Nursery Rhymes

My mother-in-law recently gave me a copy of "The Real Mother Goose." She warned me that the book contains the original versions of the nursery rhymes and some are not exactly what a child should hear before bed. Or ever.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Goosey Goosey Gander

Goosey, goosey, gander,

Whither dost though wander?

Upstairs and downstairs

And in my lady's chamber.

There I met an old man

Who wouldn't say his prayers;

I took him by the left leg,

And threw him down the stairs.

WHAT?! Threw him down the stairs? Seems a little harsh, don't you think? My favorite part is how they specify which leg this poor man was grabbed by. I can picture the author hunched over his desk in the candlelight, scribbling out the word "right" with his quill pen and muttering, "Left. Yes, yes. It was definitely the left."

And then there's this one. The one they liked so much, they published it on the back cover of the book.

Ladybird

Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home!

Your house is on fire, your children all gone,

All but one, and her name is Ann,

And she crept under the pudding pan.

Sweet dreams kids! Dream of homes and nests destroyed by fire and lonely starving children wandering the streets. Oh, and don't forget about Ann who is trapped beneath a pudding pan and probably about to die from smoke inhalation. Night night!

This book will probably get "lost" before Isaac is old enough to read and/or question why some of the rhymes end differently each time...!