Now We Are Six (11 page)

Here I go up in my swing

Ever so high.

I am the King of the fields, and the King Of the town.

I am the King of the earth, and the King Of the sky.

Here I go up in my swing…

Now I go down.

Elizabeth Ann

Said to her Nan:

“Please will you tell me how God began?

Somebody
must have made Him. So

Who could it be, ’cos I want to know?”

And Nurse said, “
Well!
”

And Ann said, “Well?

I know you know, and I wish you’d tell.”

And Nurse took pins from her mouth, and said,

“Now then, darling, it’s time for bed.”

Elizabeth Ann

Had a wonderful plan:

She would run round the world till she found a man

Who knew
exactly
how God began.

She got up early, she dressed, and ran

Trying to find an Important Man.

She ran to London and knocked at the door

Of the Lord High Doodelum’s coach-and-four.

“Please, sir (if there’s anyone in),

However-and-ever did God begin?”

The Lord High Doodelum lay in bed,

But out of the window, large and red,

Came the Lord High Coachman’s face instead.

And the Lord High Coachman laughed and said:

“Well, what put
that
in your quaint little head?”

Elizabeth Ann went home again

And took from the ottoman Jennifer Jane.

“Jenniferjane,” said Elizabeth Ann,

“Tell me
at once
how God began.”

And Jane, who didn’t much care for speaking,

Replied in her usual way by squeaking.

What did it mean? Well, to be quite candid,

I
don’t know, but Elizabeth Ann did.

Elizabeth Ann said softly, “Oh!

Thank you, Jennifer. Now I know.”

There were Two little Bears who lived in a Wood,

And one of them was Bad and the other was Good.

Good Bear learnt his Twice Times One—

But Bad Bear left all his buttons undone.

They lived in a Tree when the weather was hot,

And one of them was Good, and the other was Not.

Good Bear learnt his Twice Times Two—

But Bad Bear’s thingummies were worn right through.

They lived in a Cave when the weather was cold,

And they Did, and they Didn’t Do, what they were told.

Good Bear learnt his Twice Times Three—

But Bad Bear
never
had his hand-ker-chee.

They lived in the Wood with a Kind Old Aunt,

And one said “
Yes’m,
” and the other said

“
Shan’t!
”

Good Bear learnt his Twice Times Four—

But Bad Bear’s knicketies were terrible tore.

And then quite suddenly (just like Us)

One got Better and the other got Wuss.

Good Bear muddled his Twice Times Three—

But Bad Bear coughed
in his hand-ker-chee!

Good Bear muddled his Twice Times Two—

But Bad Bear’s thingummies looked like new.

Good Bear muddled his Twice Times One—

But Bad Bear
never
left his buttons undone.

There may be a Moral, though some say not;

I think there’s a moral, though I don’t know what.

But if one gets better, as the other gets wuss,

These Two Little Bears are just like Us.

For Christopher remembers up to Twice Times Ten…

But I keep forgetting where I’ve put my pen.
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