Two classic verses share this entry: a tidy limerick about an old man cured by a plain dinner, and Ding Dong Bell, the well-known rhyme about a cat pulled from a well. The second carries a gentle moral about kindness to animals inside its jaunty rhythm.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
There was an old man of Tobago
Who lived on rice, gruel, and sago,
Till much to his bliss,
His physician said this:
"To a leg, sir, of mutton, you may go."
DING, DONG, BELL
Ding, dong, bell,
Pussy's in the well!
Who put her in?
Little Tommy Lin.
Who pulled her out?
Little Johnny Stout.
What a naughty boy was that,
To try to drown poor pussy-cat.
Who never did him any harm,
But killed the mice in his father's barn!
About this rhyme
Text matches: rice, gruel and sago, then the physician permits a leg of mutton. · The five-line AABBA form is a limerick.
An old man of Tobago lives on nothing but rice, gruel and sago, until his doctor finally takes pity and allows him a leg of mutton. It's a small limerick about deprivation and relief, with the doctor's line delivered like very good news indeed. Read the mutton line with real relish; that's the whole payoff.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition