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- 



