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LXIV.

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.

LXV.

[The "foles of Gotham" are mentioned as early as the fifteenth century in the 'Townley Mysteries;' and, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, Dr. Andrew Borde made a collection of stories about them, not however, including the following, which rests on the authority of nursery tradition.]

THREE wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl:

And if the bowl had been stronger,
My song would have been longer.

LXVI.

[The following two stanzas, although they belong to the same piece, are often found separated from each other.]

ROBIN and Richard were two pretty men ; They laid in bed till the clock struck ten; Then up starts Robin, and looks at the sky, Oh! brother Richard, the sun's very high: The bull's in the barn threshing the corn, The cock's on the dunghill blowing his horn, The cat's at the fire frying of fish,

The dog's in the pantry breading his dish.

LXVII.

My lady Wind, my lady Wind,
Went round about the house to find
A chink to get her foot in:
She tried the key-hole in the door,
She tried the crevice in the floor,
And drove the chimney soot in.

And then one night when it was dark,
She blew up such a tiny spark,

That all the house was pothered:
From it she raised up such a flame,
As flamed away to Belting Lane,

And White Cross folks were smothered.

And thus when once, my little dears,
A whisper reaches itching ears,

The same will come, you'll find :
Take my advice, restrain the tongue,
Remember what old nurse has sung
Of busy lady Wind!

LXVIII.

Old Abram Brown is dead and gone,
You'll never see him more;
He used to wear a long brown coat,
That button'd down before.

LXIX.

A DOG and a cock,

A journey once took,

They travell❜d along till 'twas late; The dog he made free

In the hollow of a tree,

And the cock on the boughs of it sate.

The cock nothing knowing,

In the morn fell a crowing,

Upon which comes a fox to the tree;

Says he, I declare,

Your voice is above,

All the creatures I ever did see.

Oh! would you come down

I the fav'rite might own,

Said the cock, there's a porter below;

If you will go in,

I promise I'll come down.

So he went-and was worried for it too.

LXX.

LITTLE Tom Tittlemouse,

Lived in a bell-house;

The bell-house broke,

And Tom Tittlemouse woke.

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TOMMY kept a chandler's shop,
Richard went to buy a mop,
Tommy gave him such a knock,

That sent him out of his chandler's shop.

LXXII.

WHEN I was a little girl, about seven years old,

I hadn't got a petticoat, to cover me from the cold;

So I went into Darlington, that pretty little

town,

And there I bought a petticoat, a cloak, and a gown.

I went into the woods and built me a kirk, And all the birds of the air, they helped me to work;

The hawk with his long claws pulled down the stone,

The dove, with her rough bill, brought me them home:

The parrot was the clergyman, the peacock was the clerk,

The bullfinch play'd the organ, and we made merry work.

LXXIII.

PEMMY was a pretty girl,
But Fanny was a better;
Pemmy looked like any churl,
When little Fanny let her.

Pemmy had a pretty nose,
But Fanny had a better;
Pemmy oft would come to blows,
But Fanny would not let her.

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