence, they were the ones who had 
 to suffer. They would find their Sun- 
 day clothes snipped and gashed, for one 
 thing. While this witch business was 
 going on, the Wilburs made it a point to 
 look over the clothes they had hung up 
 in the closets and about the rooms each 
 day. One morning, after Mrs. Wilbur 
 had made the rounds, she is reported 
 to have said, " Well, I believe there's 
 nothin' this time." The words were no 
 sooner out of her mouth than a skirt 
 dropped down on the floor with a half- 
 yard slash in it. 
 
 Granny Bates, who was one of the 
 family, one day missed her gold beads. 
 
Statt00 243 
 
 and where should they be found but at 
 the top of the well-sweep. 
 
 Again the beads were gone. They 
 searched high and low ; and finally the 
 beads were found in a teacup, in the 
 bottom of a tub of clothes that they had 
 taken down by the brook to rinse, and 
 spread on the grass. 
 
 Another strange thing was that the 
 family were continually finding odd 
 articles of one sort and another in the 
 dye-tub by the kitchen fireplace. This 
 could not be allowed to go on, and one 
 of the boys was told to sit on the dye- 
 tub and stay there ; but nothing came 
 of it. 
 
 These stories circulated through the 
 neighborhood, and occasioned not a 
 little excitement. Even the minister 
 was a good deal exercised over it. He 
 led in a number of prayer-meetings at 
 the house ; but the Devil continued, 
 nevertheless, in apparent full possession. 
 
 Sometimes a watch was set, and this 
 served to fasten suspicion on Granny 
 Bates and an old cat owned in the fam- 
 ily. When some one went to get meal 
 to sift, they found this old cat in the bin. 
 Then they noticed that the old cat had 
 begun to look very strangely, and there 
 
244 mXi Stories 
 
 were those who afBrmed that its features 
 bore a very close resemblance to those 
 of Granny 
 Bates. 
 
 At last, 
 on one of 
 the nights 
 when a 
 party was 
 trying to 
 drive out 
 the witch- 
 es, this old 
 
 cat was !\'\\ 
 seen to go !|'///! 
 through'! 
 a closed 
 garret 
 
 window, glass and 
 all, without break- 
 ing a pane. People 
 who saw it said that 
 this was no other 
 than Granny Bates 
 in the form of a 
 black cat. But it 
 was never settled 
 \ who the witch really 
 "^\ was, and some had 
 suspicions of a ser- 
 vant-girl who was working in the fam- 
 ily. It was a good while before the 
 excitement died out ; and for a long 
 time after, when anything strange hap- 
 pened in the community, people would 
 say, " Well, that's the Wilbur witches." 
 
^taxizQ 245 
 
 A BURN CURED 
 
 " Once, when I was a young girl, there 
 was a woman lived in our family who 
 said she could cure burns by talkin' to 
 'em. I used to poke fun to her about 
 it. But one day I tipped over a kittle 
 of hot water, and got scalded all along 
 down my arm. It hurt so it didn't seem 
 as if I could stan' it, and I begged that 
 woman to do something if she could. 
 She warn't goin' to, because she said 
 I didn't believe she could do anything, 
 and laughed at her. But I told her I 
 wouldn't any more, and I'd believe any- 
 thing if she'd only cure me. So she 
 passed her hands kind o' light back and 
 forth over the burns, and mumbled some- 
 thing, and the pain went away right off. 
 I asked her afterwards what it was she 
 said, but she wouldn't tell. She said 
 she could only tell it to some man who 
 warn't any of my relation." 
 
 DEALING WITH GHOSTS 
 
 " If a ghost was to appear to me I 
 wouldn't be afraid of him," said Grand- 
 mother Brown ; " and if some night some 
 of you children see a ghost, you just tell 
 me. I would know, if a ghost came to 
 me, he either wanted help, or came to 
 
246 mti Storteg 
 
 warn me ; and I should just ask him 
 what he wanted. Oh, there's no need 
 of bein' scared of a ghost." 
 
 If a ghost appeared to a person, the 
 proper words in which to address it 
 were, " What, in the name o*f God, do 
 you want .-' " 
 
 THE CANNIBAL FROGS 
 
 In the early part of the century there 
 lived a boy in the town of Hadley who 
 ' was terribly lazy. His name was Ed- 
 ward Good. 
 
