These peculiar characteristics of the game do not permit of much investigation into the original words of the game-rhyme, but they serve to illustrate, in a very forcible manner, the exactly opposite characteristics of nearly all the other games, which preserve, in almost stereotyped fashion, the words of the rhymes. It appears most probable that the verses belonged originally to some independent game like "Sally, Sally Water," and that, when divorced from their original context, they lent themselves to the various changes which have been made. The minute application of modern ideas is seen in the version from Gambledown, where "A bottle of wine and a guinea, too," becomes "A bottle of wine and a biscuit, too;" and at West Haddon, in Northamptonshire, a variant of the marriage formula is given in _Northants Notes and Queries_, ii. 106, as--
Now you're married, we wish you joy, First a girl and then a boy; Cups and saucers, sons and daughters, Now join hands and kiss one another.
Another version from Long Itchington, given in _Notes and Queries_, 7th series, x. 450, concludes with--
Up the kitchen and down the hall, Choose the fairest of them all; Seven years now and seven years then, Kiss poor Sally and part again.
[2] Matron is _not_ a word in common use among Lancashire people.
[4] Another version has "pree," which means in Scotch, _taste_, hence _kiss_.
[5] At Earls Heaton two verses or lines are added, viz.:--
"If she is not here to take her part, Choose another with all your heart."
Pretty Miss Pink, will you come out, Will you come out, will you come out? Pretty Miss Pink, will you come out, To see the ladies dancing?
Pretty Miss Pink, she won't come out, Won't come out, won't come out, &c. She will come out. Pretty Miss Pink, she has come out, &c.
--Winterton, Lincs and Nottinghamshire (Miss M. Peacock.)
(_b_) The children place themselves in a row. They each choose a colour to represent them. One player must be _pink_. Another player stands facing them, and dances to and fro, singing the first four lines. The dancer then sings the next two lines, and Miss Pink having answered rushes forward, catches hold of the dancer's hand, and sings the next verse. Each colour is then taken in turn, but Miss Pink must always be first.