he thinks it may be the bedern children , the dozens of orphans who died of disease and starvation in the york ragged school managed by george pimm in the mid-nineteenth century , children whose corpses pimm concealed in his cellar , until their tapping , scratching and wailing drove him to drink , insanity and finally suicide , children who still haunt bedern alley and sing their ghostly songs , 'tom , tom the piper 's son , stole a pig and away did run ' and one , two , kick the shoe , three , four , kick the door , five , six , break the sticks , seven , eight , break the gate , nine , ten , kill the men .