Hush, yonder is the waddling duck,
He's coming, I don't mean to stay.
We'd better by half hop our way,
If we don't he will gobble us up,
With a kough, kough, kough.
If we don't he will gobble us up,
With a kough, kough, kough.
Every frog hops to his separate den, while pursued by the duck, the
game after the duck's advent being extremely animated.
_Georgia._
No. 50.
_Bloody Tom._
Within the ring is the shepherd; the wolf approaches from without. A
dialogue ensues:
"Who comes here?"
"Bloody Tom."
"What do you want?"
"My sheep."
"Take the worst, and leave the best,
And never come back to trouble the rest."
_Salem, Mass._
A New Hampshire version makes the game represent a fox, who carries off
chickens, thus:
"Who comes here this dark night?"
"Who but bloody Tom!--Which you druther be, picked or scalded?"
The Esthonian Fins have a characteristic children's game, based on
the same idea, which may be quoted, to show how much imagination and
spirit enter into the sports of a simple people. A watchman on duty at
the sheepfold announces his office in a soliloquy:
Thus I guard my mother's lambkins,
Guard the flocks of my good mother,
Here before God's holy temple,
Here behind Maria's cloister,
Near the halls of our Creator.
At the house the mother, knitting,
Shapes the stockings of blue woollen,
Woollen stockings seamed with scarlet,
Jackets of the snow-white worsted.
I build hedges, stakes I sharpen,
Mould the brazen gratings strongly,
That the thieves come in and steal not,
Take not from the flock its sheep-dog,
Nor the wolf steal in and plunder,
Seize my mother's tender lambkins,
Rob the young lambs of my father.
A girl entices away the shepherd, while a boy as wolf carries off part
of the herd, and another as dog barks. The mother of the family hastens
up, beats the traitor, and the herdsmen go with staves to seek the lost
lamb. The garland it wore is found and identified. With shouts of,
"Lamb, lamb," it is found at last, caressed, and its bruises examined.
No. 51.
_Blue-birds and Yellow-birds._
A ring of girls with their hands clasped and lifted. A girl, called
(according to the color of her dress) blue-bird, black-bird,
yellow-bird, etc., enters, and passes into the ring under an arch
formed by a pair of lifted hands, singing to any suitable tune:
Here comes a blue-bird through the window,
Here comes a blue-bird through the window,
Here comes a blue-bird through the window,
High diddle dum day!
She seizes a child, and waltzes off with her, singing:
Take a little dance and a hop-i'-the-corner,[89]
Take a little dance and a hop-i'-the-corner,
Take a little dance and a hop-i'-the-corner,
High diddle dum day!
After the dance the chosen partner leads, named, as before, according
to the color of her costume. The child, as she enters, must imitate by
her raised arms the flight of a bird, making a very pretty dance.
_Cincinnati._
No. 52.
_Ducks Fly._
A girl, speaking the words "Ducks fly," raises her hand to imitate the
flight of the bird; so on with robins, eagles, etc., while all the rest
must imitate her example; but she finally says "Cats fly," or some
similar expression, when any child who is incautious enough to raise
the hand (or thumb) must pay forfeit.
_New York._
Trifling as the catch is, it has been popular in Europe. In some
countries, instead of birds who fly, the question is of beasts who have
or do not have horns.