Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,

I am waiting here to seeWhich the winning one will be.Both of them have different names.One is John and one is James.All the best and all the worstComes from which of them is first.James has just begun to ooze.He’s the one I want to lose.John is waiting to begin.He’s the one I want to win.James…

And so has a crocodile, and so has a quail-They’ve all got tails but me.If I had sixpence I would buy one;I’d say to the shopman, ‘Let me try one’;I’d say to the elephant, ‘This is my one.’They’d all come round to see.Then I’d say to the lion, ‘Why, you’ve got a tail!And so has…

But they all had handkerchiefs to blow their noses,And they kept their handkerchiefs in cardboard boxes.They lived in the forest in three little houses,And they didn’t wear coats, and they didn’t wear trousies.They ran through the woods on their little bare tootsies,And they played “Touch Last” with a family of mouses.They didn’t go shopping in…

There are biffalo-buffalo-bisons,and a great big bear with wings.There’s a sort of a tiny potamus,and a tiny nosserus too –But I gave buns to the elephantwhen I went down to the Zoo!There are badgers and bidgers and bodgers,and a Super-in-tendent’s House,There are masses of goats, and a Polar,and different kinds of mouse,And I think there’s…

I took my pennyTo the market square.I wanted a rabbit,A little brown rabbit,And I looked for a rabbit‘Most everywhere.For I went to the stall where they sold sweet lavender(‘Only a penny for a bunch of lavender!’).‘Have you got a rabbit, ‘cos I don’t want lavender?’But they hadn’t got a rabbit, not anywhere there.I had a…

And I keep in the squares,And the masses of bears,Who wait at the corners all ready to eatThe sillies who tread on the lines of the streetGo back to their lairs,And I say to them, ‘Bears,Just look how I’m walking in all the squares!’And the little bears growl to each other, ‘He’s mine,As soon as…