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!

R. L. S.

THE ORIGINAL

TITLE PAGE

FOR

A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES

BY

JESSIE WILLCOX SMITH

A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES ROBERT LOVIS STEVENSON WITH ILLVSTRATIONS BY JESSIE WILLCOX SMITH

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK MCMV

CONTENTS

TO ALISON CUNNINGHAM vii

BED IN SUMMER 3

A THOUGHT 4

AT THE SEA-SIDE 5

YOUNG NIGHT-THOUGHT 6

WHOLE DUTY OF CHILDREN 7

RAIN 7

PIRATE STORY 8

FOREIGN LANDS 9

WINDY NIGHTS 10

TRAVEL 11

SINGING 13

LOOKING FORWARD 14

A GOOD PLAY 15

WHERE GO THE BOATS? 16

AUNTIE'S SKIRTS 17

THE LAND OF COUNTERPANE 18

THE LAND OF NOD 19

MY SHADOW 20

SYSTEM 22

A GOOD BOY 23

ESCAPE AT BEDTIME 24

MARCHING SONG 25

THE COW 26

HAPPY THOUGHT 27

THE WIND 28

KEEPSAKE MILL 29

GOOD AND BAD CHILDREN 31

FOREIGN CHILDREN 33

THE SUN TRAVELS 35

THE LAMPLIGHTER 36

MY BED IS A BOAT 37

THE MOON 39

THE SWING 40

TIME TO RISE 41

LOOKING-GLASS RIVER 42

FAIRY BREAD 44

FROM A RAILWAY CARRIAGE 45

WINTER-TIME 46

THE HAYLOFT 47

FAREWELL TO THE FARM 49

NORTH-WEST PASSAGE 50

1. Good-Night 50

2. Shadow March 51

3. In Port 52

THE CHILD ALONE

THE UNSEEN PLAYMATE 57

MY SHIP AND I 59

MY KINGDOM 61

PICTURE-BOOKS IN WINTER 63

MY TREASURES 65

BLOCK CITY 67

THE LAND OF STORY-BOOKS 69

ARMIES IN THE FIRE 71

THE LITTLE LAND 73

GARDEN DAYS

NIGHT AND DAY 79

NEST EGGS 82

THE FLOWERS 84

SUMMER SUN 86

THE DUMB SOLDIER 87

AUTUMN FIRES 89

THE GARDENER 90

HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS 92

ENVOYS

TO WILLIE AND HENRIETTA 97

TO MY MOTHER 98

TO AUNTIE 99

TO MINNIE 100

TO MY NAME-CHILD 103

TO ANY READER 105

ILLUSTRATIONS

FROM DRAWINGS IN COLOR BY JESSIE WILLCOX SMITH

FACING PAGE

BED IN SUMMER 4

In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light.

FOREIGN LANDS 10

I held the trunk with both my hands And looked abroad on foreign lands.

THE LAND OF COUNTERPANE 18

I was the giant great and still That sits upon the pillow-hill,

MY SHADOW 20

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see; I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

FOREIGN CHILDREN 34

Little Indian, Sioux or Crow, Little frosty Eskimo, Little Turk or Japanee, Oh! don't you wish that you were me?

LOOKING-GLASS RIVER 42

We can see our coloured faces Floating on the shaken pool

THE HAYLOFT 48

Oh, what a joy to clamber there, Oh, what a place for play, With the sweet, the dim, the dusty air, The happy hills of hay!

NORTH-WEST PASSAGE 50

And face with an undaunted tread The long black passage up to bed.

PICTURE-BOOKS IN WINTER 64

Water now is turned to stone Nurse and I can walk upon; Still we find the flowing brooks In the picture story-books.

THE LITTLE LAND 74

I have just to shut my eyes To go sailing through the skies— To go sailing far away To the pleasant Land of Play;

THE FLOWERS 84

All the names I know from nurse: Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse, Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock, And the Lady Hollyhock.

TO AUNTIE 100

What did the other children do? And what were childhood, wanting you?

A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES

Bed in Summer

In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer, quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see The birds still hopping on the tree, Or hear the grown-up people's feet Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you, When all the sky is clear and blue, And I should like so much to play, To have to go to bed by day?

A Thought

It is very nice to think The world is full of meat and drink, With little children saying grace In every Christian kind of place.

At the Sea-side

When I was down beside the sea A wooden spade they gave to me To dig the sandy shore.

My holes were empty like a cup. In every hole the sea came up, Till it could come no more.

Young Night-thought

All night long and every night, When my mama puts out the light, I see the people marching by, As plain as day, before my eye.

Armies and emperors and kings, All carrying different kinds of things, And marching in so grand a way, You never saw the like by day.

So fine a show was never seen At the great circus on the green; For every kind of beast and man Is marching in that caravan.

At first they move a little slow, But still the faster on they go, And still beside them close I keep Until we reach the town of Sleep.

Whole Duty of Children

A child should always say what's true And speak when he is spoken to, And behave mannerly at table; At least as far as he is able.

Rain

The rain is raining all around, It falls on field and tree, It rains on the umbrellas here, And on the ships at sea.

Pirate Story

Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing, Three of us aboard in the basket on the lea. Winds are in the air, they are blowing in the spring, And waves are on the meadow like the waves there are at sea.

Where shall we adventure, to-day that we're afloat, Wary of the weather and steering by a star? Shall it be to Africa, a-steering of the boat, To Providence, or Babylon, or off to Malabar?

Hi! but here's a squadron a-rowing on the sea— Cattle on the meadow a-charging with a roar! Quick, and we'll escape them, they're as mad as they can be, The wicket is the harbour and the garden is the shore.

Foreign Lands

Up into the cherry tree Who should climb but little me? I held the trunk with both my hands And looked abroad on foreign lands.

I saw the next door garden lie, Adorned with flowers, before my eye, And many pleasant places more That I had never seen before.

I saw the dimpling river pass And be the sky's blue looking-glass; The dusty roads go up and down With people tramping in to town.

If I could find a higher tree Farther and farther I should see, To where the grown-up river slips Into the sea among the ships,

To where the roads on either hand Lead onward into fairy land, Where all the children dine at five, And all the playthings come alive.

Windy Nights

Whenever the moon and stars are set, Whenever the wind is high, All night long in the dark and wet, A man goes riding by. Late in the night when the fires are out, Why does he gallop and gallop about?

Whenever the trees are crying aloud, And ships are tossed at sea, By, on the highway, low and loud, By at the gallop goes he. By at the gallop he goes, and then By he comes back at the gallop again.