Even ash, even ash, I pluck thee,
This night my true love for to see,
Neither in his rick nor in his rear,
But in the clothes he does every day wear."

And there is the well-known saying current throughout the country:

"If you find an even ash or a four-leaved clover,
Rest assured you'll see your true love ere the day is over."

Longfellow alludes to the husking of the maize among the American
colonists, an event which was always accompanied by various ceremonies,
one of which he thus forcibly describes:

"In the golden weather the maize was husked, and the
maidens
Blushed at each blood-red ear, for that betokened a lover,
But at the crooked laughed, and called it a thief in the
corn-field:
Even the blood-red ear to Evangeline brought not her
lover."

Charms of this kind are common, and vary in different localities, being
found extensively on the Continent, where perhaps even greater
importance is attached to them than in our own country. Thus, a popular
French one--which many of our young people also practise--is for lovers
to test the sincerity of their affections by taking a daisy and plucking
its leaflets off one by one, saying, "Does he love me?--a
little--much--passionately--not at all!" the phrase which falls to the
last leaflet forming the answer to the inquiry: