A brisk bit of haggling in rhyme: a lame mare, a market to catch, and money that suddenly cures the limp. It is an old English saying turned into six lines, and the twist at the end rewards a knowing little laugh.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
"Lend me thy mare to ride a mile."
"She is lamed, leaping over a stile."
"Alack! and I must keep the fair!
I'll give thee money for thy mare."
"Oh, oh! say you so?
Money will make the mare to go!"
About this rhyme
A dialogue built around the old English saying "money will make the mare go": someone asks to borrow a horse, is told it is lame, then offers money, and the lameness clears up at once.
Best read with the second voice sounding a little too pleased with itself.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition