The Good Saint

The good St. Valentina was beheaded about 250 years after Christ. He was a man of great learning and piety and charity, and every body loved him but the wickcd Emperor Claudius, and so the people commemorated his virtues by making the day of his death a notable day. As he loved every body and every thing, they got up that pretty superstition about the birds mating. Afterwards the boys and girls took it up and said it was a good time of the year for them to mate, and so they started the custom of writing love letters and playing sweetheart for a little while. At flrst they drew lots for their mates, and a pretty, sweet girl had to play sweetheart to a knook-kneed, crosseyed, twist-noso booby if she drew him.