214 EYE SPY 



chestnut, as we all know, are proverbially potent 

 as personal or household charms against ill luck. 

 I once knew a shrewd countryman who gave all 

 the credit of his success in " tradin' " to the 

 " hoss-chestnut " which he carried in his pocket, 

 and would as soon think of throwing his money 

 away as to " drive a trade " without it. More 

 than one old " down - East " dame " sets gre't 

 store " by the horseshoe hung above her door- 

 way, always secured ends up, " so's the luck can't 

 run out." Then there was old Aunt Huldy, who, 

 while she claimed to locate springs and wells 

 the country round by her witch-hazel divining- 

 rod, never ventured upon these expeditions with- 

 out the concealed necklace of dried star puff-balls 

 hung about her neck. 



But perhaps the most universal of all these nat- 

 ural symbols of good-fortune is to be found in the 

 four-leaved clover, almost a world-wide supersti- 

 tion, and traced back to the ancient astrologers. 

 " If a man, walking the fields," writes one of them, 

 " finds any four-leaved grasse, he shall in a short 

 while after finde some good thing." 



The clover was considered as being especially 

 "noisome to witches," and the "holy trefoil charm" 

 was a powerful spell against their harm ; the " tre- 

 foil" being the most widely used title of the clover 

 — Trifolium, as it is in the botany — three leaved. 

 And such it should be, to be true to its christen- 



