So, I have a new "Evaline McCook" game Here's the final verse that scans the music, if we assume that "switch" is the correct word:
When Miss Evaline McCook at the city took a look
There on her a very pleasant lady smiled
And she said to her, "My dear, will you hold this infant here
Till I go and buy a biscuit for this child?"
But Eva answered "Nix! Though such amateurish tricks
Often catch the country bumpkin and beguile 'em,
Your child I will not mind so run along and find
Somebody else to act as an asylum!
Oh, she was a country girl
Her switch was so full of hay
But when she did not know the street, she always knew the way!
Oh, she was a country girl
But well did she know her book
If in search of a jay you had best stay away from Evaline McCook!
Here's the original lyric Herbert was given before he requested alterations to fit his tune:
When Miss Evaline McCook at the city took a look,
A pocket book upon the street she spied;
The people passed it by: for ‘twas April fool, that's why
To take that pocket book nobody tried.
“Ah, an ancient trick like that,” They remarked. “is quite too flat;
That purse is filled with nothing else but hay.”
Then up from the cold cold ground Eva plucked the purse and found
The sum of twenty thousand dollars in it.
Oh, little Eva, nothing could deceive her!
Though she was a country girl she knew her little book
Oh, little Eva, alone they’d better leave her
When into town to spend the day comes Evaline McCook.
Here's the game: how would you rewrite this lyric - you can ignore the refrain since it would stay the same - so the first eight lines scanned like the final version we've been trying to decipher?