Pray, whose nuts will you gather away,
Gather away, gather away?
Pray, whose nuts will you gather away,
So early in the morning?
We’ll gather Miss A——’s nuts away,
Nuts away, nuts away,
We’ll gather Miss A——’s nuts away,
So early in the morning.
Pray, who will you send to take them away,
To take them away, take them away?
Pray, who will you send to take them away,
So early in the morning?
We’ll send Miss B—— to take them away,
To take them away, take them away,
We’ll send Miss B—— to take them away,
So early in the morning.
—Symondsbury, Dorsetshire (Folk-lore Journal, vii. 226-7).
(b) The children form in two lines of equal length, facing one another, with sufficient space between the lines to admit of their walking in line backwards and forwards towards and away from each other, as each line sings the verses allotted to it ([fig. 1]). The first line sings the first, third, and fifth verses, and the opposite line the second and fourth. At the end of the fifth verse a handkerchief or other mark is laid on the ground, and the two children (whose names have been mentioned, and who are as evenly matched as possible), take each other’s right hand and endeavour to pull each other over the handkerchief to their own side ([fig. 2]). The child who is pulled over the handkerchief becomes the “captured nut,” and joins the side of her capturers. Then the game begins again by the second line singing the first, third, and fifth verses, while advancing to gather or capture the “nuts,” the first line responding with the second and fourth verses, and the same finish as before. Then the first line begins the game, and so on until all the children are in this way matched one against the other.
(c) Other versions have been sent me, with slight variations: Nuts in May, with the verses ending, “On a fine summer morning,” from Lincoln and Nottinghamshire (Miss M. Peacock); “So early in the morning,” Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews); “Six o’clock in the morning,” Nottingham (Miss Wenfield); “On a cold and frosty morning,” East Kirkby, Lincolnshire (Miss K. Maughan); Barnes (A. B. Gomme), Colchester (Miss G. M. Frances). Nuts and May: “On a bright and sunny morning” (Mr. C. C. Bell); “On a cold and frosty morning,” Forest of Dean (Miss Matthews); “Every night and morning,” Gainford, Durham (Miss Edleston); “We’ve picked [Sally Gray] for nuts in May,” “All on a summer’s morning,” Sheffield (Mr. S. O. Addy). A version by Miss Kimber (Newbury, Berks, and Marlborough, Wilts) ends each verse, “Nuts and May.” In other respects these variants are practically the same. Printed versions not given above are Hersham, Surrey (Folk-lore Record, v. 85); Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 516; Sulhampstead, Berks (Antiquary, vol. xxvii., Miss E. E. Thoyts); and Dorsetshire, “Gathering nuts away” (Folk-lore Journal, vii. 225). From Longcot, Berks, a version sent me by Miss I. Barclay has no fourth line to the verses.
(d) This game is probably, unless we except “[Mulberry Bush],” the most popular and the most widely played of any singing game. It might almost be called universal. This is shown by the fact that there are few counties where it is not known, and also that important variants, either in the words or in the method of playing, are rarely met with. In all the versions which have been sent there are only the following variations in the words, and these are principally in the refrain, or last line of each verse: “On a cold and frosty morning” ends by far the greater number of versions; “On a fine summer’s morning,” “So early in the morning,” “All on a summer’s morning,” “Five o’clock in the morning,” “On a cold and sunny morning,” coming next in number. The Belfast version ends, “May! May! May!” and a Newbury and Marlborough fourth line is simply a repetition of the second, “Nuts in May, nuts in May.”