 One spring evening he was sent on an 
 errand that took him across a swampy 
 meadow. When he came to this meadow, 
 the night air was so laden with strange 
 pipings and croakings that Master Good 
 became frightened and uneasy in his 
 mind. He hesitated, and listened fear- 
 fully to the uncanny noises ; and the re- 
 sult was that the darkness and the weird 
 voices so scared him that he turned and 
 ran home. 
 
 His folks were astonished that so slow 
 a boy should get home so soon, and 
 asked him if he had done the errand. 
 
 He said, " No ; I was goin' to do it ; 
 but I got down in the meadow, and 
 all the frogs was hollerin', ' Ketch Eddy, 
 
®Iti &torfe8 247 
 
 ketch Eddy ! Eat him up, eat him up ! ' 
 and I didn't dast to go across." 
 
 A SEVERE PUNISHMENT 
 
 A stranger came one day to Lonetown 
 Tavern long ago, and stayed day after 
 day, and week after week. He did no 
 work, and seemed to have no business ; 
 he did not even let his name be known. 
 This was all very puzzling to the towns- 
 folk, and they were entirely at sea in 
 their conjectures as to why he was there. 
 
 At length the people of the village 
 sent a delegation to the man to get 
 some information as to who and what 
 he was. He would give them no satis- 
 faction then ; but after some talk back 
 and forth he consented to name a time 
 when he would answer their various 
 questions plainly and fully. 
 
 On the appointed night the dele- 
 gation presented itself, and was thus 
 enlightened : " Gentlemen," said the 
 stranger, " I am a criminal, I had my 
 choice at the bar of justice, to be hung 
 or to spend six months in Lonetown. 
 I chose to come here, but I wish now 
 that I had chosen to be hung." 
 
 With that the stranger bade the com- 
 pany " Good-evening," and bowed him- 
 self out of the room. 
 
248 ©ID Stories 
 
 THE RIVAL COOKS 
 
 In a green valley among the Berkshire 
 hills in days gone by there lived two 
 women in houses less than a quarter of 
 a mile apart, who took great pride in their 
 cooking. Each was sure she was the 
 best cook of the two, and their rivalry at 
 length grew so warm that they agreed to 
 have a contest to see which could make 
 the largest pudding. They stewed and 
 brewed and baked with great labor and 
 mystery. The test-day came, and a large 
 company of old and young from all the 
 region about gathered to see and taste 
 the giant puddings. The crowd drew up 
 around the festive board, and gazed and 
 commented and ate. What the size of 
 the puddings really was is not reported ; 
 but we get a hint of their magnitude 
 from the fact that after slice after slice 
 had been cut away from one side of the 
 smallest one, the remainder fell over and 
 killed one of the children at the table. 
 
 THE WARNING OF THE FROGS 
 
 The events chronicled in this nar- 
 rative occurred in western Massachu- 
 setts, in the township of Northampton. 
 Far from any present habitations, on 
 
mt} stories 249 
 
 a marshy meadow, under the eastern 
 shadow of a rough mountain ridge, is a 
 half-choked cellar-hole and a few bushy 
 old apple-trees that show there once 
 stood a farmhouse. If inquiry is pur- 
 sued, it is ascertained that Moses Pome- 
 roy, a hundred years since, owned this 
 property, and lived there with a numer- 
 ous family. Among other traditions of 
 the place, is one having to do with a 
 certain jug Moses carried to the village 
 store with considerable regularity to be 
 filled with rvim. One dark night he re- 
 turned laden with this jug, and came 
 opposite the marsh, when he was startled 
 by guttural voices from the pond crying 
 out, " Pomeroy ! Pomeroy ! Jug o' rum ! 
 jug o' rum ! Got drunk ! got drunk ! 
 Go home! go home!" These remarks 
 so worked on the mind of Mr. Pomeroy 
 that he said to himself, " If the very frogs 
 have got to mocking me, and saying 
 that I am drunk, I will stop drinking." . 
 Thereupon he swung his jug in air, and 
 threw it far out into the pond. 
 
 TIM felt's ghost 
 
 Connected with the Ireland Parish 
 district of the city of Holyoke, Mass., 
 is a famous ghost story, which runs as 
 
250 @It> ^torieg 
 
 follows : In the old days there lived on 
 "Back Street" a Mr. Felt. One fall 
 he sowed a field of rye. The rye came 
 up well, and in the spring was looking 
 green and thrifty. He was therefore the 
 more disturbed at the frequent visits of 
 Neighbor Hummerston's geese to the 
 said field. 
 
 Mr. Felt had a quick temper, and this 
 sort of thing was too much for him. He 
 caught the whole flock one day, killed 
 them, and then wended his way to Dea- 
 con Hummerston to inform him what he 
 had done, and where his geese were to 
 be found. 
 
