A rhyme for counting on fingers or toes, one line per digit, ending in a mock cry that always gets a laugh. It doubles as an early lesson in naming body parts, which is why it survives every generation of nursery play.
A toe-counting chant: one pig per toe, tickle home on the last.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
This little pig went to market;
This little pig stayed at home;
This little pig had roast beef;
This little pig had none;
This little pig said, "Wee, wee!
I can't find my way home."
About this poem
A toe-counting rhyme · First line printed 1728; full rhyme by around 1760
A toe-counting rhyme. Its first line turns up in print in 1728, the whole of it by around 1760, and children were surely saying it aloud long before anyone bothered to write it down. There is no story to decode and no hidden meaning, whatever the internet claims. Five little pigs are given five different fates, from market to roast beef to none at all, ending with the one who cannot find its way home. It works through the actions rather than the words, which is why babies enjoy it long before they can follow a story.
Take each toe in turn, starting with the big one, and wiggle it as its pig is named. The last line is the one they wait for. Run your fingers up from foot to tummy on the wees. Babies soon learn to brace for it, and the waiting is half the fun. Any bare foot will do, at bathtime or a nappy change.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition