O there were three jolly hunters;
And a-hunting they did go,
With a spaniel-dog, and a pointer-dog,
And a setter-dog also.
Looky there!
And they hunted and they hal-looed;
And the first thing they did find
Was a dingling-dangling hornet’s-nest
A-swinging in the wind.
Looky there!
And the first one said—“What is it?”
Said the next, “We’ll punch and see”:
And the next one said, a mile from there,
“I wish we’d let it be!”
Looky there!
And they hunted and they hal-looed;
And the next thing they did raise
Was a bobbin’ bunny cottontail
That vanished from their gaze.
Looky there!
One said it was a hot base-ball,
Zipped through the brambly thatch,
But the others said ’twas a note by post,
Or a telegraph-dispatch.
Looky there!
So they hunted and they hal-looed;
And the next thing they did sight
Was a great big bulldog chasing them,
And a farmer, hollerin’ “Skite!”
Looky there!
And the first one said, “Hi-jinktum!”
And the next, “Hi-jinktum-jee!”
And the last one said, “Them very words
Had just occurred to me!”
Looky there!