It works for me. I'd recommend you use strict and warnings and put a "\n" at the end of the string you print.

use strict;
use warnings;

my $fnord = 23;
my $blee = "The magic number is $fnord.";
print "$blee\n";
__END__
The magic number is 23.
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With the "\n" on there, it will have a line break between its output and the prompt when you run it.