Nursery Rhyme. DLXXXIII. Natural History.

        [A north country version of a very common nursery rhyme, sung by a child, who imitates the crowing of a cock.]

    Cock-a-doodle-do,
    My dad's gane to ploo;
    Mammy's lost her pudding-poke,
    And knows not what to do.

    See, saw, Margery Daw,
    The old hen flew over the malt house,
    She counted her chickens one by one,
    Still she missed the little white one,
    And this is it, this is it, this is it.

    Cock Robin got up early,
        At the break of day,
    And went to Jenny's window,
        To sing a roundelay.

    He sang Cock Robin's love
        To the pretty Jenny Wren,
    And when he got unto the end,
        Then he began again.

    Higglepy Piggleby,
        My black hen,
    She lays eggs
        For gentlemen;
    Sometimes nine,
        And sometimes ten,
    Higglepy Piggleby,
        My black hen!

    Hickety, pickety, my black hen,
    She lays eggs for gentlemen;
    Gentlemen come every day
    To see what my black hen doth lay.

    Little cock robin peep'd out of his cabin,
    To see the cold winter come in,
            Tit, for tat, what matter for that,
            He'll hide his head under his wing!