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"Ten Little Soldiers"
Song
Published	1940
Songwriter(s)	George J. Manny

"Ten Little Soldiers" is a popular song for the Ten Little Indians rhyme.

The modern lyrics are:

One little, two little, three little Soldiers,
Four little, five little, six little Soldiers ,
Seven little, eight little, nine little Soldiers,
Ten little Soldier boys.

Ten little, nine little, eight little Soldiers,
Seven little, six little, five little Soldiers,
Four little, three little, two little Soldiers,
One little Soldier boy.

George J. Manny created this darker song of the New Orleans Stadium's version, in 1940 for a Squitieri show. The publishing of the lyrics is originally called "Ten Little Soldier Boys went out to Dine". By the mid-1940s, the song may performed in pantomime, musical theatre, opera, movement, glee, round, galop, polka, and schottische.

Lyrics as they were originally found in the Squitieri show:

Oh, Ten little soldier boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine little soldier boys swingin' on a gate; One tumbled off and then there were eight.
Eight little soldier boys travelling in heaven; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.
Seven little soldier boys cuttin' up their tricks; One broke his neck and then there were six.
Six little soldier boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five little soldier boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four.
Four little soldier boys up on a spree; One got fuddled and then there were three.
Three little soldier boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two little soldier boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one.
One little soldier boy left all alone; He got married and then there were none.

The plot is structured around the ten lines of the rhyme "Ten Little Niggers", a popular 1869 minstrel song written for the Christy's Minstrels by the British songwriter Frank Green. Green had modelled his lyrics on an American comic song "Ten Little Indians" [or Injuns] by Septimus Winner that had been published the year before. In later editions of the novel, the characters of the rhyme are replaced by "Ten Little Indians" or "Ten Little Soldier Boys".

This is the rhyme as published in a British 2008 edition:

Ten little soldier boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine little soldier boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight little soldier boys travelling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.
Seven little soldier boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six little soldier boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five little soldier boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four.
Four little soldier boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three little soldier boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two little soldier boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one.
One little soldier boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.

Each of the ten victims – eight guests plus the island's two caretakers – is killed in a manner that reflects one of the lines of the rhyme. A sleazy agent who helped arrange the affair is also killed, but his killing occurs on the mainland and outside of the main storyline.

The original nursery rhyme that inspired the title had an version for the play And Then There Were None (1943):

Ten little Niggers standin' in a line,
One toddled home and then there were nine;

Nine little Niggers swingin' on a gate,
One tumbled off and then there were eight.

Eight little Niggers gayest under heav'n.
One went to sleep and then there were seven;

Seven little Niggers cuttin' up their tricks,
One broke his neck and then there were six.

Six little Niggers all alive,
One kicked the bucket and then there were five;

Five little Niggers on a cellar door,
One tumbled in and then there were four.

Four little Niggers up on a spree,
One got fuddled and then there were three;

Three little Niggers out on a canoe,
One tumbled overboard and then there were two

Two little Niggers foolin' with a gun,
One shot t'other and then there was one;

One little Niggers livin' all alone,
He got married and then there were none.

The rhyme together with music (in a minor key), was published in The Grader Songs (1944), which is sung to the tune of "Three Blind Mice":

Ten little Soldiers, Ten Little Soldiers
How many are!
There are ten little soldiers,
And you better not run with them,
Did you not see anything to that
As ten little soldiers!

In both book and serial formats, the novel was first titled Ten Little Niggers in the UK, but And Then There Were None in the United States. The title was changed in the US due to the offensiveness of the word in American culture, where it was more widely perceived as a racially loaded ethnic slur or insult compared to the contemporaneous culture in the United Kingdom. The serialized version appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in seven parts from 20 May (Volume 211, Number 47) to 1 July 1939 (Volume 212, Number 1) with illustrations by Henry Raleigh, and the book was published in January 1940 by Dodd, Mead and Company for $2.

The following version of the song was recorded in the first film version of And Then There Were None (1945), which largely took Green's lyrics and replaced the already sensitive word "nigger" with "Indian":

Ten little Indian boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine little Indian boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight little Indian boys traveling in Devon;
One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.
Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six little Indian boys playing with a hive;
A bumblebee stung one of them and then there were five.
Five little Indian boys going in for law;
One got in Chancery and then there were four.
Four little Indian boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three little Indian boys walking in the zoo;
A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two little Indian boys sitting in the sun;
One got all frizzled up and then there was one.
One little Indian boy left all alone;
He went and hanged himself and then there were none.

It was uploaded in a YouTube video in August 2014.

• Christie, Agatha (March 2008). And Then There Were None. Harper-Collins. p. 276. ISBN Special:BookSources/978-0-06-074683-4