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j62 green grass |
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Yes ! we'll take the keys of school; yes ! we will take brass ; We will take anything for a pretty lass.
Come, my dear [Mary Anne], and give me your right hand,
And you shall have a duck, my dear,
You shall have a drake; You shall have a nice young man
To fiddle for your sake.
The birds will sing, the bells will ring, And we'll all clap hands together. —Congleton Workhouse School (Miss. A. E. Tremlow).
(c) The popular version of this game is played by the greater number of the children forming a line on one side with joined hands, and one child (sometimes two or more) facing them, advancing and retiring while singing the verses. When he asks the question, " Will you come ? " one girl on the opposite side answers "No!" and afterwards "Yes!" When this is said, she goes to the opposite side, and the two dance round together while singing the next verse. The game begins again by the two singing the verses, and thus getting a third child to join them, when the game proceeds for a fourth, and so on.
The Congleton and London versions are played by two lines of children of about equal numbers. In the Lincolnshire version the above description answers, except that when the last line is sung every one claps hands. In the Sussex version the child at the end of the line is taken over by the child who sings the verses, and they lock their little fingers together while singing the remainder.
Addy (Sheffield Glossary) says :—" Two children advance and retire on one side. When the opposite side says 'Yes!' the two take the first child in the row and dance round with her, singing the remaining verse. This is called ' the wedding.' "
The Lanarkshire version is quite a different one, and contains rather remarkable features. Mr. Black says that the game was played entirely by girls, never by boys, and generally in the months of May or June, about forty years ago. The children sang with rather mincing and refined voices, evidently making an effort in this direction. They walked, with their hands clasped |
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