illie
with your toes," and something (suthin) will come out of the woodpile and
tear off all your clothes (close).
_Gilsum, N.H._

PUNISHMENT.

89. An "eyewinker" placed in the palm of the hand will cause the ferule
to break when the teacher strikes the palm with it.
_Portsmouth, N.H._

90. Pine tar or pitch in the hand will prevent the blows of the ferule
from causing pain. (_Portsmouth, N.H._, sixty years ago.)

Believed by most schoolboys there at that time.

SPORT.

91. At croquet, if your ball was about to be sent flying, the safeguard
was to draw an imaginary X with your mallet, saying, "Criss cross." It
made your enemy's foot slip, and many a girl would get "mad" and not
play, if you did it often.
_Brookline, Mass._

92. Children believe it is unlucky to step on the cracks in the
flagstones, which are believed to contain poison. It is a game to walk a
long distance on such stones without setting foot on the interstices.
_Cambridge, Mass._

93. When children are tired of swinging, or think it is time for the
swinger to give way to another, the phrase is "let the old cat die."
After this has been said, it is unlucky to quicken the motion of the
swing again.
_General._

VARIOUS.

94. When a child loses a tooth, if the tongue is not put into the cavity
a gold tooth will come in place of it.
_New York and Northern Ohio._

95. The ideas of children about the significance of color are mixed. Thus
in croquet no child (in a town near Boston) would take the red ball,
because it was supposed to mean hate. Blue is the favorite color.

96. Red and yellow, catch a fellow. _Brookline, Mass._
Pink and blue, he'll catch you. _Deerfield, Mass._
Pink and blue, he'll be true. _Deerfield, Mass._
Black and white, hold him tight. _Pennsylvania._

97. An old superstition which still survives among children is, that if
they crawl over an older person and do not crawl back they will never
grow again.
_Haverhill, Mass._

98. "We used always as children to get X's scored with a pin on our new
'village gaiters.' We were told it was to make them safe and take the
slipperiness off."
_Brookline, Mass._

99. Children say that the one who takes the first bite of an apple that
is to be passed about for eating will fail in his or her lesson.
_Chelsea, Mass._

100. Boys believe that they