the next line is: "A kiddley divy too, wouldn't you?" translated, "A kid will eat ivy too, wouldn't you?"
"If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivvy, sing mare eat oats and does eat oats and little lames eat ivy."
refrain
quoted from old memories
I don't know if anybody has mentioned this because I haven't read all of the posts yet, but there is a story behind this little diddy:
It seems that the composer was listening to his three-year-old daughter "reading" a picture book about animals and decided that her jumbled words were the stuff that hit songs were made of.*
And the rest as they say is . . . oh, never mind.
Howard
*Please pardon dangling preposition.