A street seller's cry turned into rhyme, chairs to mend and old clothes to sell, sung by someone dreaming of never having to cry it again. The repeated lines echo real tradesmen's calls once heard in English streets.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
If I'd as much money as I could spend,
I never would cry old chairs to mend;
Old chairs to mend, old chairs to mend;
I never would cry old chairs to mend.
If I'd as much money as I could tell,
I never would cry old clothes to sell;
Old clothes to sell, old clothes to sell;
I never would cry old clothes to sell.
About this rhyme
Rhymes like this one grew out of the street cries of travelling menders and sellers, the sing-song calls that let a whole street know the chair-mender or the rag-and-bone man was coming round. This version turns the cry into a wish: if I had money, I'd never have to call it. Try calling the lines out the way a street seller would, loud and sing-song.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition