When I was a bachelor I lived by myself,
And all the bread and cheese I got I put upon the shelf.
The rats and the mice they made such a strife,
I was forced to go to London to buy me a wife.
The roads were so bad and the lanes were so narrow,
I was forced to bring my wife home in a wheelbarrow.
The wheelbarrow broke and my wife had a fall--
Down came wheelbarrow, wife, and all.
The rose is red, the violet blue;
Sugar is sweet--and so are you.
These are the words you bade me say
For a pair of new gloves on Easter day.
Great A, little a, bouncing B,
The cat's in the cupboard and she can't see.
Hey-ding-a-ding! I heard a bird sing;
The parliament soldiers are gone to the king.
There was an old woman tossed up in a basket,
Seventy times as high as the moon.
What she did there I could not but ask it,
For in her hand she carried a broom.
"Old woman, old woman, old woman," said I,
"Oh whither, oh whither, oh whither so high?"
"To sweep the cobwebs off the sky,
And I shall be back again by and by."
There was a little man and he had a little gun,
And his bullets were made of lead,
He shot John Sprig through the middle of his wig,
And knocked it right off his head.
There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile;
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse;
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
[Illustration]
Cross patch, draw the latch;
Sit by the fire and spin;
Take a cup and drink it up,
Then call your neighbors in.
Hickory, dickory, dock;
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock.
"Jack, be nimble,
Jack, be quick."
Jack ran off with the pudding-stick.
There was an old woman
Sold puddings and pies;
She went to the mill,
And the dust flew in her eyes.
Now through the streets,
To all she meets,
She ever cries,
"Hot pies--Hot pies!"
=Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water;
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.=
[Illustration: JACK AND JILL