[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]

CROSS patch, Draw the latch, Sit by the fire and spin; Take a cup, And drink it up, Then call your neighbours in.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]

I LOVE my love with an A, because he's Agreeable.

I hate him because he's Avaricious.

He took me to the Sign of the Acorn, And treated me with Apples.

His name's Andrew, And he lives at Arlington.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]

ONE, two, Buckle my shoe; Three, four, Shut the door; Five, six, Pick up sticks; Seven, eight, Lay them straight; Nine, ten, A good fat hen;

Eleven, twelve, Who will delve?

Thirteen, fourteen, Maids a-courting; Fifteen, sixteen, Maids a-kissing; Seventeen, eighteen, Maid a-waiting; Nineteen, twenty, My stomach's empty.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TALES]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The man in the moon]

THE man in the moon, Came tumbling down, And ask'd his way to Norwich, He went by the south, And burnt his mouth With supping cold pease-porridge.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]

MY dear, do you know, How a long time ago, Two poor little children, Whose names I don't know, Were stolen away on a fine summer's day, And left in a wood, as I've heard people say.

And when it was night, So sad was their plight, The sun it went down, And the moon gave no light.

They sobbed and they sighed, and they bitterly cried, And the poor little things, they lay down and died.

And when they were dead, The Robins so red Brought strawberry-leaves And over them spread; And all the day long They sung them this song: "Poor babes in the wood! Poor babes in the wood!

And don't you remember the babes in the wood?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: There was a crooked man]

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]

SIMPLE SIMON met a pieman, Going to the fair; Says Simple Simon to the pieman, "Let me taste your ware."

Says the pieman to Simple Simon, "Show me first your penny."

Says Simple Simon to the pieman, "Indeed I have not any."

Simple Simon went a-fishing For to catch a whale: All the water he had got Was in his mother's pail!

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]

I'LL tell you a story About Jack a Nory,-- And now my story's begun: I'll tell you another About Jack his brother,-- And now my story's done.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIMPLE SIMON]

THERE was a man, and he had nought, And robbers came to rob him; He crept up to the chimney-pot, And then they thought they had him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: There was a man, and he had nought]

But he got down on t' other side, And then they could not find him.

He ran fourteen miles in fifteen days, And never looked behind him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The lion and the unicorn]

THE lion and the unicorn Were fighting for the crown; The lion beat the unicorn All round about the town.

Some gave them white bread, And some gave them brown; Some gave them plum-cake, And sent them out of town.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]

THERE was a fat man of Bombay, Who was smoking one sunshiny day, When a bird, called a snipe, Flew away with his pipe, Which vexed the fat man of Bombay.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]

TOM, Tom, the piper's son, Stole a pig, and away he run!

The pig was eat, and Tom was beat, And Tom went roaring down the street.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]

BRYAN O'LIN, and his wife, and wife's mother, They all went over a bridge together; The bridge was broken, and they all fell in, The deuce go with all! quoth Bryan O'Lin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]

THERE was a little man, And he had a little gun, And his bullets were made of

[Ill.u.s.tration: lead, lead, lead;]

He went to the brook And saw a little duck, And he shot it right through the head, head, head.

He carried it home To his old wife Joan, And bid her a fire for to make, make, make; To roast the little duck He had shot in the brook, And he'd go and fetch her the drake, drake, drake.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Three wise men of Gotham]

THREE wise men of Gotham Went to sea in a bowl: And if the bowl had been stronger, My song would have been longer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decoration]