No. 4 Tread, Tread the Green Grass
Tread, tread the green grass,
Dust, dust, dust;
Come all ye pretty fair maids
And walk along with us.
If you be a fair maid,
As I suppose you be,
I’ll take you by the lily-white hand
And lead you across the sea.
Philadelphia.
With this musical call to the dance, it was common, a generation since, for girls in this town to begin the evening dances on the green, singing as they marched in couples. The “dust” of the rhyme is a corruption. Comparing it with the Scotch song previously quoted, we do not doubt that it represents the Scotch (in other words, old English) adist, the opposite of ayont, meaning this way, come hither. We ought probably therefore to read,
Tread, tread the green grass,
Adist, adist, adist.
This song was no mere dance of rustics; the children at least kept up the usage of the day when a pleasing popular poetry was the heritage of all ranks. The spirit of the strain carries us back to that “carolling” of ladies which was, in the time of Chaucer, no less than the gay green of the meadow or the melody of the birds, an accompaniment of summer.