 This and other acts showed his hasty 
 temper and savage disposition, and 
 brought him into disrepute among his 
 neighbors. He often cruelly beat his 
 horses and cattle, and there were times 
 when he served the members of his 
 family in the same way. 
 
 He had a son, Timothy by name, a 
 dull-witted fellow, who was slow of 
 comprehension, and in his work made 
 many mistakes. This was a frequent 
 cause of anger to his father, who on 
 such occasions would strike Tim to the 
 earth with whatever implement he hap- 
 pened to have in hand, — a hoe, a rake, 
 
®It) ^tariEg 251 
 
 or a pitchfork, perchance. These at- 
 tacks somethnes drove Tim from home ; 
 but, after a few days' absence, necessity- 
 would bring him back again. At last, 
 however, he disappeared, and was seen 
 no more ; and a little later the Felts 
 moved West. 
 
 In building the New Haven and 
 Northampton canal, a great deal of 
 limestone was used. On Mr. Felt's 
 farm was a ledge of this rock, and the 
 company soon had a quarry there. 
 The overseer was a rough, ill-tempered 
 fellow ; and it was not long before he 
 had trouble with his workmen, and they 
 all left him. That brought work to a 
 standstill, and the overseer was at his 
 wit's end to find some way out of his 
 difficulty. 
 
 One night, shortly after the mien left, 
 the overseer, on his way home from the 
 corner store, quite late, saw a dark figure 
 standing on the limestone ledge, outlined 
 against the sky. The overseer stood 
 still, his frightened gaze riveted on the 
 stranger. Presently he broke the silence 
 by asking, "Who are you? and what is 
 your business ? " 
 
 The spectre replied, " My name is 
 Timothy Felt, and my bones are under 
 
252 ©It) ^torteg 
 
 where I now stand. I was killed by my 
 father four years ago, and if you will 
 blast this rock you will find my bones." 
 
 This story ran through all the country 
 round, and created great excitement. 
 Every day, for some time afterwards, 
 loads of people, not only from Ireland 
 Parish, but from towns quite distant, 
 wended their way thither, inquiring the 
 way to the " ghost place ; " and when 
 night came on people would make a 
 long detour rather than pass the spot, 
 and run the risk of meeting Tim's un- 
 easy spirit. Money was raised to con- 
 tinue the quarrying until Tim's skeleton 
 should be brought to light, but no bones 
 were found ; and after the overseer had 
 gotten out what stone he wanted, the 
 work lagged and was discontinued. 
 
 Was this humbug or not .■" A certain 
 old lady used to say : — 
 
 " Where folks believe in witches, witches 
 air ; 
 But when they don't believe, there are 
 none there." 
 
 In this case there was wide belief that 
 Tim was murdered, and that his ghost 
 did really appear. 
 
©ID ^torfcs 253 
 
 THE VILLAGE ROOSTERS AND WILLIAM 
 SMITH 
 
 In one of the old New England towns 
 there lived in days of yore a youth 
 named William Smith. William lived 
 at the lower end of the chief village 
 street. Near the upper end of the same 
 street lived a young woman with whose 
 charms William was so smitten that his 
 calls on her were not only frequent but 
 protracted. 
 
 One night when he had made one of 
 these calls, he sought his home at the 
 magic hour when, in such towns as had 
 steeple clocks, the bells tolled twelve. 
 William had not gone down the street 
 far when he was startled by the crow 
 of a rooster. But the remarkable thing 
 was that he clearly detected beneath its 
 rough notes these words, "The woman 
 rules here." There was no doubt about 
 what the rooster said, for it immedi- 
 ately repeated the words, and even more 
 clearly, "The woman rules here." 
 
 While William walked along ponder- 
 ing this strange statement, he heard the 
 voice of a second rooster at the next 
 house below. It said, "The man rules 
 here. The man rules here." 
 
254 em ^taxim 
 
 It was plain to William that he was 
 being let into some of the family secrets 
 of the village. All through the street the 
 roosters greeted him as he passed along. 
 At some of the houses it was the man 
 that was chief, at some the woman. 
 William certainly had food for reflec- 
 tion, but it is not related that he ever 
 made any use of this knowledge which 
 came to him so strangely. 
 
 In this connection I may mention that 
 some say if you listen to roosters calling 
 back and forth you can hear this con- 
 versation. 
 
 Rooster at first house. "The women 
 rule here." 
 
