Sleep, baby, sleep:
Begone, and watch the sheep,
You naughty little dog! Begone,
And do not wake my little one:
Sleep, baby, sleep.
In Denmark children are sung to sleep with a cradle hymn which is believed (so I am informed by a youthful correspondent) to be "very old." It has seven stanzas, of which the first runs, "Sleep sweetly, little child; lie quiet and still; as sweetly sleep as the bird in the wood, as the flowers in the meadow. God the Father has said, 'Angels stand on watch where mine, the little ones, are in bed.'" A correspondent at Warsaw (still more youthful) sends me the even-song of Polish children:
The stars shine forth from the blue sky;
How great and wondrous is God's might;
Shine, stars, through all eternity,