P'raps it should read as: then a telegraph boy...
I haven't been able to get the blasted thing out of my head since yesterday. It was bad enough when I was 9! Would you believe that in the many solitary play times I had as an only child, I used to try and invent skipping games and two-ball games (and you can all shut up before you start!) to the rhythm of the words.
I can't really remember the tune apart from something vague for the first couple of lines. Perhaps my dad or whoever taught it me didn't know the tune all that well either. It's obviously a music hall song. I wonder who originally did it?
Andrea