The following version is still known to old nurses in Holderness, where I collected it. It is called "Orange and Lemon": "There were once a mother and a father who had two daughters, Orange and Lemon. The mother liked Lemon best, and the father Orange. The mother used to make Orange do all the dirty work, as soon as the father had turned his back. One day she sent her to fetch the milk, and said, 'If you break the pitcher I'll kill you.' As Orange returned she fell down and broke the pitcher, and so when she came home she hid herself in the passage. When the mother came out she saw the broken pitcher and the girl, and took her into the house, when the girl cried 'Oh, mother! Oh, mother! Don't kill me!'

The mother said, 'Close the shutters in.'

'Oh, mother! Oh, mother! Don't kill me!'

'Light the candle.'

'Oh, mother! Oh, mother! Don't kill me!'

'Put the pan on.'

'Oh, mother! Oh, mother! Don't kill me!'

'Fetch the block we chop the wood on.'

'Oh, mother! Oh, mother! Don't kill me!'

'Bring the axe.'

'Oh, mother! Oh, mother! Don't kill me!'

'Put your head on the block.'

'Oh, mother! Oh, mother! Don't kill me!'

But the mother chopped off her head, and cooked it for dinner. When the father came home, he asked what there was for dinner.

'Sheep's head,' replied the mother.

'Where's Orange?'

'Not come from school yet.'

'I don't believe you,' said the father. Then he went upstairs and found fingers in a box; whereupon he was so overcome that he fainted. Orange's spirit flew away to a jeweller's shop and said—

They said, 'If you say that again we will give you a gold watch.' So she said it again, and they gave her a gold watch. Then she went off to a boot shop and said—

And they said, 'If you say it again we will give you a pair of boots.' So she said it again, and they gave her a pair of boots. Then she went to the stonemason's and said—

And they said, 'If you say it again we will give you a piece of marble as big as your head.' So she said it again, and they gave her a piece of marble as big as her head.

She took the things, and flew home, and sat at the top of the chimney, and shouted down—

So he came, and she gave him a gold watch.

Then she shouted down—

So she came, and she gave her a pair of boots.

Then she shouted down—

The mother, who thought the others had got such nice things, put her head right up the chimney, when the big block of marble came down and killed her.

Then Orange came down and lived with her father and Lemon happily ever after."

Cf. The story of the child that was murdered at Lincoln by a Jewess. See a fragment of it quoted in Halliwell, Nursery Rhymes, p. 276[84]. Shouting down the chimney occurs in several Lapp stories; also in the Finnish stories of the "Wonderful Birch" and "The Girl who seeks her Brothers," where songs somewhat like the above-mentioned occur. Also Cf. Vernaleken, "Moriandle and Sugarkandle," and Naake, Slavonic Tales, "Story of the little Simpleton." A story of a somewhat similar kind is current in Sweden. See Hofberg. Svsnska FolksÄgner, "Mylingen"[85] and HyltÉn-Cavallius VÄrend och Virdarne, ii. p. 1.

Also Grimm, vol. i. "The Juniper Tree" and notes, and ib. "The Brother and Sister" and notes; ib. vol. ii. "The Lambkin and the Little Fish," and notes.