E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Huub Bakker,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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JINGO-RING.
DRAWN BY KATE T. HILL.

Children's Rhymes

Children's Games

Children's Songs

Children's Stories
 

A Book for Bairns and Big Folk
 

SECOND EDITION

PREFACE.

In offering to the public this collection of Children'sRhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, andChildren's Stories—the multitudinous items of which,or such, at least, as were not living in my own memory,have been gathered with patient industry, albeit withmuch genuine delight, from wide and varied sources—Ianticipate for the work a hearty and general welcome,alike from old and young. It is the first really sincereeffort to collect in anything like ample and exclusivefashion the natural literature of the children of Scotland,and meets what has long appealed to me as decidedlya felt want. The earlier pages are occupied with acommentary, textually illustrated, on the generallypuerile, but regularly fascinating Rhymes of the Nursery,the vitality and universal use of which have beenat once the wonder and the puzzle of the ages. This isfollowed in turn by a chapter on Counting-out Rhymes,with numerous examples, home and foreign; which issucceeded, appropriately, by a section of the workembracing description of all the well-known out-doorand in-door Rhyme-Games—in each case the Rhymebeing given, the action being portrayed. The remainingcontents the title may be left to suggest. I may[Pg 5]only add that the Stories—including "Blue Beard,"and "Jack the Giant Killer," and their fellow-narratives—tenin all—are printed verbatim from the old chapbooksonce so common in the country, but now so rareas to be almost unobtainable.

Essentially a book about children and their picturesqueand innocent, though often apparently meaningless,frolics, by the young in the land, I am assured, itwill be received with open arms. From the "childrenof larger growth"—those who were once young andhave delight in remembering the fact—the welcome, ifless boisterous, should be not less sincere. Commendto me on all occasions the man or woman who, "withlyart haffets thin and bare," can sing with the poet—