A Child's Garden of Verses

THIS EBOOK WAS ONE OF PROJECT GUTENBERG'S EARLY FILES PRODUCED AT A TIME WHEN PROOFING METHODS AND TOOLS WERE NOT WELL DEVELOPED. THERE IS AN IMPROVED EDITION OF THIS TITLE WHICH MAY BE VIEWED AT EBOOK (#28722)
A Child's Garden of Verses
Robert Louis Stevenson
To Alison Cunningham
From Her Boy
For the long nights you lay awake And watched for my unworthy sake: For your most comfortable hand That led me through the uneven land: For all the story-books you read: For all the pains you comforted:
For all you pitied, all you bore, In sad and happy days of yore:— My second Mother, my first Wife, The angel of my infant life— From the sick child, now well and old, Take, nurse, the little book you hold!
And grant it, Heaven, that all who read May find as dear a nurse at need, And every child who lists my rhyme, In the bright, fireside, nursery clime, May hear it in as kind a voice As made my childish days rejoice!
Contents
To Alison Cunningham
I Bed in Summer II A Thought III At the Sea-Side IV Young Night-Thought V Whole Duty of Children VI Rain VII Pirate Story VIII Foreign Lands IX Windy Nights X Travel XI Singing XII Looking Forward XIII A Good Play XIV Where Go the Boats? XV Auntie's Skirts XVI The Land of Counterpane XVII The Land of Nod XVIII My Shadow XIX System XX A Good Boy XXI Escape at Bedtime XXII Marching Song XXIII The Cow XXIV The Happy Thought XXV The Wind XXVI Keepsake Mill XXVII Good and Bad Children XXVIII Foreign Children XXIX The Sun Travels XXX The Lamplighter XXXI My Bed is a Boat XXXII The Moon XXXIII The Swing XXXIV Time to Rise XXXV Looking-Glass River XXXVI Fairy Bread XXXVII From a Railway Carriage XXXVIII Winter-Time XXXIX The Hayloft XL Farewell to the Farm XLI North-West Passage 1. Good-Night 2. Shadow March 3. In Port