Ledown," and Editor of "Ballads of Bairnhood," "Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland" Etc., etc. "_Auld rhymes and auld chimes Gar us think on auld times_" --_Proverb_ [Illustration: JINGO-RING. DRAWN BY KATE T. HILL.] Paisley: Alexander Gardner Publisher to the late Queen Victoria: 1904 Second Edition PREFACE. In offering to the public this collection of Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, and Children'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 with much genuine delight, from wide and varied sources--I anticipate for the work a hearty and general welcome, alike from old and young. It is the first really sincere effort to collect in anything like ample and exclusive fashion the _natural literature_ of the children of Scotland, and meets what has long appealed to me as decidedly a felt want. The earlier pages are occupied with a commentary, textually illustrated, on the generally puerile, but regularly fascinating Rhymes of the Nursery, the vitality and universal use of which have been at once the wonder and the puzzle of the ages. This is followed in turn by
