Rhymes and Jingles 187
Republican rats, take off your hats,
And make way for the Democrats.
A jingle to say when churning:—
Come, butter, come,
Peter’s at the gate,
Waiting for a patty cake.
This used to be said as a charm to make the butter come quickly.
The schoolhouse at the little Massachusetts village of Hockanum seventy-five years ago was far too small to accommodate the outpouring of the population on the momentous occasion of a “last day,” and it was the custom to have the exercises in the long hall of “Granther” Lyman’s tavern. The piece which created the greatest sensation on one of these last days was delivered before a crowded audience by a certain small boy in the following words:—
A woodchuck lived far over the hills, a good way off,
And died with the whooping-cough.
It bears every mark of being original poetry, and it was repeated and laughed over for a long time afterwards.
Whether this boy originated the idea
