Nursery Rhyme. CXXV. Scholastic.

    When I was a little boy, I had but little wit
    It is some time ago, and I've no more yet;
    Nor ever ever shall, until that I die,
    For the longer I live, the more fool am I.

        [A Greek bill of fare.]

    LEGOMOTON,
    Acapon,
    Alfagheuse,
    Pasti venison.

        [The joke or the following consists in saying it so quick that it cannot be told whether it is English or gibberish. It is remarkable that the last two lines are quoted in MS. Sloan. 4, of the fifteenth century, as printed in the 'Reliq. Antiq.,' vol. i, p. 324.]

    In fir tar is,
    In oak none is.
    In mud eel is,
    In clay none is.
    Goat eat ivy,
    Mare eat oats.

        Cross patch,
        Draw the latch,
    Sit by the fire and spin;
        Take a cup,
        And drink it up,
    Then call your neighbours in.

        [The following occurs in a MS. of the seventeenth century, in the Sloane Collection, the reference to which I have mislaid.]

    The man in the wilderness asked me,
    How many strawberries grew in the sea?
    I answered him, as I thought good,
    As many as red herrings grew in the wood.

    Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
        How does your garden grow?
    With cockle-shells, and silver bells,
        And mussels all a row.