Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

Beans, beans, the magical fruit.

Is it "magical" or "musical"? Anyway, my great uncle (whom I've never met) wrote an autobiography (self-published). In the part about his boyhood he wrote this little story:

"A student who sat in front of me [in Catholic grade school] was Jack Schueller and one time he turned around and gave me a box with the words 'world's smallest musical instrument' on it. I couldn't imagine what it was. So I opened it and there was a bean."

Cool story, bro. Anyway, point is, if this happened when he was in grade school then I'm guessing the poem or another version of it existed then, in the 1930s.

It's musical. And my dad learned it as a kid in the 40s. My dad also likes the following poem:
The higher up the mountain
The greener grows the grass
Down comes a billy goat
Sliding on his overcoat