how much wiser you would be
To play at Indian wars with me!]

A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES

BY

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

_ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY_

MARIA L. KIRK

[Illustration]

PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

ILLUSTRATIONS COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.

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

PAGE
I. BED IN SUMMER 15

II. A THOUGHT 17

III. AT THE SEASIDE 18

IV. YOUNG NIGHT THOUGHT 19

V. WHOLE DUTY OF CHILDREN 21

VI. RAIN 22

VII. PIRATE STORY 23

VIII. FOREIGN LANDS 25

IX. WINDY NIGHTS 29

X. TRAVEL 30

XI. SINGING 34

XII. LOOKING FORWARD 35

XIII. A GOOD PLAY 36

XIV. WHERE GO THE BOATS? 38

XV. AUNTIE'S SKIRTS 40

XVI. THE LAND OF COUNTERPANE 41

XVII. THE LAND OF NOD 43

XVIII. MY SHADOW 45

XIX. SYSTEM 49