poem "Smart" (Shel Silverstein)

From the book Where the sidewalk ends (1974).

Text

My dad gave me one dollar bill

'Cause I'm his smartest son,

And I swapped it for two shiny quarters

'Cause two is more then one!

And then I took the quarters

And traded them to Lou

For three times - I guess he don't know

That three is more then two!

Just then, along came old blind Bates

And just 'cause he can't see

He gave me four nickles for my three dimes,

And four is more then three!

And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs

Down at the seed-feed store,

And the fool gave me five pennies for them,

And five is more then four!

And then I went and showed my dad,

And he got red in the cheeks

And closed his eyes and shook his head -

Too proud of me to speak!