The ladybird is roused to activity by the cry of—
Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,
Thy house is on fire, thy children all gone!
And during the nursery application of dock-leaves for a nettle-sting one of the following rhymes is sung:—
Nettle out, dock in,
Dock remove the nettle-sting;
Or,
In dock, out nettle,
Don’t let the blood settle.
Or, again,
Nettle in, dock out,
Dock in, nettle out,
Nettle in, dock out,
Dock rub nettle out.
Or, lastly,
Docken in and nettle out,
Like an auld wife’s dish-clout.
In the North of England children call, or used to call, thunder Rattley-bags, and to sing this couplet during a storm—
Rowley, Rowley, Rattley-bags,
Take the lasses and leave the lads.
Another quaint verse is connected with a game I have often played in my childhood—
Four-and-twenty tailors went to kill a snail,
The best man among them durst na touch his tail.
He put out his horns like a kiley cow,
Rin lads, flee lads, we’re a’ killed now!
The game of Sally Walker, in which song and dance are combined, is still played in the North of England. The following words were taken from the lips of some juvenile singers at Morpeth by Mr. Joseph Crawhall:—
Sally Walker, Sally Walker,
Come spring time and love,
She’s lamenting, she’s lamenting,
All for her young man.
Come choose to the east, come choose to the west,
Come choose the one that yon love best.
