"One old Woman, in a fix,
Made me go and gather sticks;
Then she gave me, for the sake
Of the fuel, one sweet cake.
Potter's son the sweet cake got,
Gave me in its place, one pot.
Cow-wife had the pot, and she
Butter gave instead to me.
Bumpkin ate the butter, then
Paid me with this cow again.
Keep the cow, but don't be mean:
All I ask for, is the Queen."
This seemed reasonable enough, so the King gave his Queen to the Monkey.
Away went the Monkey, capering along, and the Queen walked after (you
see the King could not part with his ox as well as the Queen).
By-and-by they came to a Man sewing a button on to his shirt.
"Why, Man," said the Monkey, "why do you sew on your own buttons?"
"Because my wife is dead," said the Man.
"Here is a nice wife for you," said the Monkey. He gave the Queen to the
Man. The Monkey then began his capers again, but all he could find to
caper about, was a drum.
"You may have that drum, if you like," said the Man. "I only kept it
because its voice reminded me of my wife, and now I have another."
"Thank you, thank you!" said the Monkey. "Now I am rich indeed!" Then he
began to beat upon the drum, and sang:--
"One old Woman, in a fix,
Made me go and gather sticks;
Then she gave me, for the sake
Of the fuel, one sweet cake.
Potter's son the sweet cake got,
Gave me in its place, one pot.
Cow-wife had the pot, and she
Butter gave instead to me.
Bumpkin ate the butter, then
Gave a cow to me again.
King took cow, but was not mean,
For he paid me with a Queen.
Now I have a drum, that's worth
More than any drum on earth.
You are worth a queen, my drum!
Rub-a-dub-dub, dhum dhum dhum!"
So the Monkey capered away into the forest in
high glee, beating upon his drum, and he
has never been heard of since.