A pastoral rhyme about a maid minding the dairy while another hoes and mows the corn, singing all the while. A gentle, hardworking little scene.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
My maid Mary she minds the dairy,
While I go a-hoeing and mowing each morn;
Gaily run the reel and the little spinning wheel,
While I am singing and mowing my corn.
About this rhyme
No documented basis for a 'work song' origin claim on this specific rhyme; removed.
A little scene from farm life: Mary minding the dairy, the singer out in the fields, hoeing and mowing the corn. Say it with a gentle rocking motion, side to side, in time with 'hoeing and mowing.'
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition