Mother Goose
.
.
I learned nursery rhymes from my brothers, primarily from James. I was an adult before I learned the correct version. I remember my mother reading to me only once, though she probably read to me many times. She read a lot more to my older brothers, but after they learned to read she stopped doing it. And she lumped me in with the older boys, thinking that if she had read to them, she had read to me. She seemed to forget that David started kindergarten before I was one year old. The story I remember my mother reading was about a pig that ate so much that he popped the buttons on his shirt. The thought of anyone that fat was funny to me, at that time.

So my mother never corrected my misunderstandings of the nursery rhymes. Here is the way I learned some of them:

Hickory, dickory, dock.
Two mice ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
But the other one got away.

Little Miss Muffett
Sat on a tuffet
Eating her curls away.
Along came a spider
And sat down beside her
And said, "Pardon me Miss,
Is this seat taken?"

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
"With silver bells
And cockle shells
And one lousy petunia!"

Little Jack Horner
Sat in a corner,
Eating his Christmas pie.
He stuck in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said, "Oh shucks,
I thought it was cherry."