V. I'll hire a horse and steal a gig, And all the world shall have a jig; And I'll do all that ever I can To push the business on, To push the business on, to push the business on, And I'll do all that ever I can to push the business on.
(_b_) The players stand in a circle, boy and girl alternately, and sing the lines. At the fourth line they all clap their hands, keeping time with the song. When singing the seventh line each boy takes the girl on his left hand,--dances round with her and places her on his right hand. This is done till each girl has been all round the circle, and has been turned or danced with by each boy. In the Wolstanton version (Miss Bush), after singing the first four lines, the children fall behind one another, march round, clapping their hands and singing; at the seventh line they all join in couples and gallop round very quickly to the end. When they finish, the girls stand at the side of the boys in couples, and change places every time they go round until each girl has partnered each boy. At Hexham there is rather more of the regular dance about the game at the beginning. At the fourth line they set to partners and swing round, the girls changing places at the end, and continuing until they have been all round each time with a different partner.
(_c_) This game seems of kin to the old-fashioned country dances. Miss Bush writes that this game was introduced into the school playground from Derbyshire a few years ago, and is sung to a simple tune.
The children stand at fixed points: one stands in the middle and chants, "Poor puss wants a corner." The others beckon with the fore-finger, and calling, "Puss, puss," run from point to point. Puss runs also to one of the vacant spaces. The one left out becomes puss.--Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy).
The players place themselves each in some "coign of vantage," as the play place allows; one player in the middle is "out." Those in the corners change places with each other at choice, calling, "Puss, puss, puss," to attract each other's attention. The one who is out watches his opportunity to slip into a vacant corner, and oblige some one else to be "out." A favourite game _in the streets_ of Market Drayton.--Burne's _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 523.