The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes | Page 2

86
Here Comes a Cabbage 88
Plenty 89

The Runaways 89
A Race, A Race to Moscow 91
The Salesman 91
A Prince from Pepperville 91
Boats 92
Pretty Things 92
Did You Ever? 92
Hootem, Tootem, Clear the Track 94
Doctor Drake 94
Babies 95
Twenty Thieves From Albion 95
As I Came Out of Grundy Greet 96
THE PETER PATTER BOOK
[Illustration: --B. F. Wright--
JINGLE, JINGLE, JACK, A
COPPER DOWN A CRACK]
A COPPER DOWN A CRACK
Jingle, jingle, Jack,
A copper down a crack.
Twenty men and all
their wives,
With sticks and picks and pocket knives,
Digging for
their very lives
To get the copper back.
I'M MUCH TOO BIG FOR A FAIRY
I'm much too big for a fairy,
And much too small for a man,
But
this is true:
Whatever I do,
I do it the best I can.

DID YOU EVER PLAY TAG WITH A TIGER?
Did you ever play tag with a tiger,
Or ever play boo with a bear;

Did you ever put rats in the rain-barrel
To give poor old Granny a
scare?
It's fun to play tag with a tiger,
It's fun for the bear to say "boo,"
But
if rats are found in the rain-barrel
Old Granny will put you in too.
[Illustration]
THE BLUE SONG
Hot mush and molasses all in a blue bowl--
Eat it, it's good for you,
sonny.
'T will make you grow tall as a telephone pole--
Eat it, it's
good for you, sonny.
Fresh fish and potatoes all on a blue plate--
Eat it up smart now, my
sonny.
'T will make you as jolly and fat as Aunt Kate--
Eat it up
quick now, my sonny.
Sweet milk from a nanny-goat in a blue cup--
Drink it, it's good for
you, sonny,
'T will fill you, expand you, and help you grow up,
And
make a real man of you, sonny.
HIPPITY HOP TO BED
O it's hippity hop to bed!
I'd rather sit up instead.
But when father
says "must,"
There's nothing but just
Go hippity hop to bed.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
AWAY TO THE RIVER
Away to the river, away to the wood,
While the grasses are green and

the berries are good!
Where the locusts are scraping their fiddles and
bows,
And the bees keep a-coming wherever one goes.
Oh, it's off to the river and off to the hills,
To the land of the
bloodroot and wild daffodils,
With a buttercup blossom to color my
chin,
And a basket of burs to put sandberries in.
[Illustration]
OUR LITTLE PAT
Our little Pat
Was chasing the cat
And kicking the kittens about.

When mother said "Quit!"
He ran off to sit
On the top of the
woodpile and pout;
But a sly little grin
Soon slid down his chin

And let all the sulkiness out.
THE ANIMAL SHOW
Father and mother and Bobbie will go
To see all the sights at the
animal show.
Where lions and bears
Sit on dining room chairs,

Where a camel is able
To stand on a table,
Where monkeys and
seals
All travel on wheels,
And a Zulu baboon
Rides a baby
balloon.
The sooner you're ready, the sooner we'll go.
Aboard, all
aboard, for the Animal Show!
[Illustration: THE ANIMAL SHOW]
TOMMY TRIMBLE
Billy be nimble,
Hurry and see
Old Tommy Trimble
Climbing a
tree.
He claws with his fingers
And digs with his toes.
The longer
he lingers
The slower he goes.
[Illustration]
DICKIE, DICKIE DEXTER

Dickie, Dickie Dexter
Had a wife and vexed her.
She put him in a
rabbit cage
And fed him peppermint and sage--
Dickie, Dickie
Dexter.
ON THE ROAD TO TATTLETOWN
On the road to Tattletown
What is this I see?
A pig upon a pedestal,

A cabbage up a tree,
A rabbit cutting capers
With a twenty dollar
bill--
Now if I don't get to Tattletown
Then no one ever will.
POLLY AND PETER
Polly had some china cows
And Peter had a gun.
She turned the
bossies out to browse,
And Peterkin, for fun,
Just peppered them
with butter beans
And blew them all to smithereens.
0. * *
Now what will pretty Polly do
For milk and cream and butter too?
I WENT TO TOWN ON MONDAY
I went to town on Monday
To buy myself a coat,
But on the way I
met a man
Who traveled with a caravan,
And bought a billy-goat.
I went to town on Tuesday
And bought a fancy vest.
I kept the
pretty bucklestraps,
Buttonholes and pocketflaps,
And threw away
the rest.
[Illustration]
I went to town on Thursday
To buy a loaf of bread,
But when I got
there, goodness sakes!
The town was full of rattlesnakes--
The
bakers all were dead.
[Illustration]
I went to town on Saturday
To get myself a wife,
But when I saw

the lady fair
I gnashed my teeth and pulled my hair
And scampered
for my life.
[Illustration]
WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
Where are you going, sister Kate?
I'm going to swing on the garden
gate,
And watch the fairy gypsies dance
Their tim-tam-tum on the
cabbage-plants--
The great big one with the purple nose,
And the
tiny tad with the pinky toes.
Where are you going, brother Ben?
I'm going to build a tiger-pen.

I'll get iron and steel and 'lectric wire
And build it a hundred feet, or
higher,
And put ten tigers