Washing Day Words: Anne Rundle and Philip Allcock Tune: Swing the Cat (Meg Davis)
It was just after tea-time when we heard our mother shout, Curse the Devil, behold I see the cat's about There are stains upon the curtains, There are marks upon the sheets, And everywhere the tiny prints of muddy feet.
What can we do said the children, we'll help any way we can It's a hopeless situation but I have a plan Everyone go out searching for it, this way and that Don't dare show your faces till you find that cat
Well we leapt through the hail and we vaulted up the stairs And we followed the trail of dirt and muddy hairs Three hundred places in the house where our quarry may be sat But we searched every cranny till we found that cat
Back to the kitchen we went running with our kitty It was streaked with tar and oil and it was slightly less than pretty When our mother saw us coming with that filthy little tom She threw it in the washer and she turned it on.
Spin it fast, spin it slow, first the pre-wash then the soap With this grime there's only one way to take care of that If you want your pussy dean, put it into the machine It will gleam in minutes fast if you can spin the cat.
When the program completed we released our little moggy Though we span it at a thousand rpm it was still soggy So we brushed it and dried it till its coat was dry and neat Then we set it down carefully upon its feet.
Well the cat fled the kitchen with its senses in a muddle It ran into the garden and fell straight into a puddle Then It scrambled from the mud but only found the drain Curse the devil behold around we go again.