A Child's Garden of Verses Page 01
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.
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
The Child Alone
I The Unseen Playmate
II My Ship and I
III My Kingdom
IV Picture-Books in Winter
V My Treasures
VI Block City
VII The Land of Story-Books
VIII Armies in the Fire
IX The Little Land
Garden Days
I Night and Day
II Nest Eggs
III The Flowers
IV Summer Sun
V The Dumb Soldier
VI Autumn Fires
VII The Gardener
VIII Historical Associations
Envoys
I To Willie and Henrietta
II To My Mother
III To Auntie
IV To Minnie
V To My Name-Child
VI To Any Reader
A Child's Garden of Verses