Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes 20 – Anonymous · Verses Across
Literature · For Children
Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes 20The Young Linnets
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Literature · For Children
Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes 20
The Young Linnets
AnonymousEnglish
DID you ever see the nest
Of Chaffinch or of Linnet,
When the little downy birds
Are lying snugly in it,
Gaping wide their yellow mouths
For something nice to eat?
Caterpillar, worm, and grub,
They reckon dainty meat.
When the mother-bird returns,
And finds them still and good,
She will give them each, by turns,
A proper share of food.
She has hopped from spray to spray,
And peeped with knowing eye
Into all the folded leaves
Where caterpillars lie.
She has searched among the grass,
And flown from tree to tree,
Catching gnats and flies, to feed
Her little family.
I have seen the Linnets chirp,
And shake their downy wings:
They are pleased to see her come,
And pleased with what she brings.
But I never saw them look
Impatient for their food:
Somebody, at dinner-time,
Is seldom quite so good.
See-saw, Margery Daw,
Jenny shall have a new master;
She shall have but a penny a day,
Because she can't work any faster.
DANCE to your daddy,
My little babby;
Dance to your daddy,
My little lamb.
You shall have a fishy,
In a little dishy;
You shall have a fishy,
When the boat comes in.
Queen Anne, Queen Anne, she sits in the sun,
As fair as the lily, as white as the swan:
I send you three letters, so pray you read one.
I cannot read one unless I read all;
So pray, Master Teddy, deliver the ball.
Little girl, little girl, where have you been?
Gathering roses to give to the Queen.
Little girl, little girl, what gave she you?
She gave me a diamond as big as my shoe.
There was an old woman tossed up in a basket,
Ninety times as high as the moon;
And 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 sweep the cobwebs off the sky!
Shall I go with you? Ay, by-and-by.
When I was a bachelor, I lived by myself,
And all the meat I got I put upon a shelf;
The rats and the mice did lead me such a life,
That I went to London, to get myself a wife.
The streets were so broad, and the lanes were so narrow,
I could not get my wife home without a wheelbarrow,
The wheelbarrow broke, my wife got a fall,
Down tumbled wheelbarrow, little wife, and all.
Robin and Richard were two pretty men,
They lay in bed till the clock struck ten;
Then up starts Robin and looks in the sky,
"Oh, brother Richard, the sun's very high!
You go on with bottle and bag,
And I'll come after with jolly Jack Nag."
Blow, wind, blow, and go, mill, go,
That the miller may grind his corn;
That the baker may take it,
And into rolls make it,
And bring us some hot in the morn.
Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick,
And Jack jump over the candlestick.
Ride a cock-horse
To Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady
Upon a white horse.
Rings on her fingers,
Bells on her toes,
She shall have music
Wherever she goes.
