Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
Wee Bit Wifie

Wee Bit Wifie

Wee Bit Wifie

     1.
     There was a wee bit wifie,
       Who lived in a shoe;
     She had so many bairns,
       She kenn'd na what to do.
     She gaed to the market
       To buy a sheep-head;
     When she came back
       They were a' lying dead.
     She went to the wright
       To get them a coffin;
     When she came back
       They were a' lying laughing.
     She gaed up the stair,
       To ring the bell;
     The bell-rope broke,
       And down she fell.

     2.
     There was an auld wife that lived in a shoe,
     She had first twins, syne twins, and twice twins too;
     She whippit them all soundly, and sent them to bed,
     And when she went in she found them all dead.
     She went to the vricht's to get a coffin made,
     She thocht o' the bairns, but it was hersel' instead;
     She gaed up the stair to ring the bell,
     But slipp'd her fit and doon she fell,
     And got the coffin to hersel.
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     (1) Halliwell NRE (1842) 40 (lxiii), as a Scots version
     of the well-known English rhyme. Somewhat more Scots in
     Montgomerie SC 169 (no. 314).
     (2) Rymour Club Misc. II (1912-19), 54, from Mintlaw,
     Buchan, Aberdeenshire.  An extra line is given from a
     Forfar variant, "And was buried in the ase-hole."
     Cf. ODNR 434 (no. 546).
MS
oct96