_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.