270 MASTER SKYLARK

London town, a merry thing, with a fine trolly-lolly, sirs,
to glad your hearts with hearing.”

Would they have music? To be sure! Who would
not music while he ate must be a Flemish dunderkopf,
said they. So Nick and Cicely stood at one side of the
room upon a bench by the server’s board, and sang to-
gether, while he played upon Mistress Davenant’s gittern :

“Hey, laddie, hark to the merry, merry lark!
How high he singeth clear:
‘Oh, a morn in spring is the sweetest thing
That cometh in all the year!
Oh, a morn in spring is the sweetest thing
That cometh in all the year!’

“Ring, ting! it is the merry springtime;
How full of heart a body feels!
Sing hey, trolly-lolly ! oh, to live is to be jolly,
When springtime cometh with the summer at her heels!

“God save us all, my jolly gentlemen,
We’ll merry be to-day ;
For the cuckoo sings till the greenwood rings,
And it is the month of May!
For the cuckoo sings till the greenwood rings,
And it is the month of May!”

Then the men at the table all waved their pewter pots,
and thumped upon the board, roaring, “ Hey, trolly-lolly !
oh, to live is to be jolly!” until the rafters rang.

“What, lad!” cried good Dame Davenant, “come, stay
with me all year and sing, thou and this little maid o’
thine. ’T will cost thee neither cash nor care. Why, thou