The Ingoldsby Lyrics :: :: University of Virginia Library

The old woman sat in her rush-bottom'd chair,
And she snorted and sniff'd with her nose in the air;
“Dear me! dear me!
What's this?” quoth she;
“Here's a very bad smell; why, what can it be?
I'll wager a hat
It's that horrid Tom cat
Has been on the rug, or the carpet, or mat;
All this has been
From his being shut in.
Betty, go run for Carpenter Gore,
Make him cut a great hole by the sill of the door,
And the cat will get out and annoy us no more.”

Straight at the little old woman's command
Came Carpenter Gore with his saw in his hand,
And he saw'd and he chisel'd, and close by the floor
He cut a great hole by the sill of the door;
And the little old woman began for to snore,
For now, without doubt,
As the cat could get out,
She conceived he would “never do so any more.”
But when she awoke
She was ready to choke;
Oh dear! how she wheez'd
And snuff'd and sneez'd,
For the smell was a hundred times worse than before.

The old woman bann'd and the old woman swore,
And she vented her spite upon Carpenter Gore.
But Carpenter Gore cared little for that,
He put up his saw, and he put on his hat,
And to Betty he said with a grin:
“A hole, no doubt,
That let's one cat out
Will let half a score cats in!!”