Whoa! Another post just one day after. Be sure to read the previous one. I'm still excited about its ramifications in my life!

Okay, we've all heard about Jack and Jill going up the hill to fetch a pail of water. I always thought Jack was King Louis XVI, and Jill was Queen Marie Antoinette. Jack lost his crown (head), and Jill "came tumbling after". Ouch.

But then I recently read that the poem goes back further. "Jack and Jill" is actually an extended allegory about taxes. The jack and jill were two forms of measurement in early England. When Charles I scaled down the jack (originally two ounces) so as to collect higher sales tax, the jill, which was twice the size of the jack, was automatically reduced, hence "came tumbling after".

So which is correct? There are many "Jacks" in nursery rhymes. I wonder why? And they each have their own tale of origin. Little Jack Horner, Jack be nimble, Jack Sprat, etc.

Mary, Mary, (quite contrary) was Mary, Queen of Scots. Her "garden" was headstones. And to think we parents innocently read these gruesome rhymes to our children and grandchildren!

Tune in tomorrow. I may post 3 days "in a row" (no pun intended with Mary).