VIII. Pray, mother, pray, May I go out to play? No, daughter, no, daughter, Not every fine day. Why, mother, why? I shan’t be gone long. Make a fine curtsey And glad git you gone.— Wait for your sister. —Hurstmonceux, Sussex (Miss Chase). IX. Please, mother, please, mother, may I go out to play? No, child, no, child, ’tis such a cold day. Why, mother, why, mother, I won’t stay long. Make three pretty curtseys and off you run. —Northants (Rev. W. D. Sweeting). (_b_) One girl is chosen to act as “Mother,” the rest of the players pretend to be her children, and stand in front of her, not in a line, but in a group. One of them, very frequently all the children ask her the first question, and the Mother answers. When she gives permission for the children to go out they all curtsey three times, and run off and pretend to play. They then return, and the rest of the dialogue is said, the Mother asking the questions and the children replying. At the end of the dialogue the Mother chases and catches them, one after the other, pretending to beat and punish them. In the Northants and Hurstmonceux games there appears to be no chasing. In the London version (Miss Dendy) only two children are mentioned as playing. When the Mother is chasing the girl she keeps asking, “Where’s my share of the silver penny?” to which the girl replies, “You may have the nut-shells.” In the Cornish version, when the Mother has caught one of the children, she beats her and puts her hands round the child’s throat as if she were going to hang her. (_c_) Miss Courtney, in _Folk-lore Journal_, v. 55, says: “I thought this game was a thing of the past, but I came across some children playing it in the streets of Penzance in 1883.” It belongs to the cumulative group of games, and is similar in this respect to “Milking Pails,” “Mother, Mother, the Pot boils over,” &c. There seems to be no other object in the game as now played except the pleasures of teasing and showing defiance to a mother’s commands, and trying to escape the consequences of disobedience by flight, in order that the mother may chase them. The idea may be that, if she is “out of breath,” she cannot chastise so much. Mr. Newell (_Games_, p. 172) gives versions of a similar game. Mother Mop All the players, except one, stand two by two in front of each other, the inner ones forming an arch with their hands united—this is called the “oven.” The odd child is “Mother Mop.” She busies herself with a pretended mop, peel, &c., after the manner of old-fashioned bakers, making much ado in the valley between the rows of children. The oven soon gets demolished, and the last child vanquished becomes “Mother Mop” the next time.—Bitterne, Hants (Mrs. Byford).