✦ The Poem ✦
The Three Foxes
by A. A. Milne, from When We Were Very Young (1924). Public domain in the United States.
Once upon a time there were three little foxes Who didn’t wear stockings, and they didn’t wear sockses, But they all had handkerchiefs to blow their noses, And they kept their handkerchiefs in cardboard boxes.
They lived in the forest in three little houses, And they didn’t wear coats, and they didn’t wear trousies. They ran through the woods on their little bare tootsies, And they played “Touch last” with a family of mouses.
They didn’t go shopping in the High Street shopses, But caught what they wanted in the woods and copses. They all went fishing, and they caught three wormses, They went out hunting, and they caught three wopses.
They went to a Fair, and they all won prizes— Three plum-puddingses and three mince-pieses. They rode on elephants and swang on swingses, And hit three coco-nuts at coco-nut shieses.
That’s all that I know of the three little foxes Who kept their handkerchiefs in cardboard boxes. They lived in the forest in three little houses, But they didn’t wear coats and they didn’t wear trousies, And they didn’t wear stockings and they didn’t wear sockses.