[[Listen]]
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Come away, Maidens gay, To the fair All repair, Let us go, Let us show Willing hearts, Fair deserts! |
"What is that?" Harriet asked impatiently, as she heard this gay chorus sung just outside her windows.
"A gay measure: the girls and lads going to the fair," Nancy replied.
"Servant girls and stable boys—bah!"
"Yes—shocking! Who would give them a thought?" Sir Tristram rashly remarked.
"Why, I don't know! after all, they sound very gay indeed. You haven't very good taste, Sir Tristram, I declare." And at this the poor old fop should have seen that she would contradict anything that he said.
"Oh, I remember now! Fair day is the day when all the pretty girls dress in their best and go to the fair to seek for places, to get situations. They hire themselves out for a certain length of time!—till next year, I think. Meantime they dance in their best dresses and have a very gay day of it."
"That sounds to me rather attractive," Lady Harriet remarked thoughtfully.