She was six years old, she said.

Her hair was grey without a curl—

She wore it on her head.

“Her face was wan and thin and pale,

Her age I could not fix,

But still with many a smirk and smile

She said, ‘I’m only six.’

“‘Nay, if you say you’re six!’ I cried,

‘The truth you have forsaken

‘Perhaps I have, perhaps I’ve not,