No. 35 A Hallowe’en Rhyme
A Round
Oh, dear doctor, don’t you cry!
Your true love will come by-and-by.
If she comes all dressed in green,
That’s a sign she’s to be seen.
If she comes all dressed in white,
That’s a sign she’ll cry all night.
If she comes all dressed in gray,
That’s a sign that she’s away.
If she comes all dressed in blue,
That’s a sign she’ll marry you.
New York.
A variation:
Oh, Miss Betsy, don’t you cry!
For your true love will come by’m-bye;
When he comes he’ll dress in blue—
Then he’ll bring you, something new.
Massachusetts.
These corrupt rhymes are only interesting as illustrating the permanence of Hallowe’en customs, even in America. The Scotch rhyme of Chambers goes—
This knot, this knot, this knot I knit,
To see the thing I ne’er saw yet—
To see my love in his array,
And what he walks in every day;
And what his occupation be,
This night I in my sleep may see.
And if my love be clad in green,
His love for me is well seen;
And if my love be clad in gray,
His love for me is far away;
But if my love be clad in blue,
His love for me is very true.
After repeating these words, the girl puts her knotted garter beneath her pillow, and sleeps on it, when her future husband will appear to her in a dream.