For the care of his lamb, And their comical pranks, He gave them a ham And abundance of thanks. "I wish you good-day, My fine fellows," said he; "My compliments, pray, To Dame Wiggins of Lee." You see them arrived At their Dame's welcome door; They show her their presents, And all their good store. "Now come in to supper, And sit down with me; All welcome once more," Cried Dame Wiggins of Lee. 144 This is the perfect pattern of all the accumulative stories, perhaps the best known and most loved of children among all nursery jingles. Halliwell thought it descended from the mystical Hebrew hymn, "A kid, a kid," found in the Talmud. Most commentators since have followed his example in calling attention to the parallel, though scholars have insisted that the hymn referred to is a late interpolation. The hymn opens: "A kid, a kid, my father bought, For two pieces of money: A kid, a kid. "Then came the cat, and ate the kid, That my father bought," etc. Then came the dog and bit the cat, then the staff and beat the dog, then the fire and burned the staff, then water and quenched the fire, then the ox and drank the water, then the butcher and slew the ox, then the angel of death and killed the butcher, and the hymn concludes: "Then came the Holy One, blessed be He! And killed the angel of death, That killed the butcher, That slew the ox, That drank the water, That quenched the fire, That burned the staff, That beat the dog, That bit the cat, That ate the kid, That my father bought For two pieces of money: A kid, a kid."