Caroline once asked Sara Cleveland, the great ballad singer from the upper Hudson Valley, what songs she sang to her children to help them get to sleep. "The longest ballads I knew," she replied. "They loved the goriest of the lot, like the one about The Old Oak Tree."

Apparently many verses with a repeated melody will do the trick, regardless of the words. It's the soothing parental presence that really counts, I'd wager.

Sandy