Open Sesame/As I Was Going to St. Ives (from Sesame Street)

Cast

 * Prairie Dawn's Purple Book as Purple Anything Muppet boy
 * Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book as Green Anything Muppet girl

Lyrics
Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: Hi, there. Hey, listen, do you know what this is?

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: Yes, that's a seven.

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: Right. Well, I'm gonna sing a song that has lots of seven in it, see? And when I'm finished, I have a riddle for you, okay?

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: Okay.

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives.

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: You met a man with seven wives?

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: And every wife had seven sacks. Every sack had seven cats, Every cat had seven kittens: Kittens, cats, sacks, and wives, How many were going to St. Ives?

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: You mean how many were going to St. Ives?

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: (singing) How many were going to St. Ives? (spoken) Okay, that's the riddle. How many were going to St. Ives?

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: Oh, oh, boy. Are you kidding? See, you sang that song so fast, I can't add all those sevens so fast.

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: Okay, well, I tell you what I'm gonna do.

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: What?

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: I'll sing the song once more. And then you have to answer it, okay?

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: Oh, okay. I'll figure out on some paper here.

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives.

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: You met a man with seven wives. I know that.

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: And every wife had seven sacks. ( Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: Seven sacks. ) Every sack had seven cats, ( Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: Seven cats. ) Every cat had seven kittens: ( Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: Seven kittens. ) Kittens, cats, sacks, and wives, ( Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: Kittens, cats, seven wives. ) How many were going to St. Ives?

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: Yeah. That's the question. How many were going to St. Ives, huh?

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: How many were going to St. Ives?

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: Okay, well, seventeen cats and seven-hundred...that's seven carried the two and then ninety-nine sacks.

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: Okay, that's, that's, that's the riddle. That's the riddle. And how many were going to St. Ives? You have to answer now.

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: I'm still figuring. Ninety-nine cats, seventy-eight wives...

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: No, no, no. You give up?

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: Well, no, I don't have time to figure, you see.

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: No, your time is up! And the answer is, the answer is one.

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: One?

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: One. Just me. See, I said as I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. You see, the man has seven wives and all of those people were going the other way. See, the riddle was how many were going to St. Ives and I was the only one going to St. Ives because all the others were going the other way.

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: How many?

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: What?

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: How many were going the other way?

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: Well, gee, I never thought about that. That's not part of the riddle.

Oscar's Bridge to Reading Book: 1 man, 7 wives, 49 sacks, 343 cats, 2,401 kittens. That makes 2,801 that were going the other way. Hmm.

Prairie Dawn's Purple Book: How about that?