A BIRTHDAY.
(THE HUSBAND SPEAKS.
The rhyme shrieked out
rather than sung by Scotch children at All Hallow
tide, as the author has heard it, is this:—
Heigh, how! for Halloween,
A' the fairies can be seen,
Some blue and some green,
Or freckled like a Turkey bean!
Mr. R. Chambers, however, gives it—
Some black and some green,
adding that the black ones are the evil fairies, but
the green are the ‘Good People.’ But are there
any evil fairies, or are they only evil when badly
treated?
Is this indeed All-Hallow's day,
When fairies hold their annual play?
As out of school like bees they fly,
I hear the village children cry
Upon the faery folk, brown, red,
Pink, green and blue, to go to bed.
All the faeries that were seen
At dawn upon the parson's green.
Then, dear, this is your natal day,
They may be more than usual gay
In their traditional array.
But sad to say,
I have no gift to bring to you,
I had forgot this best of days
Until I heard the children's lays!
But then 'tis true,
Being yours, it is my birth-day too,
My second birth—this best of days.
