Part 68

WHICH COLOR

Married in white, you have chosen aright. Married in green, ashamed to be seen. Married in grey, you will go far away. Married in red, you will wish yourself dead. Married in blue, love ever true. Married in yellow, ashamed of your fellow. Married in black, you will wish yourself back. Married in pink, your spirits will sink. Married in brown, you'll live out of town. Married in pearl, you'll live in a whirl.

THE BRIDEGROOM

The groom, as the secondary figure in the day's ceremonies, escapes very easily as far as superstition goes, and may do pretty well what he pleases, save letting his hat or the ring drop, both of which are very unlucky. He should carry a tiny horseshoe in his pocket, and fee the clergyman with an odd sum of money.

No one ought to hand him or his bride a telegram on the way to church, and if he wishes to be master in his own house, then he must take care to see her before she has time to catch a glimpse of him ere arriving at the altar.

MARRIAGE PROVERBS

Happy is the wooing that's not long in doing.

Marrying for love is risky, but God smiles on it.

The married man must turn his staff into a stake.

Mary in May, rue for aye. Marry in Lent, live to repent.

Advent marriage doth deny, but Hilary gives thee liberty: Septuagesima says thee nay, eight days from Easter says you may: Rogation bids thee to contain, but Trinity sets thee free again.

Happy is the bride that the sun shines on.

My son's my son till he gets him a wife.

To change the name and not the letter is to change for the worse and not the better.

Wedlock's a padlock.

He who marrieth does well; but he who refrains from marriage doth better.

Needles and pins; needles and pins, When a man marries, his trouble begins.

Honest men marry soon, Wise men not at all.

Marry in haste: repent at leisure.

He who repents him not of his marriage, sleeping and waking, in a year and a day, may lawfully go to Dunmow and fetch a gammon of bacon.

It will not always be a honeymoon.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half shut afterwards.

Lips, however rosy, need feeding.

Marriage with peace is the world's paradise: with strife, this life's purgatory.

Marry above your match, and you get a good master.

Marry for love and work for silver.

Marriages are made in heaven.

Don't marry for money, but seek where money is.