There was a little house in the middle of the woods,
And by the window an old man stood.
He saw a bunny rabbit come hopping by
Knocking at the door.

"Help me! Help me!" he cried
Please, little man let me inside.
"Come little rabbit, come with me.
Happy we will be."

I learned the first two lines of the second stanza the way many of you did:
"Help me! Help me! he said,
"'Fore the hunter shoots me dead."
or, "hunter man", I don't remember exactly which.

Somewhere about the time my parents' first grandchild came along, we changed the words to a less violentversion. Our modern society is not as comfortable with the violence in children's songs, etc., as were our ancestors, eh? Think Goldilocks--how did it end? The bears used to eat up the naughty girl, but now she jumps out the window and runs away. Never mind the moral in the old tale that naughty children who wander into strangers' homes could get hurt.