Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales Part 12

These lines are to be repeated rapidly and correctly, inserting the word _cother_ after _every_ word, under pain of a forfeit.

It's time, I believe, For us to get leave: The little dog says It isn't, it is; it 'tisnt, it is, &c.

Said by a schoolboy, who places his book between his knees. His two forefingers are then placed together, and the breadth of each is measured alternately along the length of the book. The time to get leave (to be dismissed) is supposed to have arrived or not according as one finger or the other fills up the last s.p.a.ce.

A duck and a drake, And a white penny cake.

It's time to go home, It isn't, it is, &c.

So going on with the fingers one over the other along the edge of a book or desk, till the last finger determines the question.

Put your finger in foxy's hole, Foxy is not at home: Foxy is at the back door, Picking of a bone.

Holding the fist in such a way that if a child puts its finger in, you can secure it, still leaving the hole at top open.

Jack's alive and in very good health, If he dies in your hand you must look to yourself.

Played with a stick, one end burnt red-hot: it is pa.s.sed round a circle from one to the other, the one who pa.s.ses it saying this, and the one whose hand it goes out in paying a forfeit.

SEE-SAW.

A common game, children vacillating on either end of a plank supported on its centre. While enjoying this recreation, they have a song of appropriate cadence, the burden of which is,-

t.i.tty c.u.m tawtay, The ducks in the water: t.i.tty c.u.m tawtay, The geese follow after.

HITTY-t.i.tTY.

Hitty-t.i.tty in-doors, Hitty-t.i.tty out; You touch Hitty-t.i.tty, And Hitty-t.i.tty will bite you.

These lines are said by children when one of them has hid herself. They then run away, and the one who is bitten (caught) becomes. .h.i.tty-t.i.tty, and hides in her turn. A variation of the above lines occurs in MS.

Harl. 1962, as a riddle, the solution of which is _a nettle_.

BEANS AND b.u.t.tER.

So the game of _hide-and-seek_ is called in some parts of Oxfords.h.i.+re.

Children hide from each other, and when it is time to commence the search, the cry is,

Hot boil'd beans and very good b.u.t.ter, If you please to come to supper!

DROP-CAP.

In the game where the following lines are used, one person goes round inside a ring of children, clapping a cap between his hands. When he drops it at the foot of any one, that one leaves his position and gives chase, and is obliged to thread the very same course among the children till the first is caught. The first then stands with his back towards the centre of the ring, the one called out takes his place, and thus they continue till nearly all are "turned."

My hand burns hot, hot, hot, And whoever I love best, I'll drop this at his foot!

MY SOW HAS PIGGED.

A game at cards, played now only by children. It is alluded to by Taylor the Water-poet, in his Motto, 12mo. Lond. 1622, and it is also mentioned in Poor Robin's Almanac for 1734. The following distich is used in this game:

Higgory, diggory, digg'd, My sow has pigg'd.

NIDDY-NODDY.

A simple but very amusing game at cards, at which any number can play.

The cards are dealt round, and one person commences the game by placing down a card, and the persons next in succession who hold the same card in the various suits place them down upon it, the holder of the last winning the trick. The four persons who hold the cards say, when they put them down,-

1. There's a good card for thee.

2. There's a still better than he!

3. There's the best of all three.

4. And there is Niddy-noddee!

The person who is first _out_, receives a fish for each card unplayed.

SLATE GAMES.

Entertaining puzzles or exercises upon the slate are generally great favorites with children. A great variety of them are current in the nursery, or rather were so some years ago. The story of the four rich men, the four poor men, and the pond, was one of these; the difficulty merely requiring a zig-zag inclosure to enable it to be satisfactorily solved.

Once upon a time there was a pond lying upon common land, which was extremely commodious for fis.h.i.+ng, bathing, and various other purposes.

Not far from it lived four poor men, to whom it was of great service; and farther off, there lived four rich men. The latter envied the poor men the use of the pond, and, as inclosure bills had not then come into fas.h.i.+on, they wished to invent an inclosure-wall which should shut out the poor men from the pond, although they lived so near it, and still give free access to the rich men, who resided at a greater distance. How was this done?

GAME OF THE CAT.

This is another slate game, in which, by means of a tale and appropriate indications on the slate, a rude figure of a cat is delineated. It requires, however, some little ingenuity to accomplish it.

Tommy would once go to see his cousin Charles. [Here one draws T for Tommy, and C for Charles, forming the forehead, nose, and mouth of the cat.] But before he went, he would make walls to his house. [Here he draws lines from the arms of the T to its foot, forming the cheeks of the cat.] But then it smoked, and he would put chimneys to it. [Here he inserts two narrow triangles on each arm of the T, forming the ears of the cat.] But then it was so dark, he would put windows into it. [Here he draws a small circle under each arm of the T, forming the eyes.] Then to make it pretty, he would spread gra.s.s at the door. [Here he scratches lines at the foot of the T, representing the cat's whiskers.] Then away he went on his journey, but after a little while, down he fell. [Here he draws down a line a little way from the foot of the T.] But he soon climbed up again. [Here he draws a zig-zag horizontally from the foot of the last line, and draws one up, forming with the last movement the first foot of the cat.] Then he walks along again, but soon falls down once more. [Here he draws a short horizontal line, and one downwards.]

He soon, however, got up again, as before, &c. [The second leg is then formed, and by similar movements the four legs of the cat appear.]

After thus falling down four times, Tommy determined to proceed more firmly, and climbing up, he walks along [the back of the cat] another way round till he comes to C. His journey is now accomplished, and an animal, called by courtesy a cat, appears on the slate, "the admiration of all beholders."

HANDY-DANDY.

This game is now played as follows:-a child hides something in one hand, and then places both fists endways on each other, crying,-

Handy-dandy riddledy ro, Which will you have, high or low?

Or, sometimes, the following distich,-

Handy-dandy, Jack-a-dandy, Which good hand will you have?

The party addressed either touches one hand, or guesses in which one the article (whatever it may be) is placed. If he guesses rightly, he wins its contents; if wrongly, he loses an equivalent.

Some versions read _handy-pandy_ in the first of these, with another variation, that would not now be tolerated. This is one of the oldest English games in existence, and appears to be alluded to in Piers Ploughman, ed. Wright, p. 69: