44. This rhyme is repeated when it is decided to begin any game, as a general call to the players. The above writer says it occurs in a very ancient MS., but does not give any reference to it. Halliwell quotes the four first lines, the first line reading Boys and girls, instead of Boys, boys, from a curious ballad written about the year 1720, formerly in the possession of Mr. Crofton Croker (_Nursery Rhymes_). Chambers also gives this rhyme (_Popular Rhymes_, p. 152). Branks A game formerly common at fairs, called also Hit my Legs and miss my Pegs. --Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary_.
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=_ The crib laid out and the starter cut, the pone begins by playing any card he pleases. The card he selects he lays face upward on the table on his own side of the cribbage board, and at the same time announces its pip value; two, five, or ten, whatever it may be. It is then the dealer’s turn to play a card from his hand, which is also laid face upward on the table, but on the dealer’s side of the cribbage board. Instead of announcing the pip value of this second card, the dealer calls out the total value of the two cards taken together. The pone then lays another card on the table face upward and on the top of the first, which is not turned face down, and at the same time announces the total pip value of the three cards so far played; the dealer plays again, and so on. If at any time the total pip value of the cards played is exactly 15 or 31, the one who plays the card that brings it to that number pegs two points for it at once. If any counting combination, such as a pair, pair royal, or sequence, is formed by the cards played, its value is pegged by the person that plays the card which completes the combination; but neither player is allowed to play a card which will make the total pip value of the cards played pass 31. The method of forming and pegging these various combinations in play will be better understood if they are described separately. A card once played cannot be taken up again, unless it passes 31. _=Pairs.