Reading: Nursery Rhymes, Part A

Story: Nursery Rhymes - Tales

Story Source: The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897).

The Lion and the Unicorn, Source

For the nursery rhymes readings, there are a lot of them. I thought that I would post a collection of some of my favorite ones from the readings.

This one is really dark:

(Wikipedia: Babes in the Wood)

MY dear, do you know,
How a long time ago,
Two poor little children,
Whose names I don't know,
Were stolen away on a fine summer's day,
And left in a wood, as I've heard people say.

And when it was night,
So sad was their plight,
The sun it went down,
And the moon gave no light.
They sobbed and they sighed, and they bitterly cried,
And the poor little things, they lay down and died.

And when they were dead,
The robins so red
Brought strawberry-leaves
And over them spread,
And all the day long
They sung them this song:
"Poor babes in the wood! Poor babes in the wood!
And don't you remember the babes in the wood?"

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(Wikipedia: The Lion and the Unicorn)

The lion and the unicorn
Were fighting for the crown;
The lion beat the unicorn
All round about the town.

Some gave them white bread,
And some gave them brown;
Some gave them plum-cake,
And sent them out of town.

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THERE was a little man,
And he had a little gun,
And his bullets were made of lead, lead, lead;

He went to the brook
And saw a little duck,
And he shot it right through the head, head, head.

He carried it home
To his old wife Joan,
And bid her a fire for to make, make, make;

To roast the little duck
He had shot in the brook,
And he'd go and fetch her the drake, drake, drake.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MY lady Wind, my lady Wind,
Went round about the house to find
A chink to get her foot in:
She tried the key-hole in the door,
She tried the crevice in the floor,
And drove the chimney soot in.

And then one night when it was dark,
She blew up such a tiny spark,
That all the house was pothered:
From it she raised up such a flame,
As flamed away to Belting Lane,
And White Cross folks were smothered.

And thus when once, my little dears,
A whisper reaches itching ears,
The same will come, you'll find:
Take my advice, restrain the tongue,
Remember what old nurse has sung
Of busy lady Wind.