You can listen to two recordings of "Girls and Boys Come Out to Play" below...
Girls and boys come out to play,
The moon it shines as bright as day;
Leave your supper, and leave your sleep,
And come to your playmates in the street;
Come with a whoop, come with a call,
Come with a good will, or come not at all;
Up the ladder and down the wall,
A halfpenny loaf will serve us all.
Notes
Here's a slightly different version from The Baby's Opera by Walter Crane (circa 1877):
Girls and boys come out to play,
The moon doth shine as bright as day;
Leave your supper, and leave your sleep;
Come to your playfellows in the street;
Come with a whoop, and come with a call.
Come with a good will or not at all.
Up the ladder and down the wall,
A penny loaf will serve you all.
The Real Mother Goose (1916), illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright, has the same version as Crane, with the addition of these two lines at the end:
You find milk, and I'll find flour,
And we'll have a pudding in half an hour.
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Here's another version with an explanation from "The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol I of II) with Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing" (1894), collected and annotated by Alice Bertha Gomme:
Boys, boys, come out to play,
The moon doth shine as bright as day;
Come with a whoop, come with a call,
Come with a goodwill or don't come at all;
Lose your supper and lose your sleep,
So come to your playmates in the street.
""Useful Transactions in Philosophy, p. 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).
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Photos & Illustrations
Thanks and Acknowledgements
The first illustration, the score and tune come from The Baby's Opera by Walter Crane (circa 1877). The second illustration comes from Kate Greenaway's Mother Goose or the Old Nursery Rhymes (1881). The 3rd illustration is from in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897). The 4th illustration is by H. Willebeck Le Mair from Our Old Nursery Rhymes (1911), arranged by Alfred Moffat.
1st recording by Carol Stripling.
2nd recording performed by 17 student musicians who were sisters in the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity for Women at California State University-Stanislaus in 2007. The musical score the recording is based on comes from Our Old Nursery Rhymes (1911) arranged by Alfred Moffat.
