ck-mustached man from
Collins Gap was the one whom she had seen reflected in the well. They
married. But poor Minnie Tinsley. That same May she tried her fortune at
the well. But never a face appeared. Instead there seemed to float to
the surface of the water a piece of wood in the shape of a coffin.
Minnie died before the summer was over. For a while others were afraid
to go near the well. But, as Aunt Lindie reminded, "There are other
ways. In the springtime the first dove you hear cooing to its mate, sit
down, slip off your shoe, and there you will find in the heel a hair. It
will be the color of your husband's locks."

There were other ways too, even for the very, very young. To try this
fortune it had to be a very mild winter when flowers came early, for
this was a fortune for St. Valentine's Day. "The lad sets out early on
his quest," Aunt Lindie explained. "He knows to look in a place where
there is rabbit bread on the ground--where the frost spews up and swells
the ground. Close by there will be a clump of stones, and if he looks
carefully there he will find snuggled under the stones a little
Jack-in-the-pulpit. He plucks the flower and leaves it at the door of
his sweetheart. Though all the time she has listened inside for his
coming, she pretends not to have heard until he scampers away and
hides--but not too far away lest he fail to hear her singing softly as
she gathers up his token of love:

A little wee man in the wood he stood,
His cap was so green and also his hood.

By my step rock he left me a love token sweet,
From my own dear true love, far, far down the creek.

Some call his name Valentine, St. Valentine good,
This little wee man in the wood where he stood.

When Aunt Lindie finished singing the ballad she never failed to add,
"That is the best way I know to try a body's fortune. My own Christopher
Reffitt was scarce six when he left such a love token on my step rock
and I a little tyke of five."

Many a night they told riddles at Aunt Lindie's until she herself could
not think of another one. Some of the young folks came from Rough Creek
away off on Little River and some from Bullhead Mountain and the Binner
girls from Collins Gap. If several of the girls took a notion to stay
all night, Aunt Lindie Reffitt made a pallet on the floor of extra
quilts and many a time she brought out the ironing board, placed it
between two chairs for a bed