A short grumble about the trials of arithmetic, from multiplication to the Rule of Three. More a wry aside than a story, and a nice way to make maths sound less lonely.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
Multiplication is vexation,
Division is as bad;
The Rule of Three doth puzzle me,
And Practice drives me mad.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition