2io Winter 



write them down. The last one* is evidently an old 

 favourite, however : 



Blinkin' Jock the cobbler, 



He had a blinkin' eye, 



He sold his wife for forty pounds, 



And what the worse was I ? 



And now the entertainment is nearly over, but, 

 like a missionary meeting, it ends with a collection. 

 The smallest boy in the company now steps out with 

 a tin box in his hand, and standing in the middle, 

 while many coppers and one or two pieces of silver 

 are dropped into it, says : 



Ladies and gentlemen, all at your ease, 



Give to the Guisards just what you please. 



Here comes I, little Johnny Jack, 



Wife and family at my back ; 



My family's large though I am small, 



And so a little helps us all. 



Roast beef, plum pudding, strong beer and mince pie, 



Who loves these better than Father Christmas and I ? 



A mug of Christmas ale will make us merry and sing, 



Some money in our pockets will be a very fine thing. 



So, ladies and gentlemen, all at your ease, 



Give the Christmas Guisards just what you please. 



While this is going on the turnip lanterns are 

 being relit, the Champion, the doctor and Goliath 

 seize their sticks and all prepare for a tramp across 

 the fields in the frosty starlight to the next farmhouse, 

 but the cook sees that they do not walk on empty 

 stomachs. 



In a few more years the play that is already so 

 corrupted that the text used in Cornwall or the Mid- 



