St. Valentine's Day was one of the few English holidays observed in
New England. We find even Governor Winthrop writing to his wife
about "challenging a valentine." In England at that date, and for a
century previous, the first person of the opposite sex seen in the
morning was the observer's valentine. We find Madam Pepys lying in
bed for a long time one St. Valentine's morning with eyes tightly
closed, lest she see one of the painters who was gilding her new
mantelpiece, and be forced to have him for her valentine. Anna
means, doubtless, that the first person she chanced to see that
morning was "an old country plow-joger."