The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #153739   Message #3603300
Posted By: Jim Dixon
20-Feb-14 - 02:33 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: You dirty little nipper . . .
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: You dirty little nipper . . .
Here's the oldest version I can find, of the rhyme quoted in the original request:

The Iron Puddler: My Life in the Rolling Mills and What Came of It by James John Davis (1922?)

The first time I went to Sunday-school, I met Babe Durgon. He set up the cry:
"Little boy, little boy, Does your mother know you're out;
With your breeches put on backward, And the seams all inside out!"

[Here are various other versions I found in other books:]

Why you dirty little beggar! Does your mother know you're out?
With your hands in your pockets and your shirttail out?

You dirty little bugger, does your mother know you're out?
With your hands in your pockets and your shirttail out.

Oh, you dirty little devil, does your mother know you're out
With your pants unzipped and your diddle hanging out?

Oh, you dirty little devil, does your mother know you're out,
With your pants wide open and your pecker hanging out?

[I don't think there was ever more than those 2 lines, although it could easily be combined with other "floaters" and used as a jump-rope rhyme.]