We went to the four-legged zoo
To visit our four-footed friends
Lions and tigers, cats and dogs
A goat and a cow and a couple o' hogs
A rhinoceros, and of course a hippopotamus
And, oh yes, a horse!
There were elk and bison, a gnu or two
Giraffes and elephants, quite a few
A llama, alpaca, vicuna too
Zebras, ibexes, and one big kudu
It was swell, I liked the gazelle
Now Miss Simpson said -
She teaches school, you know -
Yeah, she took us there
Well, Miss Simpson said
If we counted every head on these quadrupeds
Then multiplied that number by four
We'd know how many feet went through the door
If we turned them all loose
Oh no, don't do that!
It's really a groovy zoo
But, anyway, what Miss Simpson said
It was a good chance to work on our fours in our head
One, two, three, four!
I'll take a lion . . . (one times four)
He's got four legs and maybe a roar
Give me two camels . . . that's two times four
Eight legs walking across the desert floor
A tiger and a lamb and a fat kudu
Would be three times four (equals twelve legs too)
But we might have to subtract
When that tiger was through! (Rowr!)
Four four-footed friends, no matter who
Would have 16 legs, and it's always true
That four times four equals 16
And five times four is 20
Now a coach and six, if you were Cinderella
Would have you home by midnight
If those 24 legs ran fast as lightning
Six times four equals 24 and seven times four equals 28
Anyone knows that, who cares about seven
And eight antelope have 32 legs because eight times four is 32
Here come a small herd of buffalo
They say they're getting extinct, you know
I can count nine - that's 36 legs
Nine times four equals 36
Here comes a baby buffalo
That's good! That's ten!
And ten times four, you know, is 40
Eleven coyotes . . . (eleven times four)
Went slinking over the prairie floor
On all of their legs
Equals 44
Now twelve times four is as high as we go
Twelve times four equals 48
But there were so very, very, many, many more
Animals standing there by the gate
But we'd have to use a pencil if we counted them all
And we really had fun
And we saw every one
A bear, a cougar, a jackal, a yak
A fox, some deer, and a sweet giraffe
And I can't remember how many, many more
But we multiplied them all by four
And some of them thanked us with a roar