Nursery Rhyme. LVI. Tales.

    Little Tom Tittlemouse,
    Lived in a bell-house;
    The bell-house broke,
    And Tom Tittlemouse woke.

    Tom, Tom, the piper's son,
    Stole a pig, and away he run!
    The pig was eat, and Tom was beat,
    And Tom went roaring down the street.

    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,

    There was a little man,
    And he had a little gun,
    And he went to the brook,
    And he shot a little rook;
    And he took it home
    To his old wife Joan,
    And told her to make up a fire,
    While he went back,
    To fetch the little drake;
    But when he got there,
    The drake was fled for fear,
    And like an old novice,
    He turn'd back again.

    There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile,
    He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile:
    He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
    And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

        [The tale of Simple Simon forms one of the chap-books, but the following verses are those generally sung in the nursery.]

    Simple Simon met a pieman
        Going to the fair;
    Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
        "Let me taste your ware."

    Says the pieman to Simple Simon,
        "Show me first your penny."
    Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
        "Indeed I have not any."

    Simple Simon went a fishing
        For to catch a whale:
    All the water he had got
        Was in his mother's pail.