This one, except with "cobbler's bench" rather than "mulberry bush.
Actually, this is what my adult mind thinks must be the original, because it actually hangs together, especially if you know that "weasel" was a slang term for a little change-purse that opens and closes with a popping sound.
In reality, I remember singing "carpenter's bench" as a child, probably because I didn't know the word "cobbler." I also sang "A penny for a spool of thread, a penny for an easel" because that made it rhyme correctly, quite possibly a correction I made myself.
I'm familiar with the "cobbler's bench" version, but it's not the one that first comes to my mind. I think that's the version in one of the Little House books, where Pa would play it for Mary and Laura, and the game was to see if they could catch when Pa plucked the fiddle string for the *pop*. But they never did; he was too fast.
"A penny for an easel" is a perfectly reasonable mondegreen. I think I sang it that way for a while, too.
The song has its own Wikipedia entry, with many variations listed, and speculations as to origin and meaning.
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Actually, this is what my adult mind thinks must be the original, because it actually hangs together, especially if you know that "weasel" was a slang term for a little change-purse that opens and closes with a popping sound.
In reality, I remember singing "carpenter's bench" as a child, probably because I didn't know the word "cobbler." I also sang "A penny for a spool of thread, a penny for an easel" because that made it rhyme correctly, quite possibly a correction I made myself.
no subject
"A penny for an easel" is a perfectly reasonable mondegreen. I think I sang it that way for a while, too.
The song has its own Wikipedia entry, with many variations listed, and speculations as to origin and meaning.