and one heard from afar their loud songs and laughter and talk.

The girls, hand in hand, went round and round in a circle stepping lightly in the dusty square. A skinny girl, the plainest of them all, set the tune:

‘From beyond the wood, from the forest dark,

From the garden green and the shady park,

There came out one day two young lads so gay.

Young bachelors, hey! brave and smart were they!

And they walked and walked, then stood still, each man,

And they talked and soon to dispute began!

Then a maid came out; as she came along,