RHYMES AND JINGLES

WHEN about to run a race or engage in a jumping-match, this rhyme is appropriate: —

At the end of the race the one who came in last sometimes consoles himself by calling out: —

Some of the boys give a much ruder answer to this question in these words: —

Second form: —

Third form: —

Boys often say it in this way: —

Another version is: —

Still another way to say the same thing is: —

The girl's response to this innuendo is,

"That is not right. It's like this: —

When a boy gets mad at another he will sometimes call out derisively: —

In the following, two children stand and take hold of hands, and swing their arms from side to side in time to the rhythm of the verse they repeat. With the final words, hands still clasped, they turn the arms on one side over their heads and at the same time turn around themselves' The verse runs as follows: —

The following is a programme for Thanksgiving week: —

In a game of tag, it is the proper thing to shout out to the one in chase: —

A variation: —

A quick way of counting up to one hundred: —

William Blake, William Austin, and William Bond all lived in the same town. This fact inspired some local poet with the following strains, that proved quite popular among the young people: —

Rhyme addressed to a person who has red hair: —

When you are getting ready to jump, swing your arms and say this: —

This rhyme the women folks like to repeat to the men folks when the latter find it necessary to work in the evening.

A suitable address to a Frenchman is the following: —

A French citizen can respond to the American in terms like these: —

Another derisive rhyme employed against the French is this: —

Variation: —

THE hero of this tale was probably very like many of the makers of the chance jingles that have caught the children's ears, and become immortal by much repetition.

He is said to have lived in Enfield, Conn. One morning, in schooltime, he wrote something on a slip of paper and passed it round among his fellows. It made a good deal of ill-concealed merriment, and the teacher was fortunate enough to capture the offending bit of paper and to ferret out its author. The words on the paper were, —

The teacher realized that she was being made fun of, but was so impressed by the clever expression of the lines that she said, "John, I give you five minutes to make another two lines. If you fail, I shall punish you,"

The boy scratched his head, and went to work. The result was as follows: —

One person says to another: —

The second person answers, "Pinch-me."

Number one responds by giving number two a pinch.

Old rhyme: —

Indian counting up to twenty: —

A boy ties another's stockings together, and then hollers as loud as he can, —

The name in the third line is changed to suit the case in hand.

This stocking-tying is usually done by a boy's friends while he is in swimming, and the jokers try to tie such a knot that the owner can only untie it by using his teeth. The appropriate time to say the poetry is when the boy begins to work with his teeth on the knot.

Here is a variation: —

If a boy has a friend named Joseph, he can entertain him by the following rhyme: —

If the friend's name is Frank, the following will suit: —

If his name is Bert the following is appropriate: —

If his name is Samuel, he will very likely be interested in this: —

Something like the above ditty is appropriate for a boy named John. The accepted way to repeat the jingle is as follows: —

Take the baby's foot in your hand, wiggle the toes one after the other, beginning with the big one, and recite: —

A variation of this story is the following: —

One of close resemblance to the above is this: —

Another toe refrain is the following, which begins with the smallest of the five: —

A burlesque: —

A verse for a small boy: —

The last line sometimes ends, "like a man."

The last two lines may also be changed to read: —

One way of counting to ten: —

A verse said by a boy who parts from his companion in the evening: —

A political couplet shouted by school boys: —

A jingle to say when churning: —

This used to be said as a charm to make the butter come quickly.

The schoolhouse at the little Massachusetts village of Hockanum seventy-five years ago was far too small to accommodate the outpouring of the population on the momentous occasion of a "last day," and it was the custom to have the exercises in the long hall of "Granther" Lyman's tavern. The piece which created the greatest sensation on one of these last days was delivered before a crowded audience by a certain small boy in the following words: —

It bears every mark of being original poetry, and it was repeated and laughed over for a long time afterwards.

Whether this boy originated the idea and expression or not, there are at the present time extended variations of the tale. The best of these is the following: —

When you have the baby in your lap, you can amuse it by saying, —

You at the same time take the baby's hands in yours, and pat them together to suit the two first lines, rub them against each other to suit the third, take one finger and dig it into the palm of the other hand to suit the fourth, and toss both hands up, and the baby too if you choose, to suit the final line. Then, if the baby is anything like the babies used to be, it will crow and be very happy.

Here is a variation of the same theme: —

This is acted out in the same way, and the letter B is marked with a finger on the child's palm. B, of course, stands for baby.

Jog the baby up and down on your knees, and say, —

When you have the baby in your arms and are rocking it to sleep, say, —

Whether it is a nurse or one of the sisters of the infant that is supposed to say this is not quite clear.

Catch a grasshopper, and say to it, —

When you are asked to tell a story, or to furnish amusement of most any sort, you can say, —

Or you can put it in this form: —

Two children sit opposite each other with their palms on their knees. They say this rhyme together, and clap each other's hands in time to the metre: —

In the English version, it is pease porridge or pease pudding, but New Englanders are not acquainted with those dishes.

The child's hands in the following are put palm down on the table. Go over the fingers one word to each to the end of the incantation. The finger that has the final word is turned under. Go over the remaining nine with the same lingo, and turn under the one that comes last. Repeat the process till all are turned under.

This is also said as follows: —

A girl will sometimes make the following remarks to the new moon. I have never heard that the revelation was made to her that she prayed for — at any rate, not by the moon.

If before April first one boy tries to fool another, boy number two squelches the would-be fooler by saying, —

If the attempt is made after April first, he says, —

A rhyme that does service for both occasions is this: —

When you say, "Shoe the old horse," pat the bottom of the baby's right foot to imitate the driving of nails. When you say, "Shoe the old mare," pat the left foot. Continue this process in the second line, first the right foot, then the left. In the final line it is imagined that the little nobby colt kicks up its heels, and you must catch the baby's ankles, and give them a grand toss to suit this idea.

Boy number one inquires of boy number two, "What do you do when your mother licks you?"

Boy number two replies, —

At picnics you will sometimes hear the children say, —

The children at one time used to enjoy shouting at each other the following poem: —

Whether it was the rhythm and rhyme of the piece or its moral sentiment that was so pleasing to them is uncertain.

Here is one way to amuse a child. Clasp your hands with the fingers turned inward, and repeat the following ditty, which you illustrate by changing the position of your fingers and hands: —

To make the steeple, elevate your forefingers with the tips joined. To suit the second line open your hands a little, and wiggle the ends of your clasped fingers. Illustrate the singers going up-stairs by making the fingers of your right hand walk up those of your left. Lastly, clinch your hands, put one fist on top of the other, and that is the minister.

When a schoolboy wishes to be humorous, he will sometimes call out to a companion, —

A small girl who wishes her companions to understand that she is overcome by ennui will sometimes sighingly remark, —

The child holds up one of its hands while it repeats these lines. The fingers are the five rabbits. With his other hand he takes hold of each finger in turn as he speaks of the rabbit it represents. "The first one" is the thumb. "The second one" is the forefinger. "The two little ones" are the two final fingers. "The big one" is the middle finger.

ANOTHER JINGLE Two's a couple, Three's a crowd, Four on the sidewalk Is never allowed.