From Frontier Ballads by Charles Joseph Finger (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1927), page 90:


THE HAPPY CROOK

1. I'm one of those fellows that gets his living
By taking things as isn't given
With my hand, with my hand, with my hand, with my mitt.
I started the business in Petticoat Lane
I mean I started the fingering game
With my hand, &c.

CHORUS:
And I wish there was no prisons, I do. Don't you.
For the old treadmill it makes me ill
And I only steals my belly for to fill.
With my hand, &c.

2. One day I saw, which it ain't no lie,
A little kid with a piece of pie
In his hand, &c.
Now I was hungry and the pie was hot,
So I sneaked behind the kid and I swiped the lot
With my hand, &c.

CHORUS