Lifes Lessons in Portraiture. 19

I had studied my tables over
backwards and forwards too
but I couldn`t remember 6 X 9
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 54 for awhile
you`ll know it by heart she said.

So I took my dear little Mary Ann,
though I thought it a terrible shame
To call such a perfectly lovely doll
such a perfectly horrid name.

But I called her my dear little 54
for a hundred times 'till I knew
the answer to 6 X 9 as well
as the answer to 2 X 2.

Next day Elizabeth Wigglesworth,
who always acted so proud,
said 6 X 9 was 52
and I almost laughed out loud.

But Oh I wish I hadn`t, for teacher
said, "Alice tell if you can"
Then I thought of my Doll
and sakes alive, I answered, Mary Ann.

Iris Dodge Morgan

Life's Lessons in Portraiture.

"The Tables"