78 Collectanea.
" Pit a pat, pit a pat, baker's man. So I do, master, as fast as I can. Pit it and pat it and mark it with B, And put it in the oven for baby and me. "
" Dance a baby diddy, What shall a mammy do wid "ee, Sit 'ee in her lap, and give 'ee some pap, And dance a baby diddy."
" I'll tell you a story about Jack a minory
And now my story's begun,
I'll tell you another about Jack and his brother,
And now my story's done." " Christmas is acoming and very glad am I,
Yo\ I can go to your house and have some Christmas pie.
I don't mean a magpie that sits upon a house.
And I don't mean a crab pie that isn't worth a louse,
But I mean a mince-pie stuffed full of plums,
That I can put my fingers in and sweetly ^pronounced %\\^t\.i\\\€\ suck my thumbs." " Once upon a time, when birds made rhyme.
And monkeys chewed tobacco,
When old hens took snuff, to make them puff,
And little pigs run to see the fun,
And couldn't think what was the matter. " This pig got in the barn,
Thfs eat all the corn.
This said he wasn't well,
This said he'd go and tell.
And this said, — weke, weke, weke.
Can't get over the barn-door sill."
[This was said taking hold of the baby's toes each in turn.]
" That's my lady's knives and forks, That's my lady's table, That's my lady's looking-glass, And that's my lady's cradle.'"
[This was said interlacing the fingers upwards at the first line, then downwards at the second line, putting together the two fore- fingers at the third, and the two little fingers as well at the fourth line].
]My mother knew an extraordinary number of old rhymes, ghost stories, and charms, many of which I remember, and which it seems to me maV be of some interest to lovers of folklore.
