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THE NURSERY AND ITS RHYMES
It is a mistake to suppose that any one nation or people has exclusive right to Mother Goose. She is an omnipresent old lady. She is Asiatic as well as European or American. Wherever there are mothers, grandmothers, and nurses there are Mother Gooses,—or, shall we say, Mother Geese—for I am at a loss as to how to pluralize this old dame. She is in India, whence I have rhymes from her, of which the following is a sample:
Heh, my baby! Ho, my baby!
See the wild, ripe plum.
And if you'd like to eat a few,
I'll buy my baby some.
She is in Japan. She has taught the children there to put their fingers together as we do for "This is the church,
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