Old Mary Roden was bed-ridden and lived in a one-roomed hut, the floor
of which was falling in. The little grandchild, when prompted to “make
a figure,” danced quite spontaneously to the rhythm of the
grandmother’s quavering song. The same is true of the next two numbers.
Songs sung to be danced to in this fashion have rather the monotonous
rhythm of a drum-beat than any melody in our sense of the word. For the
story, see number 23.