_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."