Boys and girls, come out to play, The moon does shine as bright as day, Leave your supper, and leave your sleep, And meet your playfellows in the street; Come with a whoop, and come with a call, And come with a good will, or not at all. Up the ladder and down the wall, A halfpenny roll will serve us all. You find milk and I'll find flour, And we'll have pudding in half an hour.
This rhyme was first published in this large form in 1744 in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book... but the first lines appear in song books as early as 1708. Wikipedia suggests it dates back to when children had to work during the day, so that playtime was reserved for evenings; this is something I've never heard before, however, so I'll have to dig on that some to see if it's true.
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