Ladybird Ladybird
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Ladybird ladybird is a nursery rhyme.
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Rhyme
- Ladybird, ladybird fly away home,
- Your house is on fire and your children are gone,
- All except one,
- And her name is Ann,
- And she hid under the frying pan.
Another, shorter, version is:
- Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,
- Your house is on fire,
- Your children shall burn!
Another version is:
- Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home.
- Your house is on fire;
- Your children all roam.
- Except little Nan
- Who sits in her pan
- Weaving her laces as fast as she can.
It is a reference to the habit of setting fires to smoke the bugs out of plants. It caused the ladybugs to fly away. The younger insects, in maggot form, would have to crawl away. Thus "your children all roam". The insects in pupate form, within their shells, would not be able to flee the danger and thus would die from the smoke or fire. The idea is that Nan is within her pupal case and cannot flee until she breaks free - "weaving her laces", undoing her pupal case.