take off your slipper or
boot. Stand with your back to the door and throw it over your head. If
the toe points to the door, you go out of the chamber a bride before the
year is out. You must not look at the boot until the morning.
_Bedford, Mass._

233. At night before going to bed take one of your garters and tie it in
a knot and hang it on the bed-post above your head. While tying repeat,--

This knot I tie, this knot I knit,
To see the young man I haven't seen yet.
_Chestertown, Md._

234. Young girls on going to bed at night place their shoes at right
angles to one another, in the form of the letter T, repeating this
rhyme:--

Hoping this night my true love to see,
I place my shoes in the form of a T.
_Northern Ohio._

235. The first time you sleep in a house, upon retiring place the shoes
in the form of a T, and say over,--

My true love by-and-by for to see,
Be as she (or he) be,
Bear as she (or he) may,
The clothes she (or he) wears every day.
_Boston, Mass._

236. Catch the four corners of a handkerchief up in the hand, then let
some one wishing to try her fortune draw two. If she gets two corners on
the same side, she will not be married. If she gets opposite ones, she
will be married.
_Prince Edward Island and Chestertown, Md._

237. A rhyme on stockings and shoes:--

Point your shoes towards the street,
Leave your garters on your feet,
Put your stockings on your head,
You'll dream of the man you are going to wed.
_Eastern Massachusetts._

238. Put the chemise, inside out, on the foot of the bed and under it a
board with ashes upon it; then go to bed backwards, saying,--

Whoever my true love may be,
Come write his name in these ashes for me.
_Winn, Me._

239. Place the heel of one shoe against the instep of the other for three
nights in a row. You will dream of your future husband.
_Franklin, Mass._

240. On Friday night after getting all ready for bed, roll your petticoat
up, and before lying down put it under your pillow, repeating this
verse:--

This Friday night while going to bed,
I put my petticoat under my head,
To dream of the living and not of the dead,
To dream of the man I am to wed,
The color of his eyes, the color of his hair,
The color of the clothes he is to wear,