 Rooster at second house. "And so 
 they do here." 
 
 Rooster at third house. "And so 
 they do everywhere." 
 
 A grown person, when a rooster crows, 
 will sometimes imitate its call, and work 
 a child's name into the sound. Then 
 he says to the child, " Didn't you hear 
 the rooster calling you .'' " 
 
 A FORTUNE IN A STICK 
 
 There were once three girls who were 
 anxious as to the kind of husbands they 
 should have. 
 
@It> ^torteg 255 
 
 At length the eldest said, " You know, 
 sisters, there is a little wood back of the 
 house. Let us all walk through it, and 
 each pick a stick as we go along. The 
 one that picks the handsomest stick 
 will get the handsomest husband." 
 
 The others agreed, and off they all 
 three went. They had not gone far 
 when the youngest saw a stick that she 
 thought would do well enough for her, 
 and she forthwith picked it. Her sisters 
 walked on and on until they came out 
 of the wood on the other side, but not 
 a stick did they find that was handsome 
 enough to suit them. Then all three 
 went home. 
 
 Not long after the youngest married ; 
 but the eldest two remained single all 
 their lives. 
 
 The consequence of the general knowl- 
 edge of this story was, that the old 
 people used sometimes to say to a girl 
 whom they thought over particular in 
 her criticism of the marriageable young 
 men, " You better look out, and not 
 have to go through the woods to pick a 
 stick." 
 
 If a woman married a man who was 
 held in low esteem by the community, 
 it was said, "Well, she went through the 
 
256 mti ^tatizQ 
 
 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 down- 
 hearted, and she gave her an egg. She 
 said to the girl that when she got so sor- 
 rowful 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- 
 
Stories 257 
 
 rowful she broke the egg. It warn't no 
 common egg, and out of it come a little 
 spinnin'-wheel as pretty as could be ; 
 and this little wheel would keep spinnin' 
 silk all by itself, without a hand touchin' 
 it. 
 
 Along in the afternoon the girl saw a 
 bunch of ladies down by a spring, and 
 she went down to see what they was 
 doin'. They had a handkerchief with 
 blood on it ; and they was tryin' to wash 
 it clean, and none of 'em could do it. 
 Then the girl said she would try it; and 
 when she took it, the handkerchief came 
 clean right off. 
 
 Now, the one that could make that 
 handkerchief clean was to have the 
 king's son for a husband. So they took 
 the girl up to the palace, and she was 
 married to the king's son. But this 
 prince was under an enchantment for 
 seven years. In the daytime he was in 
 the form of a bull, and it was only in 
 the night that he was a man. For seven 
 years the girl had to lead her husband 
 every mornin' away to the stable. At 
 sunset he would come back again a 
 man. But when the seven years was up, 
 then they were all right. 
 
 Those other two girls that took the 
 
258 mti ^taxizQ 
 
 other two roads went along, I don't 
 know^ how far ; but they never come to 
 nothin', and they never got married at 
 
 all. 
 
 " SOMETIME " 
 
 One spring day Mr. and Mrs. Robin 
 -were talking over plans for nest-build- 
 ing. An old apple-tree near a farm- 
 house had been their home for many 
 years past. 
 
 " Better settle down in the same old 
 tree," said Mr. Robin. "There isn't an- 
 other in the neighborhood has crotches 
 to equal it." 
 
 " I know it," replied Mrs. Robin ; 
 " but the man who lives in the farm- 
 house says he's going to build a barn 
 right here, and our tree would have to 
 come down." 
 
 "When did he say he was going to 
 build it > " asked Mr. Robin. 
 
 "He didn't say just when," Mrs. 
 Robin answered; "he said ^ sometime.' " 
 
 "Oh, well," remarked Mr. Robin, "we 
 can have our nest here all right then ; " 
 and they began to build it in a crotch of 
 the old apple-tree that very day. 
 
^t0ri£0 259 
 
 MRS. STOWE S ORANGES 
 
 It is said that the year after Harriet 
 Beecher Stowe's " Uncle Tom's Cabin " 
 came out, all the oranges that grew in 
 her Florida grove were black skinned. 
 There was a good deal of joking in con- 
 sequence, and the fruit was spoken of as 
 " abolition oranges." 
 
 STUMPING THE DEVIL 
 
 There was a place where my mother 
 was livin' once, where the whoopin'- 
 cough took and run through the family. 
 It ketched 'em all, little and big, except 
 the hired man, who might have been 
 eighteen or twenty years old. 
 
