398. If you have hearts in a figure in a dress or in a shawl, you will be married before it is worn out.
_New York._
399. If you have a new dress and there are roses in it, the person who owns the dress will be married before the dress is worn out.
_Salem, Ma.s.s._
400. Pins in the front of a dress waist are a sign that the wearer will be an old maid.
_New Hampshire._
401. If, in making a dress, the thread kinks badly, the person for whom it is made will either die or get married before the dress is worn out.
_Alabama._
402. If you have a dress tried on, and any pin catches in the underclothing, every pin means that it is a year before you will be married; hence dressmakers are especially careful to pin the dress in such a way that it will slip off easily.
_Boston, Ma.s.s._
403. If you have good success in building a fire, you will have a smart husband; if bad success, a lazy husband.
_St. John, N.B., and Ohio._
404. If a lock of hair over the forehead ("widow"s lock") be cut before marriage, the girl will be a widow.
_Labrador._
405. Get a lady friend to knit you a yellow garter. She must ask a gentleman unknown to you to knit ten rows. You will meet and marry the gentleman within a year.
406. The exchange of one yellow garter means a proposal in six months.
_Washington, D.C._
407. If a girl wears a yellow garter (which has been given to her) every day for a year, or every day and night for six months, at the end of that time she will be married.
_Montreal, P.Q._
408. If you burn a lover"s letter, he will never marry you.
_Central Maine._
409. If, at a dinner, a single person is inadvertently placed between two married people (husband or wife), it means marriage for him or her within a year.
410. If you pa.s.s between two men on the street, you"ll marry both of them sometime.
_Champaign, Ill._
411. If you drop a knitting-needle, you won"t be married during the present year.
412. If you break many needles in a garment, it will be worn at a wedding.
413. If you draw blood from a p.r.i.c.k of the needle while making a garment, it is a sign you will be kissed the first time you wear it.
_Boston, Ma.s.s._
414. Should needles break while sewing on a new garment, it is a sign that the owner will be married before it is worn out.
_New York._
415. When a young man goes to see a girl for the first time, and the signs of the zodiac are in the heart, they will one day marry.
_Harmony, Me._
416. If you step on a cigar stub, you will marry the first man you meet.
_Salem, Ma.s.s._
417. Two spoons in a cup is the sign of a wedding.
_Bathurst, N.B., and Wisconsin._
418. If you get two spoons in your cup or saucer, you"ll marry a second husband or wife.
419. If a couple out walking together stumble, it is a sign that they will be married.
_Labrador._
420. Sit on the table, Married before you"re able.
_Mattawamkeag, Me._
421. If a girl gets the last piece of bread on a plate at the table, she will have a handsome husband.
_Ma.s.sachusetts._
422. If all of three dishes at the table are eaten, all of the unmarried people at the table will be married within the year.
_Northern Ma.s.sachusetts._
423. "If the tea-kettle boils, you will boil your beaux away," is an old saying.
_Salem, Ma.s.s._
424. If you have a cup of tea handed to you, and there are little bits floating on top, they represent the number of husbands you will have--one, two, or three.
425. A girl that takes her thimble to the table will be an old maid.
_Northern Ohio._
426. Three in a row, Meet your beau.
The one in the middle will have him.
_Ma.s.sachusetts._
427. Three lamps in a row, the one who sets down the third will be soon married.
_Ma.s.sachusetts._
428. Three lamps in a row foretell a wedding in the family.
_New York._
429. To look into a tumbler when you are drinking is a sign that you will be an old maid. If you look over the side, you are a flirt.
_Ma.s.sachusetts._
430. To wash the hands under a pump denotes that you will be a widow.
_Chestertown, Md._
CHAPTER VII.
WISHES.