Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Poems of Home: II. For ChildrenA Mortifying Mistake
Anna Maria PrattI
But I couldn’t remember six times nine, and I didn’t know what to do,
Till sister told me to play with my doll, and not to bother my head.
“If you call her ‘Fifty-four’ for a while, you ’ll learn it by heart,” she said.
To give such a perfectly lovely child such a perfectly horrid name),
And I called her my dear little “Fifty-four” a hundred times, till I knew
The answer of six times nine as well as the answer of two times two.
Said, “Six times nine is fifty-two,” and I nearly laughed aloud!
But I wished I hadn’t when teacher said, “Now, Dorothy, tell if you can.”
For I thought of my doll and—sakes alive!—I answered, “Mary Ann!”