Where can I get the money from?
Sell father’s feather bed.
Where shall your father sleep?
Sleep in the boys’ bed.
Where shall the boys sleep?
Sleep in the pig-sty.
Where shall the pigs sleep?
Sleep in the washing-tub.
What shall I wash with?
Wash in an egg-shell.
The egg-shell will break.
Wash in a thimble.
Thimble’s not big enough.
Wash by the river side.
Suppose the things should float away?
Get a boat and go after them.
Suppose the boat should be upset?
Then you’ll be drowned,
Drowned, drowned,
Then you’ll be drowned,
And a good job too.
—Enborne, Berks. (Miss M. Kimber).
Please, mother, buy me a milk-can,
A milk-can, a milk-can,
Please, mother, do.
Where’s the money coming from,
Coming from, coming from,
What shall I do?
Sell father’s feather bed,
Feather bed, feather bed,
Please mother, do.
Where shall the father sleep?
Sleep in the servants’ bed.
Where shall the servants sleep?
Sleep in the pig-sty.
Where shall the pig sleep?
Sleep in the washing-tub.
What shall I wash in?
Wash in a thimble.
The shirts won’t go in.
Wash by the river side.
Supposing if I fall in?
Good job too!
—Hartley Wintney, Winchfield, Hants (H. S. May).
Mother, buy the milk-pail, mother, dear mother of mine.
Where’s the money to come from, children, dear children of mine?
Sell father’s feather bed, mother, dear mother of mine.
Where’s your father to sleep in?
Father can sleep in the servant’s bed.
Where’s the servant to sleep in?
Servant can sleep in the pig-sty.
Where’s the pig to sleep in?
The pig can sleep in the wash-tub.
Where shall we wash our clothes?
Wash our clothes at the sea-side.
If our clothes should swim away?
Then take a boat and go after them.
O what should we do if the boat should sink?
O then we should all of us be at an end.