CATS IN THE CREAM POT

THE ROLE OF CATS IN NURSERY RHYMES
by Sarah Hartwell

Hogs in the garden, catch ’em, Towser;
Cows in the corn-field, run boys, run,
Cats in the cream-pot, run girls, run girls;
Fire on the mountains, run boys, run.

This is another rhyme that, like the Higglety Pigglety Pop variant earlier, conjures up images of domestic chaos – escaped pigs being rounded up by the dog, escaped cattle being rounded up by the boys, a cat raiding the kitchen and being shoo-ed out by the girls and finally a bush-fire, which the boys are presumably running to extinguish.