Why DOES Sukey take it off again?

Polly, put the kettle on,
Polly, put the kettle on,
Polly, put the kettle on,
We'll all have tea.

Sukey take it off again,
Sukey take it off again,
Sukey take it off again,
They've all gone 'way.

"Polly put the kettle on" was published in 1797. The origin of "Polly put the kettle on" was based on the author having five children - two boys and three girls. There were constant arguments as the boys wanted to play soldiers and the girls wanted to play house! When the girls wanted to play without their brothers they would pretend to start a game of tea party "Polly put the kettle on" and the daughter, called Polly, would put the toy kettle on! As soon as the brothers left Sukey (or Susan) would take it off again! Their father was so amused by this ploy that he set it to words and added the music which were subsequently published.


Much to my delight, Amelie has taken a liking to nursery rhymes. We have several books and we even got a cd with some nursery rhymes put to music. We've all enjoyed this a great deal. Today at lunch, Amelie asked the question in the title of this post, while listening to "Polly, Put the Kettle On." It made me remember a book my dad gave me in 1989 (according to the inscription) called Extraodinary Origins of Everyday Things by Charles Panati. This is a book that both Duncan and I have enjoyed a great deal and we're sure to use as the "why?" questions only continue to increase. It did have a section on Nursery Rhymes, but it didn't include Polly. So, I went to the next best thing: Google. I found the above explanation on this site. I thought some of you may have fun looking up your favorites. At a quick glance of the google results, there seemed to be many more sites like it.