M
F. H. Groome, In Gipsy Tents, 1880, p. 145: “first heard at Shepherd’s Bush, in 1872, from little Amy North.”
1
Down in merry, merry Scotland
It rained both hard and small;
Two little boys went out one day,
All for to play with a ball.
2
They tossed it up so very, very high,
They tossed it down so low;
They tossed it into the Jew’s garden,
Where the flowers all do blow.
3
Out came one of the Jew’s daughters,
Dressëd in green all:
‘If you come here, my fair pretty lad,
You shall have your ball.’
4
She showed him an apple as green as grass;
The next thing was a fig;
The next thing a cherry as red as blood,
And that would ‘tice him in.
5
She set him on a golden chair,
And gave him sugar sweet;
Laid him on some golden chest of drawers,
Stabbed him like a sheep.
6
‘Seven foot Bible
At my head and my feet;
If my mother pass by me,
Pray tell her I’m asleep.’