Cambridge, Mass.
93. When children are tired of swinging, or think it is time for the swinger to give way to another, the phrase is “let the old cat die.” After this has been said, it is unlucky to quicken the motion of the swing again.
General.
VARIOUS.
94. When a child loses a tooth, if the tongue is not put into the cavity a gold tooth will come in place of it.
New York and Northern Ohio.
95. The ideas of children about the significance of color are mixed. Thus in croquet no child (in a town near Boston) would take the red ball, because it was supposed to mean hate. Blue is the favorite color.
96. Red and yellow, catch a fellow. Brookline, Mass.
Pink and blue, he’ll catch you. Deerfield, Mass.
Pink and blue, he’ll be true. Deerfield, Mass.
Black and white, hold him tight. Pennsylvania.
97. An old superstition which still survives among children is, that if they crawl over an older person and do not crawl back they will never grow again.
Haverhill, Mass.