Each child is thus carried in turn.
"A B C" is a spirited game, admirably adapted for indoor practice on a wet day, which is played by children seated round a table, or at the fireside. One sings a solo—a verse of some nursery rhyme. For instance:
| Hey, diddle, diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed To see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon. |
The chorus of voices takes up the tune, and the solo is repeated; after which the alphabet is sung through, and the last letter, Z, is sustained and repeated again and again, to bother the next child, whose turn it now is to sing the next solo. The new solo must be a nursery rhyme not hitherto sung by any of the company. If unable to supply a fresh rhyme within a fixed limit, the player stands out of the game and pays a forfeit. Less brain-taxing entertainments often engage adult wits.
"My Theerie and my Thorie," with a political significance, is a game widely played. In one place it is known as "Cam a teerie arrie ma torry;" in another, "Come a theory, oary mathorie;" in yet another, "Come a theerie, Come a thorie;" or it may be, as in Perthshire, "My theerie and my thorie." And even as the refrain varies, so do the rhymes. But the action is generally the same. The players divide into two sides of about equal number, in lines facing each other. Moving forwards and backwards the sides sing verse about of the following rhyme:—
| Question.—Have you any bread and wine, Bread and wine, bread and wine; Have you any bread and wine, My theerie and my thorie? Answer.—Yes, we have some bread and wine, Bread and wine, bread and wine, Yes, we have some bread and wine, My theerie and my thorie. Question.—We shall have one glass of it, etc. Answer.—One glass of it you shall not get, etc. Question.—We are all King George's men, etc. Answer.—What care we for King George's men, etc. Question.—How many miles to Glasgow Lee? etc. Answer.—Sixty, seventy, eighty-three, etc. Question.—Will I be there gin candle-licht? etc. Answer.—Just if your feet be clean and slicht, etc. Question.—Open your gates and let me through, etc. Answer.—Not without a beck and a boo. Reply.—There's a beck and there's a boo, Open your gates and let me through. |
A struggle ensues to break through each other's lines, and reach a fixed goal on either side—the first to arrive being the victors.