Page:Book Of Halloween(1919).djvu/191

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HALLOWE'EN IN AMERICA
159

in this way to tell also whether one is to be a traveler or a stay-at-home. Apple-seeds are twice ominous, partaking of both apple and nut nature. Even the number of seeds found in a core has meaning. If you put them upon the palm of your hand, and strike it with the other, the number remaining will tell you how many letters you will receive in a fortnight. With twelve seeds and the names of twelve friends, the old rhyme may be repeated :

"One I love,
Two I love,
Three I love, I say ;
Four I love with all my heart :
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."

Nuts are burned in the open fire. It is gen-