| Here comes a poor sailor from Botany Bay; Pray, what are you going to give him to-day? A pair of boots [may be the answer]. What colour are they? Brown. Have you anything else to give him? I think so. What colour is it? Red. What is it made of? Cloth. And what colour? Blue. Have you anything else to give him? I don't think so. Would you like a sweet? Yes. |
Now he is trapped. He has given one of the fatal replies; and the child who answered "Yes" goes to a den. After all have gone through a similar form, the youngsters are divided into two classes—those who avoided answering in the prohibited terms, and the little culprits in the den, or prison, who had failed in the examination. The tug-of-war now begins, the one class being pitted against the other. No rope is used; but arms are entwined round waists, or skirts, or coat-tails are taken hold of; and the victors crow over the vanquished.
"Janet Jo," widely played, has for dramatis personæ, a Father, a Mother, Janet, and a Lover. Janet lies stretched at full length behind the scenes. The father and mother stand revealed to receive the visits of the lover, who approaches singing, to an air somewhat like "The Merry Masons":—
| I'm come to court Janet jo, Janet jo, Janet jo; I'm come to court Janet jo— How is she the day? |
Parents reply together:—
| She's up the stair washin', Washin', washin'; She's up the stair washin'— Ye canna see her the day. |
The lover retires, and again, and yet again, advances with the same announcement of his object and purpose, to which he receives similar evasive answers from Janet's parents, who successively represent her as up the stair "bleaching," "drying," and "ironing clothes." At last they reply:—
| Janet jo's dead and gane, Dead and gane, dead and gane; Janet jo's dead and gane— Ye'll see her face nae mae! |