| Here's a poor widow from Babylon, With six poor children all alone; One can bake, and one can brew, One can shape, and one can sew. One can sit at the fire and spin, One can bake a cake for the king; Come choose you east, come choose you west, Come choose the one that you love best. |
The girl in the middle chooses one from the ring, naming her, and sings:—
| I choose the fairest that I do see, [Jeanie Anderson] come to me. |
The girl chosen enters the ring, communicating the name of her sweetheart, when those in the ring resume their lightsome motion, and sing:—
| Now they are married, I wish them joy, Every year a girl or boy; Loving each other like sister and brother, I pray this couple may kiss together. |
The girls within the ring kiss. The one who first occupied the circle then joins the ring, while the last to come in enacts the part of mistress; and so on the game goes until all have had their turn.
"London Bridge" is a well-known and widely played game, though here and there with slightly differing rhymes. Two children—the tallest and strongest, as a rule—standing face to face, hold up their hands, making the form of an arch. The others form a long line by holding on to each other's dresses, and run under. Those running sing the first verse, while the ones forming the arch sing the second, and alternate verses, of the following rhyme:—
| London bridge is fallen down, Fallen down, fallen down; London bridge is fallen down, My fair lady. |