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A woman finds that her daughter has eaten five pies at once. She keeps singing:
My darter ha'ate five, five pies to-dayMy darter ha'ate five, five pies to-day
But she was ashamed of what her daughter has done, so when the king passes by she changes her song.
My darter ha' spun five, five skeins to-dayMy darter ha' spun five, five skeins to-day.
Hearing which the king wants to marry this remarkable woman. Eleven months a year she will have nothing to do but the twelfth month she is supposed to spin five skeins a day and if she fails to it he will kill her. She does not know how to spin. A little black thing appears on the scene to do the work for her. If by the end of the month she has not guessed his name she will be his. The king, her husband comes to see her. He tells her:
I was out hunting to-day and went to a place in the wood I had never seen before. He saw a little black thing spinning wonderful fast and twirling its tail. And as he span he sang:
Nimmy nimmy notMy name's Tom Tit Tot.