" TELL us a story, old Robin Gray!
This merry Christmas time;
We are all in our glory; so tell us a story,
Either in prose or in rhyme.

" Open your budget, old Robin Gray!
We very well know it is full:
Come! out with a murder, — a Goblin, — a Ghost
Or a tale of a Cock and a Bull! "

" I have no tale of a Cock and a Bull,
My good little women and men;
But 'twill do as well, perhaps, if I tell
A tale of a Cock and a Hen. "