Sir, the north-east, more fierce than Russian cold, Pierces the very marrow in the bones, Presses upon the brain an arid weight, And superflows life’s current with a force That checks the heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, In all their purposes.---- Up with the double window-sashes--quick! Close every crevice from the withering blast, And stop the keyhole tight--the wind-fiend comes! * ~January 20.~ _St. Fabian_, Pope. _St. Sebastian._ _St. Enthymius._ _St. Fechin._ _St. Fabian._ This saint is in the church of England calendar; he was bishop of Rome, A. D. 250: the Romish calendar calls him pope. _St. Sebastian’s Day_ Is noted in Doblada’s Letters from Spain, as within the period that ushers in the carnival with rompings in the streets, and vulgar mirth. “The custom alluded to by Horace of sticking a tail, is still practised by the boys in the streets, to the great annoyance of old ladies, who are generally the objects of this sport. One of the ragged striplings that wander in crowds about Seville, having tagged a piece of paper with a hooked pin, and stolen unperceived behind some slow-paced female, as wrapt up in her veil, she tells the beads she carries in her left hand, fastens the paper-tail on the back of the black or walking petticoat called Saya. The whole gang of ragamuffins, who, at a convenient distance, have watched the dexterity of their companion, set up a loud cry of ‘Làrgalo, làrgalo’--‘Drop it, drop it’--this makes every female in the street look to the rear, which, they well know, is the fixed point of attack with the merry light-troops. The alarm continues till some friendly hand relieves the victim of sport, who, spinning and nodding like a spent top, tries in vain to catch a glance at the fast-pinned paper, unmindful of the physical law which forbids her head revolving faster than the great orbit on which the ominous comet flies.” ST. AGNES’ EVE Formerly this was a night of great import to maidens who desired to know who they should marry. Of such it was required, that they should not eat on this day, and those who conformed to the rule, called it fasting St. Agnes’ fast. And on sweet St. Agnes’ night Please you with the promis’d sight, Some of husbands, some of lovers, Which an empty dream discovers. BEN JONSON. Old Aubrey has a recipe, whereby a lad or lass was to attain a sight of the fortunate lover. “Upon St. Agnes’ night you take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, saying a Pater Noster, sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him or her you shall marry.”