HELLO to "Q", "Peace", "Joe Offer", and "Masato at work" - to all of you I thank you effusively!

I was wondering about the phrase "range in my kitchen" - I wasn't aware that the word "range" was used prior to 1955 or 60 - I always thought that the word "stove" applied to any non-electrical kitchen stove used for cooking...

And about the lyric: I thought it was "Hopali me a spell", not "Hopali me, Miss Bell" - but the quality of the recording makes it difficult to hear; and I thought that the lyric was

"Hold me a spell,
He promised me,
Before he died,
He'd set me free"

which, if this is indeed the lyric, points to some kind of relationship between a slave owner and a female consort who was a slave... and, as someone stated in another thread, many of these children's rhymes do have an element of mystery and sexual overtones, not to mention other adult themes such as violence, abuses of power, and unwanted pregeancies and so forth...

Eddie Figures