Does anyone know the child's poem about "foxes who wear white soxes."?

Question

It has about 4 verses and there is a mother fox talking to her children foxes about their "white soxes"..... but I can't remember it and have never seen it since being a child.

Thank you Curate's Egg for that lovely poem. Oddly, it didn't ring any bells.... I half remember a sentence, "oh, you naughty foxes"..... Perhaps there is another fox poem?

Answer 1

I had a feeling that it was one of A A Milne's verses, perhaps in "When We Were Very Young" but I can't find it. The only reference I can find is to Dr Seuss' "Fox in Sox" and I'm pretty sure that's not the one you are thinking of.

Edit: I was right. The poem is by A.A.Milne and is called "The Three Foxes". I hope it's the one you were remembering!

The Three Foxes

Once upon a time there were three little foxes
Who didn’t wear stockings, and they didn’t wear sockses,
But they all had handkerchiefs to blow their noses,
And they kept their handkerchiefs in cardboard boxes.

And they lived in a forest in three little houses,
And they didn’t wear coats, and they didn’t wear trousies.
They ran through the woods on their little bare tootsies,
And they played “Touch Last” with a family of mouses.

They didn’t go shopping in the High Street shopses,
But caught what they wanted in the woods and copses.
They all went fishing, and they caught three wormses,
They went out hunting, and they caught three wopses.

They went to a Fair, and they all won prizes –
Three plum-puddingses and three mince-pieses.
They rode on elephants and swang on swingses,
And hit three coco-nuts at coco-nut shieses.

That’s all I know of three little foxes
Who kept their handkerchiefs in three little boxes.
They lived in the forest in three little houses,
But they didn’t wear coats and they didn’t wear trousies,
And they didn’t wear stockings and they didn’t wear sockses.

Answer 2

It may be that what you are thinking of is a poem from "When we were very young" by A.A.Milne, and although I cannot accurately recall all of it , it went a bit like;

This is the tale of three little foxes
Who didn't wear shoes and they didn't wear soxes;
But they all had handkerchiefs to blow thier noses
And they kept their handkerchifes in cardboard boxes.