Children's songs -- United States; Games with music
And so they went along,
To see what they could see,
And soon they saw an owl,
A-sitting on a tree.
One said it was an owl,
But the other said nay,
One said it was the Evil One!
And they all ran away.
No. 35.
_A Hallowe'en Rhyme._
A ROUND.
Oh, dear doctor, don't you cry!
Your true love will come by-and-by.
If she comes all dressed in green,
That's a sign she's to be seen.
If she comes all dressed in white,
That's a sign she'll cry all night.
If she comes all dressed in gray,
That's a sign that she's away.
If she comes all dressed in blue,
That's a sign she'll marry you.
_New York._
A variation:
Oh, Miss Betsy, don't you cry!
For your true love will come _by'm-bye_;
When he comes he'll dress in blue--
Then he'll bring you, something new.
_Massachusetts._
These corrupt rhymes are only interesting as illustrating the
permanence of Hallowe'en customs, even in America. The Scotch rhyme of
Chambers goes--
This knot, this knot, this knot I knit,
To see the thing I ne'er saw yet--
To see my love in his array,
And what he walks in every day;
And what his occupation be,
This night I in my sleep may see.
And if my love be clad in green,
His love for me is well seen;
And if my love be clad in gray,
His love for me is far away;
But if my love be clad in blue,
His love for me is very true.
After repeating these words, the girl puts her knotted garter beneath
her pillow, and sleeps on it, when her future husband will appear to
her in a dream.
No. 36.
_The Doctor's Prescription._
A ROUND.
Oh, dear doctor, can you tell,
What will make poor ---- well?
She is sick and like to die,
And that will make poor ---- cry.
A kiss was the prescription.
We insert this silly little round, chiefly because, according to Madame
Celnart, a French equivalent was in favor, not with infants, but
ladies and gentlemen in polite society, only half a century since. Our
authority says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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