You, many a plum, and many a peare,
For more or less fruits they will bring,
As you do give them wassailing."
R. W. B.
Lucky Omens.
—"The schoolmaster with his primer in his hand," to quote Lord Brougham, is unquestionably abroad, and dispelling, with surprising rapidity, the prejudices of the people; in some cases, perhaps, to make way for prejudices yet stronger and more tenacious than those they displace. You are doing good service by collecting and recording some of those that are fast disappearing. In this neighbourhood I know ladies who consider it "lucky" to find old iron; a horse shoe or a rusty nail is carefully conveyed home and hoarded up. It is also considered lucky if you see the head of the first lamb in spring; to present his tail is the certain harbinger of misfortune. It is also said that if you have money in your pocket the first time you hear the cuckoo, you will never be without all the year. The magpie is a well-known bird of omen. The following lines were familiar when I was a boy:
"One for sorrow, two for mirth,
Three for a wedding, four for death;
Five for a fiddle, six for a dance,
Seven for England, eight for France."