She now pointed to Katie Ford, and that young miss started right off, saying:
“As I was going to St. Ives,” but everyone protested, so Katie had to try another that everyone didn’t know.
| As I was going over London bridge I heard a lad give a call; His tongue was flesh, his mouth was horn, And such a lad was never born. |
“A rooster!” shouted cross-eyed Steve Morley, who vowed Katie looked straight at him. And in the bat of an eye he said:
| As I went over London bridge I met my sister Ann; I pulled off her head and sucked her blood And let her body stand. |
“A bottle of wine,” two in the corner spoke at once, which was against the rules, but both thought Steve was looking in their direction.
“Tell another,” Aunt Lindie settled the matter.
“As I went over London bridge I met a man,” said Steve. “If I was to tell his name I’d be to blame. I have told his name five times over. Who was it?”
No one spoke up for they all knew the answers to Steve’s simple, threadbare riddles. “The answer is I,” he said, running a hand over his bristling pompadour.
And lest he assert his rights by starting on another, Aunt Lindie, which was her right, gave a jingle and the answer to it too.