(Pick A Letter to Choose a Rhyme!)

 

•  MP3 Recording of I'll Tell You a Story

Notes

There's another version with a slight variation:

I'll tell you a story
About Mother Morey
And now my story's begun.
I'll tell you another
About her brother,
And now my story's done.

Here's another version:

I'll tell you a story
Of Jack-a-Nory,
And now my story's begun.
I'll tell you another
About Jack's brother,
And now my story is done.

This version can be found in Children's Literature, A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes (1920) by Charles Madison Curry and Erle Elsworth Clippinger.

Here's a similar rhyme from The Little Mother Goose (1912), illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith:

My story's ended, spoon is bended;
If you don't like it,
Go to the next door,
And get it mended.

Photos & Illustrations

Thanks and Acknowledgements

The illustration is from Mother Goose, The Original Volland Edition (1915), edited and arranged by Eulalie Osgood Grover and illustrated by Frederick Richardson (with some graphical editing by Mama Lisa). The first two versions of the rhyme can be found in The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (c. 1833). The third version along with the 2nd illustration can be found in The Real Mother Goose (1916), illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright. the last illustration is from The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (c. 1833).

Recited by Ruth Golding.