 One day my mother says to him, 
 "Ain't you goin' to have the whoopin'- 
 cough, John ? " 
 
 And he says, " No ; I'll stump the 
 Devil to give it to me." 
 
 The next thing they knew, John had 
 the whooping-cough, and had it bad. It 
 made him so cross-eyed that you might 
 think he was lookin' all around the lots 
 when he was lookin' straight at you. 
 He never could talk straight after it, and 
 he couldn't walk straight. He kind o' 
 petered out every way. He was a smart. 
 
260 @IT) ^tortes 
 
 good-lookin' fellow before he had the 
 • whoopin'-cough, but that spoilt him. 
 He said he never'd stump the Devil 
 again. I know when he was an old 
 man, eighty years old or so, he used to 
 tell about it and say, " I think I stumped 
 -the Devil a little too hard that time." 
 
 THE STEERS THAT WOULDN'T DRAW 
 
 My mother's father was down in the 
 woods one time, and he'd got his sled 
 loaded up with a little jag o' logs. When 
 he come to start, the steers wouldn't 
 budge. 'Twa'n't much of a load, and he 
 knew the steers could draw it well as 
 not. Now, there was an old woman that 
 lived in the neighborhood that he'd 
 always thought was kind of a witch, and 
 when the steers acted that way he was 
 pretty sure that old woman had be- 
 witched 'em. So he said to himself that 
 he'd cut a stick, and he'd make those 
 steers draw that load or he'd kill 'em. 
 Well, you know if you drawed blood on 
 a thing that was bewitched, you drawed 
 blood on the witch too ; and if you 
 killed a thing that was bewitched, you 
 killed the witch. 
 
 My mother's father was just goin' to 
 give those steers a weltin', when there 
 
@Itr ^torteg 261 
 
 come a sort of a low laugh from down 
 somewhere in the woods. It was that 
 old witch woman, though she wa'n't 
 really anywhere around there. As soon 
 as the steers heard that ar laugh, they 
 started right along. 
 
 THE POWER OF FANCY 
 
 It is told of a party of students at 
 Harvard long ago, that they one day fell 
 into a dispute as to whether a man could 
 be made sick through his imagination. 
 Some said he could, and others said 
 he couldn't. To settle the dispute they 
 agreed to try the experiment on a driver 
 who was well known to all of them, and 
 who made many trips each week be- 
 tween Cambridge and Boston. The 
 students stationed themselves along the 
 road at intervals, so that they might 
 meet the driver on one of these trips. 
 
 Student number one presently sighted 
 the man and said, " How do you do to- 
 day ? " 
 
 " Oh, I'm as well as usual," says the 
 driver. 
 
 "You don't look as well," responded 
 the student, and passed on. 
 
 Student number two greeted the driver 
 in the same way, and this conversation 
 
262 #Iti ^tarfcg 
 
 was in substance repeated with every 
 student in the plot. Tlie result was 
 that this stout, hearty man was over- 
 powered by the weight of evidence. It 
 broke him down, and ruined his health. 
 
 A GHOST STORY 
 
 This should be told in as sepulchral 
 tones as the teller is capable of, and a 
 doleful groan should be put in occasion- 
 ally. 
 
 There was an old woman, all skin and 
 
 bones. 
 Who went to church to pray. 
 First she went half-way up the aisle, 
 And prayed a little while, 
 Then she went down to the door. 
 And prayed a little more ; 
 And there she saw a ghost upon the 
 
 floor. 
 And she asked the ghost, " Will I look 
 
 like that when I am dead ? " 
 And the ghost said, " YES ! " 
 
 The final word of the story should be 
 a sudden shout. Some say " Boo ! " in- 
 stead of "Yes," and others just screech 
 without definite words. 
 
 I give below a more elaborate version 
 
@It> ^torteg 263 
 
 of the same tale. " Do you want to 
 hear a story ? " says the teller. " Well " — 
 
 There was an old woman, all skin and 
 
 bones, 
 Who thought she'd go to church one 
 
 day, 
 And hear the parson preach and pray. 
 When she got to the churchyard stile 
 She thought she'd rest a little while ; 
 And when she got to the church door 
 She thought she'd rest a little more. 
 So she looked up, and she looked down, 
 And she saw a corpse upon the ground. 
 Then the woman to the parson said, 
 " Shall I look so when I am dead ? " 
 And the parson to the woman said, 
 " You will look so when you are dead." 
 Then the woman to the parson said, 
 
 "OH-H!" 
 
MAGICAL NEW MOON. Frontispiece.