Old King Cole: Old King Cole was a merry old soul, And a merry old soul was he; He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl And he called for his fiddlers three.

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,

And a merry old soul was he;

He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl

And he called for his fiddlers three

'OLD KING COLE was not always a king, nor was he born a member of any royal family. It was only chance—'hard luck' he used to call it—that made him a king at all. He had always been a poor man, being the son of an apple peddler, who died and left him nothing but a donkey and a fiddle. But that was enough for Cole, who never bothered his head about the world's goods, but took things as they came and refused to worry about anything.' and so begins the story of how this happy soul became the king of a country by accident.