A girl builds a church in the woods with the birds as her workers and choir: a hawk for a builder, a peacock for a clerk, a bullfinch on the organ. A fanciful, gently surreal rhyme with a strong sense of pageantry.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
When I was a little girl, about seven years old,
I hadn't got a petticoat, to cover me from the cold.
So I went into Darlington, that pretty little town,
And there I bought a petticoat, a cloak, and a gown.
I went into the woods and built me a kirk,
And all the birds of the air, they helped me to work.
The hawk with his long claws pulled down the stone,
The dove with her rough bill brought me them home.
The parrot was the clergyman, the peacock was the clerk,
The bullfinch played the organ,—we made merry work.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition