I Can't Do The Sum

I can't do the sum is a song in Babes in Toyland

Mary: The Price of milk and eggs and bread is rising everyday. Now with our bankbook in the red, the bills are hard to pay. If we stop buying chocolate cake and live on green string beans, exactly how much would it take to live within our means. Oh-oh-oh. Oh-oh-oh. Oh-oh-oh.



Imaginary Mary 1: Put down “beans” and cross out “cake”.



Imaginary Mary 2: Let me see, oh dear, me.



Imaginary Mary 3: What a job to undertake.



Imaginary Mary 4: Milk plus bread, oh my head.



Imaginary Mary all together: Add, subtract and multiply ‘till you overcome.



Mary: This is much too hard for us, I can’t do the sum. This stove and rugs and furniture will soon be repossessed. This makes quite insure and mentally depressed. Would be better off by living in a tent, how can I pay the mortgage now and save the 6 percent.



Imaginary Mary all together: Oh-oh-oh. Oh-oh-oh. Oh-oh-oh.



<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Mary and Imaginary Mary all together: Picture us inside a tent, beastly poor, insecure. We must save the 6 percent, 6 “times” X, how complex. Numbers always stick our brains, why are we so dumb? This is much too hard for us, we can’t do the sum.

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<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Mary: I’m not a great financial whiz of that, there is no doubt. The outcome of our income is our incomes’ all gone out. If we walked on our hands with care, instead on our feet, would what we save on shoe repair, suffice to make ends meet. Oh-oh-oh. Oh-oh-oh. Oh-oh-oh. Walking on our hands with care, off our feet…

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<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Mary and Imaginary Mary all together: …make ends meet. Saving on our shoe repair, leaving holes on our soles. What would we be adding to or subtracting from?

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Mary: This is much too hard for us, I can’t do the sum. Looks like there’s no hope for me, I can’t get out of debt. If I marry Barnaby, it’s the end, why pretend. Am I doing right or wrong, my heart feels so numb. No use trying anymore, I can’t do the sum.