There was a little girl...

Growing up I often heard Mom recite this poem when I became a bit of a challenge:

"There was a little girl,

            Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

            When she was good,

            She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad she was horrid."

Mom holding me about at about 2 years old

Mom said it was a Mother Goose rhyme but recently after seeing a darling little girl with curly hair I did some research and found out that in fact it's a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem.

The rest of the poem goes like this:

   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.