very ancient custom, indeed,
to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honor of
a heathen god.

On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of
young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men
as chance directed.

The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavored to do away
with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of
saints for those of maidens. And as the Lupercalia began about the
middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's
Day for the celebration of this new feast.

So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for
valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this
wise.

A PRISONER'S VALENTINE

BY MILLICENT OLMSTED (ADAPTED)

Charles, Duke of Orleans, who was taken prisoner at the battle of
Agincourt in 1415, and detained in England twenty-five years, was the
author of the earliest known written valentines. He left about sixty of
them. They were written during his confinement in the Tower of London,
and are still to be seen among the royal papers in the British Museum.

One of his valentines reads as follows:--

"Wilt thou be mine? dear Love, reply--
Sweetly consent or else deny.
Whisper softly, none shall know,
Wilt thou be mine, Love?--aye or no?

"Spite of Fortune, we may be
Happy by one word from thee.
Life flies swiftly--ere it go
Wilt thou be mine, Love?--aye or no?"

A GIRL'S VALENTINE CHARM

AS TOLD BY HERSELF

(FROM THE CONNOISSEUR, 1775)

Last Friday was Valentine's Day, and I'll tell you what I did the night
before. I got five bay leaves, and pinned four of them to the four
corners of my pillow, and the fifth to the middle; and then if I dreamt
of my sweetheart, Betty said we would be married before the year was
out.

But to make it more sure, I boiled an egg hard, and took out the yolk,
and filled it with salt, and when I went to bed ate it, shell and all,
without speaking or drinking after it.

We also wrote our lovers' names upon bits of paper, and rolled them up
in clay and put them into water; and the first that rose up was to be
our valentine. Would you think it? Mr. Blossom was my man, and I lay
abed and shut my eyes all the morning, till he came to our house, for I
would not have seen another man before him for all the world.

MR. PEPYS HIS VALENTINE