Rock-a-Bye Baby

I was looking tonight at the history of some of my favorite nursery rhymes. We have laughed in class at how funny some of them are when you really think about the words. However, I found out that Rock-a-bye Baby, for example, is believed to have been written by a Pilgrim boy. He was intrigued by the American Indian mothers who rocked their babies by hanging their birch bark cradles in a tree. They could then work, while the wind did the rest.