I have a little dog, it won’t bite you—
It won’t bite you—it won’t bite you—
It will bite you.
—Leicestershire (Miss Ellis).
The Forest of Dean version is the same as the Dorsetshire, 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 Nottinghamshire 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: