As I Was Going to St. Ives

This is a fun little riddle/rhyme from The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang. You can find out more at Wikipedia, which explains that while the answer is only ONE was going to St. Ives (the speaker), but if the creatures that person met were all added up it would be: 2,802, i.e., the narrator, the man and his seven wives, 49 sacks, 343 cats, and 2,401 kittens!

So, this one looks like a math riddle, but it's really a gotcha riddle!

The rhyme is classified as Roud 19772. 

AS I WAS GOING TO ST. IVES

As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives;
Every wife had seven sacks,
Every sack had seven cats,
Every cat had seven kits:
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives.
How many were there going to St. Ives?

(Heart of Oak Books)

(Arthur Rackham)