[55] Observe how the nursery song differs from the children's dance. The nurse wishes to persuade the little child in her lap that _paring nails_ is a mark of great regard and affection, as, while performing that office, she chants the ballad to amuse her charge. [56] "It is on a summer's tide, when ladies' hearts are free and gay, when they go arrayed in ermine and silk. The hart strikes his horn against the linden, and the fish leaps in the stream."--_Icelandic Ballad._ [57] Some little friends, feeling the unsatisfactoriness of the fragment, added a couplet to the dance-- O Mary, O Mary, your true love's not slain, The king sends you a letter _to turn round again_. [58] Eh! la _clinquet_ (?) de lettres, que nouvelle est celle-ci? Eh! ce sont des nouvelles qu'il faut changer d'ami. [59] Or, "Three gold wishes, three good kisses, and a slice of _ginger_!" [60] Or, "strong." [61] Or, "king's daughter," "queen's daughter." [62] See French ballad referred to in the Appendix. [63] Or, "King _George's_ son." For convenience sake, the last couplet of the first version is printed with the melody. [64] For if my mother should chance to know, She'd make my blood to fall.--_Version of Sir Egerton Brydges._ [65] And first came out the thick, thick blood, And syne came out the thin; And syne came out the bonny heart's blood, There was nae mair within. _Jamieson._ [66] When bells were rung, and mass was sung, And a' the bairns came hame, When every lady gat hame her son, The lady Maisry gat nane. _Jamieson._ [67] Sallow; willow. [68] In other versions it is "Testament" or "Catechism." [69] Keene, New Hampshire. III. _PLAYING AT WORK._ "The king (George III.) danced all night, and finished with the _Hemp-dressers_, that lasted two hours."--_Memoir of Mrs. Delany._ No. 20. _Virginia Reel._ This dance, which we will not here attempt to describe, is no doubt well known to our readers; but we doubt if any of them has reflected on its significance. It is, in fact, an imitation of _weaving_. The first movements represent the shooting of the shuttle from side to side, and the passage of the woof over and under the threads of the warp; the last movements indicate the tightening of the threads, and bringing together of the cloth.[70] There is a very similar Swedish dance, called "Weaving Woollen," in which the words sung are-- Weave the woollen and bind it together, Let the shuttle go round! The originally imitative character of the dance is thus well illustrated. The "Hemp-dressers' Dance," in which George III. figured, seems to have resembled this, according to the description quoted in the memoir referred to in the heading of this chapter. No. 21. _Oats, Pease, Beans, and Barley Grows._