What They Say in New England/Folks

by Clifton Johnson

Folks
. .

A poor man always keeps a dog, and a very poor man keeps two.

Red-headed people are usually quick-tempered, or, in other words, “spunky.”

The baby who doesn’t fall downstairs before it is a year old will turn out a fool.

Likewise the baby must fall out of bed three times before it is a year old, or it won’t know anything.

The boy who goes through a door with a hoe over his shoulder will never grow taller.

Insane persons were thought in days not very remote to be possessed of evil spirits.

Idiots were thought to be peculiarly under the care of the Deity, and it was believed that those who treated them kindly would be blessed.

When you see a woman stirring her batter from left to right, you may know she is a good cook. If she stirs from right to left, that is a sign she is a poor cook.

It will make a child proud if you let it look in a mirror before it is twelve months old.

The person whose second toe is longer than his great toe is born to rule. If the person with such a toe is a woman, she says she knows by that she will rule her husband; or, as one woman put it, “It’s a sign I’m going to fight with my old man all my days.”

If three persons of the same first name come together, you may be pretty sure one of them is a fool.

“When a man goes to sit down in a chair, he always takes hold of its back and moves it. Perhaps he won’t move it more’n an inch or two, but ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he will move it a little. When a woman goes to sit down, she sits down in the chair just where it was. If men and women dressed exactly alike, you could tell ‘em apart that way if you couldn’t no other. Now, you notice that.”

A person with very light hair will have poor eyes.

A person with prominent eyes is sure to be a great talker.