Old Missus Skinner
Old Missus Skinner
Had dumplings for dinner
And sat on a very high stool;
When she cut thru the hide
There was nothing inside,
Which I’m sure was not often the rule.
Illustration by Blanche Fisher Wright
First published in The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes (1918).
There’s something irresistibly funny about Old Missus Skinner — part domestic disaster, part quiet comedy. Blanche Fisher Wright paints her like a woman caught between dignity and disbelief, perched high on her stool while her cat looks on, unimpressed. The empty dumpling becomes a perfect little moment of everyday absurdity — the kind that makes you sigh, then laugh, because that’s just how days in the kitchen go sometimes.
