Winn, Me.
165. Throw a whole apple-paring on the floor, after swinging it three times around your head. It will form your true love’s initial letter.
General in the United States.
APPLE-SEEDS.
166. When eating an apple, snap it with the fingers and name it for a person of the opposite sex. Count the fully developed seeds (all of the others are kisses), and the last one must correspond to the following formula:—
One’s my love,
Two’s my love,
Three’s my heart’s desire.
Four I’ll take and never forsake,
Five I’ll cast in the fire.
Six he loves,
Seven she loves,
Eight they both love,
Nine he comes,
Ten he tarries,
Eleven he goes,
Twelve he marries.
Thirteen honor,
Fourteen riches,
All the rest are little witches.
Baldwinsville, N. Y.
Some change the latter lines of this formula into
Thirteen they quarrel,
Fourteen they part,
Fifteen they die with a broken heart.
167. Similar rhymes commonly repeated in northern Ohio, after naming an apple and counting the seeds, are,—
One I love,
Two I love,
Three I love, I say.
Four I love with all my heart,
And five I cast away.
Six he loves,
Seven she loves,
Eight they both love.
Nine he comes,
Ten he tarries,
Eleven he courts,
And twelve he marries.
Prince Edward Island and Mansfield, O.