Robert Louis Stevenson

A Child's Garden of Verses Robert Louis Stevenson

In winter I get up at nightAnd 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 seeThe birds still hopping on the tree, Or hear the grown-up people's feetStill 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?It is very nice to thinkThe world is full of meat and drink, With little children saying graceIn every Christian kind of place. When I was down beside the seaA wooden spade they gave to meTo dig the sandy shore. My holes were empty like a cup. In every hole the sea came up, Till it could come no more. 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 seenAt the great circus on the green; For every kind of beast and manIs marching in that caravan. At first they move a little slow, But still the faster on they go, And still beside them close I keepUntil we reach the town of Sleep. A child should always say what's trueAnd speak when he is spoken to, And behave mannerly at table; At least as far as he is able. RAINThe rain is raining all around, It falls on field and tree, It rains on the umbrellas here, And on the ships at sea. 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