Counting Crows

I spend a lot of time in second hand book stores and in places like Value Village and Good Will Industries that also deal in books. Sometimes I go away empty handed. Sometimes I find a treasure.

Several years ago, I found an exquisitely illustrated version of the old children's rhyme called "Counting Crows." The colors and the details reminded me of medieval miniatures. But what was most intriguing was the rhyme itself--I'd never heard it before.

Needless to say, I bought it. I still treasure it.

Sometime later, in another bookstore, I found The Annotated Mother Goose, a compendium of every version of English language nursery rhymes with all the possible explanations of their origins. This valued book contains not one, but two versions of "Counting Crows." Here's the English version:

One's lucky

Two's unlucky

Three is health

Four is wealth

Five is sickness

Six is death

And here's the one from, of all places, Maine:

One crow sorrow

Two crows joy

Three crows a letter

Four crows a boy

I wonder what the crows say when they count humans?