Read Ebook: A Child's Garden of Verses by Stevenson Robert Louis Gutmann Bessie Pease Illustrator

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Ebook has 384 lines and 19774 words, and 8 pages

Singing 24

Summer Sun 92

Sun's Travels, The 36

Swing, The 46

System 26

Thought, A opposite 10

Time to Rise " 47

To Any Reader 110

To Auntie 103

To Minnie 104

To My Mother 102

To My Name-Child 108

To Willie and Henrietta 101

Travel 18

Unseen Playmate, The 65

Where Go The Boats? 20

Whole Duty of Children 13

Wind, The 34

Windy Nights 17

Winter-Time 52

Young Night Thought 12

A Child's Garden of Verses

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.

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 peoples' 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?

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.

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 harbor 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?

TRAVEL

I should like to rise and go Where the golden apples grow;-- Where below another sky Parrot islands anchored lie, And, watched by cockatoos and goats, Lonely Crusoes building boats;-- Where in sunshine reaching out Eastern cities, miles about, Are with mosque and minaret Among sandy gardens set, And the rich goods from near and far Hang for sale in the bazaar;-- Where the Great Wall round China goes, And on one side the desert blows, And with bell and voice and drum, Cities on the other hum;-- Where are forests, hot as fire, Wide as England, tall as a spire, Full of apes and cocoa-nuts And the negro hunters' huts;-- Where the knotty crocodile Lies and blinks in the Nile,

And the red flamingo flies Hunting fish before his eyes;-- Where in jungles, near and far, Man-devouring tigers are, Lying close and giving ear Lest the hunt be drawing near, Or a comer-by be seen Swinging in a palanquin;-- Where among the desert sands Some deserted city stands, All its children, sweep and prince, Grown to manhood ages since; Not a foot in street or house, Not a stir of child or mouse, And when kindly falls the night, In all the town no spark of light. There I'll come when I'm a man With a camel caravan; Light a fire in the gloom Of some dusty dining-room; See the pictures on the walls, Heroes, fights and festivals; And in a corner find the toys Of the old Egyptian boys.

WHERE GO THE BOATS?

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