There was once a little boy, and his mother sent him to buy a sheep’s head and pluck; afraid he should forget it, the lad kept saying all the way along:
Trudging along, he came to a stile; but in getting over he fell and hurt himself, and beginning to blubber, forgot what he was sent for. So he stood a little while to consider: at last he thought he recollected it, and began to repeat:
Away he went again, and came to where a man had a pain in his liver, bawling out:
Whereon the man laid hold of him and beat him, bidding him say:
The youngster strode along, uttering these words, till he reached a field where a hind was sowing wheat:
This was all his cry. So the sower began to thrash him, and charged him to repeat:
Off the child scampered with these words in his mouth till he reached a churchyard and met a funeral, but he went on with his:
The chief mourner seized and punished him, and bade him repeat:
Away went the boy, and met a dog and a cat going to be hung, but his cry rang out:
The good folk nearly were furious, seized and struck him, charging him to say:
This the poor fellow did, till he overtook a man and a woman going to be married. “Oh! oh!” he shouted:
The man was enraged, as we may well think, gave him many a thump, and ordered him to repeat:
This he did, jogging along, till he came to two labourers who had fallen into a ditch. The lad kept bawling out:
