The first stanza of this jingle was long attributed to Longfellow as an impromptu made on one of his children. He took occasion to deny this, as well as the authorship of the almost equally famous "Mr. Finney had a turnip." The last two stanzas bear evidence of a more sophisticated origin than that of real nursery rhymes. Mr. Lucas, in his _Book of Verses for Children_, gives two different versions of these stanzas.
There was a little girl, and she had a little curl, Right down the middle of her forehead, When she was good, she was very, very good, But when she was bad, she was horrid.
One day she went upstairs, while her parents, unawares, In the kitchen down below were occupied with meals, And she stood upon her head, on her little truckle-bed, And she then began hurraying with her heels.
Her mother heard the noise, and thought it was the boys, A playing at a combat in the attic, But when she climbed the stair and saw Jemima there, She took and she did whip her most emphatic!
The following was one of the favorite "toy-book" texts of the eighteenth century. These little books generally had a crude woodcut and one stanza of text on a page. It can be seen how easily this story lends itself to illustration. Each stanza is a chapter, and the story-teller could continue as long as his inventiveness held out. In one edition there are these additional lines:
"Old Mother Hubbard sat down in a chair, And danced her dog to a delicate air; She went to the garden to buy him a pippin, When she came back the dog was a-skipping."
Old Mother Hubbard Went to the cupboard, To get her poor dog a bone; But when she came there, The cupboard was bare, And so the poor dog had none.
She went to the baker's To buy him some bread; But when she came back, The poor dog was dead.
She went to the joiner's To buy him a coffin; But when she came back, The poor dog was laughing.
She took a clean dish, To get him some tripe; But when she came back He was smoking his pipe.
She went to the fishmonger's To buy him some fish; And when she came back He was licking the dish.
She went to the ale-house To get him some beer; But when she came back The dog sat in a chair.
She went to the tavern For white wine and red; But when she came back The dog stood on his head.