Heavens to Betsy and X hands 'round!

[Douglas G. Wilson]

In _Tales of a Helicopter Pilot_ (2002), a reminiscence (available on-line)
from (I think) the Korean War includes the interjection "Heavens to Betsy
and four hands around". This looks like a dance call. Web search turns up
an example of "Heavens to Betsy and six hands round" from 1903, actually
given as a country dance call. N'archive has several instances from ca.
1897 of "Heaven[s] to Betsy and six hands [a]round" as a simple
interjection. In all of these, I suspect the intent is a conscious
rusticism or archaicism.

"Heavens to Betsy" dates from 1878 or earlier. My default etymological
speculation is that it is a modification (baby-talk or jocular malapropism)
of "Heaven[s] bless me" (which was used as a general interjection from
Shakespeare's time well into the 19th century, I believe).

Why is the interjection sometimes augmented with "X hands round" as if it
were a dance call? Is/was there really such a call?

[I note as a possible irrelevance that some dances (Irish ones, apparently)
have instructions like "sevens to the left" where "sevens" denotes a type
of step.]

-- Doug Wilson