The Owls and the Mice

Brian Dawson, Lincolnshire: On Autumn Harvest ah011: Old Songs & Bothy Ballads 8: The Little Ball of Yarn Live from the Fife Traditional Singing Festival May 2011.

Brian was given this song in the late 1970s by an old lady Mrs. Ethel Rudkin of Toynton-all-Saints near Spilsby, Lincolnshire who was in her 80s at the time. She said that it was the only song she could remember learning as a little girl - in the early 1900s. Brian used to go and stay with Mrs Rudkin for a few days every summer for a number of years - and rembered most of the song and tune one year and more during the following visit. In this recording Brian missed out the second verse, shown here in brackets.

1: There were three little owls sat a-singing in the barn,

Ding a ding a doo dum day
And they huddled up together for to keep their bodies warm,

Ding a ding a doo dum day
The song that they sang I shall now tell you,
It's a song that begins and ends, "Too Woo,"
A very, very pretty little song it is too,

Ding a ding a doo dum day.

[2: They were three little owls sat a-singing in the barn,

Ding a ding a doo dum day
And the owls eat mice and the mice eat corn.

Ding a ding a doo dum day
And the moon it shone in the sky so bright,
That it made the whole world look quite bright,
And owls, as you know, only sing at night.

Ding a ding a doo dum day]

3: There were three little mice sat a-listening to that song,

Ding a ding a doo dum day
Now, they knew what they were doing was very, very wrong,

Ding a ding a doo dum day
The old mice said, "Little mice, beware!
When the owls come a-sing that song, take care,
For their song is nothing more nor less than a snare."

Ding a ding a doo dum day.

4: Those three little mice they thought they'd have a lark,

Ding a ding a doo dum day
And they crept out softly just as it was dark,

Ding a ding a doo dum day
They found that song - Too Woo - so nice,
That closer and closer crept the three little mice,
Till the owls came and gobbled them all up in a trice,

Ding a ding a doo dum day.

5: Then those three little owls went back into the barn,

Ding a ding a doo dum day
They said, "Those little mices made us feel so nice and warm."

Ding a ding a doo dum day
Then they went on a-singing, "Too Woo!"
Now, I don't think much of this song, do you?
The only, only thing is it's perfectly true,

Ding a ding a doo dum day.