The Long Night

Last night I put my dollies

in bed to sleep with me

and lined them up, all ten of them,

as straight as they could be.

I covered them with blankets

so they would not be cold,

and said to them, “Now say your prayers.”

They did as they were told.

I slowly crawled into my bed

and got beneath my quilt,

and then I tried to go to sleep

but soon was filled with guilt.

For Alice was the doll who lay

the farthest from my side,

so would she think she wasn’t loved?

“Oh dear!” I softly cried.

So I got up and carefully

I rearranged us all.

Now I was in the middle —

then I heard Samatha fall.

For she’d been on the outside

and rolled right off the bed

and so I had to get back up

and bandage her poor head.

Throughout the night I had to keep

arranging all my dolls

because they all kept poking me

or taking nasty falls.

My dolls, today, are mad at me

and think that I’m not fair

for saying now I’ll only sleep

with Fred, my teddy bear!