Nursery Rhyme. DLXXXI. Natural History.

            I had a little cow;
            Hey-diddle, ho-diddle!
    I had a little cow, and it had a little calf,
    Hey-diddle, ho-diddle; and there's my song half.

            I had a little cow;
            Hey-diddle, ho-diddle!
    I had a little cow, and I drove it to the stall;
    Hey-diddle, ho-diddle; and there's my song all!

    I had a little cow, to save her,
    I turned her into the meadow to graze her;
    There came a heavy storm of rain,
    And drove the little cow home again.
    The church doors they stood open,
    And there the little cow was cropen:
    The bell-ropes they were made of hay,
    And the little cow eat them all away:
    The sexton came to toll the bell,
    And pushed the little cow into the well!

    Snail, snail, shut out your horns;
        Father and mother are dead:
    Brother and sister are in the back yard,
        Begging for barley bread.

        [The following stanza is of very considerable antiquity, and is common in Yorkshire.]

    Lady-cow, lady-cow, fly thy way home,
    Thy house is on fire, thy children all gone,
    All but one that ligs under a stone,
    Fly thee home, lady-cow, ere it be gone.

    Hurly, burly, trumpet trase,
    The cow was in the market place,
    Some goes far, and some goes near,
    But where shall this poor henchman steer?

    Johnny Armstrong kill'd a calf,
    Peter Henderson got the half;
    Willy Wilkinson got the head,
    Ring the bell, the calf is dead!