the beggars are coming to town

Mother Goose sang into our ears and set our heels tapping when we were children.

"Hark, hark the dogs do bark
The beggars are coming to town,
Some in rags, some in tags,
Some in silver gowns"

Delicious nonsense? Yes, but more. In medieval days, minstrels travelled from town to town, dressed in various costumes, but often bearing covert messages of dissent. So the singsong fun for me and my friends in a small Lancaster County hamlet may have one day carried seeds of a revolution!

Last night I read through the whole Classic Mother Goose and was astonished to discover how many literary titles or concepts have sprung from this beloved book. I was also amazed that I could quote approximately 50 % of them word for word after a half-century absence. How can that be? And God bless the soul of Blanche Fisher Wright who so lovingly etched the MG characters, billowing curtains and skirts with 1916 breezes.