Lover's Test with Chestnuts (1910's)

This Halloween Fortune Telling Game and MANY others can be found in the following book available from Amazon.com:

Games For Hallowe’en

by Mary E. Blain

If one hisses and steams, it indicates a fretful temper in owner of chestnut;

if both chestnuts equally misbehave it augurs strife.

If one or both pop away, it means separation;

but if both burn to ashes tranquilly side by side, a long life of undisturbed happiness will be lot of owners.

These portentous omens are fitly defined in
the following lines:

” These glowing nuts are emblems true
Of what in human life we view;
The ill-matched couple fret and fume,
And thus in strife themselves consume;
Or from each other wildly start,
And with a noise forever part.
But see the happy, happy pair,
Of genuine love and truth sincere;
With mutual fondness while they burn,
Still to each other kindly turn;
And as the vital sparks decay,
Together gently sink away;
Till life’s fierce trials being past,
Their mingled ashes rest at last.”