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As I Was Walking by the Lake

As I was walking by the lake / I saw a little rattlesnake…

Out goes youLong rope

As I was walking by the lake
I saw a little rattlesnake.
I gave him so much jellycake,
It make his little belly ache.
1, 2, 3, out goes he (or she)

How to play

The skipper jumps out on "out goes he" and the next one runs in.

Where this rhyme comes from

Earliest record
by 1904
Sung in
US (according to Ford); printed in Scotland

Ford printed a counting-out rhyme beginning 'As I was walking down the lake' in 1904. In it the walker feeds a rattlesnake jelly-cake until it gets a bellyache, and Ford says it came 'from beyond the pond' (America).

Sources: Robert Ford, Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories (1904), p.46.

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