Volume I Part 32 (1/2)

The children stand in a ring. One runs round with a handkerchief and drops it; the child behind whom it is dropped chases the dropper, the one who gets home first takes the vacant place, the other drops the handkerchief again.

In Shrops.h.i.+re the two players pursue one another in and out of the ring, running under the uplifted hands of the players who compose it: the pursuer carefully keeping on the track of the pursued (Burne's _Shrops.h.i.+re Folk-lore_, p. 512).

The Dorsets.h.i.+re variant is accompanied by a rhyme:

I wrote a letter to my love; I carried water in my glove; And by the way I dropped it- I dropped it, I dropped it, I dropped it, &c.

This is repeated until the handkerchief is stealthily dropped immediately behind one of the players, who should be on the alert to follow as quickly as possible the one who has dropped it, who at once increases her speed and endeavours to take the place left vacant by her pursuer. Should she be caught before she can succeed in doing this she is compelled to take the handkerchief a second time. But if, as it more usually happens, she is successful in accomplis.h.i.+ng this, the pursuer in turn takes the handkerchief, and the game proceeds as before.-Symondsbury (_Folk-lore Journal_, vi. 212).

Jack lost his supper last night, And the night before; if he does again to-night, He never will no more-more-more-more.

I wrote a letter to my love, And on the way I dropt it; Some of you have picked it up, And got it in your pocket-pocket-pocket-pocket.

I have a little dog, it won't bite you- It won't bite you-it won't bite you- It _will_ bite you.

-Leicesters.h.i.+re (Miss Ellis).

The Forest of Dean version is the same as the Dorsets.h.i.+re, except that the child who is unsuccessful in gaining the vacant place has to stand in the middle of the ring until the same thing happens to another child.-Miss Matthews.

In Nottinghams.h.i.+re the children form in a ring; one walks round outside the ring singing and carrying a handkerchief:

I wrote a letter to my love, and on the way I dropt it; One of you has picked it up and put it in your pocket.

It isn't you, it isn't you, &c. &c.; it is you.

The handkerchief is then dropped at some one's back, the one at whose back the handkerchief was dropped chasing the other.

Or they say:

I lost my supper last night, I lost it the night before, And if I lose it again to-night, I'll knock at somebody's door.

It isn't you, it isn't you, &c. &c.; it's you.

-Miss Winfield.

At Winterton and Lincoln the children form a circle, standing arms-length apart. A child holding a handkerchief occupies the centre of the ring and sings:

Wiskit-a-waskit, A green leather basket; I wrote a letter to my love, And on the way I lost it; Some of you have picked it up, And put it in your pocket.

I have a little dog at home, And it shan't bite you,

(Here the singer points to each child in turn)

Nor you, nor you, nor you; But it shall bite _you_.

Then she drops the handkerchief before her chosen playmate, who chases her in and out of the ring under the arms of the other children until she is captured. The captor afterwards takes the place in the centre, and the original singer becomes a member of the circle.-Miss M.

Peac.o.c.k.

The Deptford version of the verse is as follows:-

I had a little dog whose name was Buff, I sent him up the street for a penny'orth of snuff, He broke my box and spilt my snuff, I think my story is long enough- 'Tain't you, and 'tain't you, and 'tis you!