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Salt is considered a very lucky thing. Many people when 

 removing to a new house make a point of carrying salt and meal 

 in first. To spill salt at any time is very unlucky. "A pound of 

 salt (spilt brings) a peck of sorrow." In some places it is believed 

 to predestine a shipwreck. 



It is a common saying, that " It is better to be born lucky than 

 rich." We hear a great deal in these democratic times about the 

 persons born with silver spoons in their mouths. If it is only our 

 lot to be born on a lucky day, we would seem to be better off than 

 they. Two old rhymes on birthdays I have found. The first, a 

 Scotch version, runs : — 



Monday's bairn is fair of face ; 

 Tuesday's bairn is full of grace ; 

 Wednesday's bairn is a child of woe ; 

 Thursday's bairn has far to go ; 

 Saturday's bairn works hard for a living ; 

 But the bairn that is bom on the Sabbath day, 

 Is lively and bonnie, blithe and gay. 



Contrast this with the English version :— 



Bom of a Monday, fair in face ; 



Born of a Tuesday, full of God's grace ; 



Born of a Wednesday, merry and glad ; 



Bom of a Thursday, sour and sad ; 



Born of a Saturday, work for your living ; 



Bom of a Sunday, never shall we want — 



So there ends the week, and there's an end on't. 



Any country girl would trust it true if she were born on a 

 Monday ; and who that came on a Tuesday would confess himself 

 "graceless"! But about Wednesday's bairn there seems to be a 

 difference of opinion among the prophets : one rhyme predicts 

 "a child of woe," whilst the other says "merry and glad;" and 

 thereby, from self-contradiction, the old rhyme goes down like 

 a house of cards. Ye we should not forget that what we read 

 opposite our names in our birthday text-books, and joke over, is 

 similar to, and perhaps the outcome of, what was looked on a few 

 years hence as a solemn reality. 



