A Child's Garden of Verses
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_A
Child's
Garden
of Verses_
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
_Illustrated by
Jessie Willcox Smith_
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, _New York_
Copyright, 1905, By CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any form without the
permission of Charles Scribner's Sons
DD-3.64[H]
Reset March 1955
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,