It began, for us, with our English ancestors, who used to assemble on
the eve of St. Valentine's day, put the names of all the young maidens
promiscuously in a box, and let each bachelor draw one out. The damsel
whose name fell to his lot became his valentine for the year. He wore
her name in his bosom or on his sleeve, and it was his duty to attend
her and protect her. As late as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
this custom was very popular, even among the upper classes.

But the wiseacres have traced the custom farther back. Some of them
think it was begun by the ancient Romans, who had on the fourteenth or
fifteenth of February a festival in honor of Lupercus, "the destroyer of
wolves"--a wolf-destroyer being quite worthy of honor in those wild
days, let me tell you. At this festival it was the custom, among other
curious things, to pair off the young men and maidens in the same chance
way, and with the same result of a year's attentions.

Even this is not wholly satisfactory. Who began it among the Romans?
becomes the next interesting question. One old writer says it was
brought to Rome from Arcadia sixty years before the Trojan war (which
Homer wrote about, you know). I'm sure that's far enough back to satisfy
anybody. The same writer also says that the Pope tried to abolish it in
the fifth century, but he succeeded only in sending it down to us in the
name of St. Valentine instead of Lupercus.

[Illustration: FOR THIS WAS ON SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY]

Our own ancestry in England and Scotland have observed some very funny
customs within the last three centuries. At one time valentines were
fashionable among the nobility, and, while still selected by lot, it