There Was A Little Girl

  There was a little girl,   And she had a little curl     Right in the middle of her forehead.   When she was good   She was very, very good,     And when she was bad she was horrid.   One day she went upstairs,   When her parents, unawares,     In the kitchen were occupied with meals,   And she stood upon her head   In her little trundle-bed,     And then began hooraying with her heels.   Her mother heard the noise,   And she thought it was the boys     A-playing at a combat in the attic;   But when she climbed the stair,   And found Jemima there,     She took and she did spank her most emphatic. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW