There was an old woman tossed up in a basket,
Nineteen times as high as the moon;
Where she was going I couldn’t but ask it
For in her hand she carried a broom.
“Old woman, old woman, old woman, quoth I,
O whither, O whither, O whither so high?”
“To brush the cobwebs off the sky!”
“Shall I go with thee?” “Aye, by-and-by.”
From a Drawing by Arthur Rackham
“Where she was going I couldn’t but ask it,
For in her hand she carried a broom.”
THE FOX AND THE OLD GRAY GOOSE
The fox and his wife they had a great strife,
They never ate mustard in all their whole life;
They ate their meat without fork or knife,
And loved to be picking a bone, e-ho!