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 wedding-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 stockings 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.

"Why! a girl is sure to many 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 counting the requisite number of white horses, she is to note the first person who 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 wedding-cake in the house, you will have good luck.

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. Suppose 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 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 indicates the girl he loves best.

If the day on which you marry is stormy, it is a sign you are to have a stormy married life. 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 persons 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.

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.

This is said with reference to the wedding-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 accomplishment, lack the maturity or capability which would fit him for such a responsibility. 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 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 person.

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, and 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 beneath, 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 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 remaining 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 neatly without looking in the glass, it is a sign she won't be an old maid.

Wear a bit of yarrow in your buttonhole, 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, —

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 following: —

If a girl has thirteen after-dinner coffee cups given to her within a twelve month, she will be engaged within the year following. To bring about this result the one who gave the first one must also present the thirteenth.

That is, the girl who marries a man whose last name begins with the same letter as her last name will be worse off 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.

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.

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.