the rain-pool sea to float.

Little thoughtful creatures sit
On the grassy coasts of it;
Little things with lovely eyes
See me sailing with surprise.
Some are clad in armour green--
(These have sure to battle been!)
Some are pied with ev'ry hue,
Black and crimson, gold and blue;
Some have wings and swift are gone:--
But they all look kindly on.

When my eyes I once again
Open and see all things plain;
High bare walls, great bare floor;
Great big knobs on drawer and door;
Great big people perched on chairs,
Stitching tucks and mending tears,
Each a hill that I could climb,
And talking nonsense all the time--
O dear me,
That I could be
A sailor on the rain-pool sea,
A climber in the clover-tree,
And just come back, a sleepy-head,
Late at night to go to bed.

Robert Louis Stevenson.

FOOTNOTE:

[A] _From "A Child's Garden of Verses." By permission of Charles
Scribner's Sons._

_In a Garden_

Baby, see the flowers!
Baby sees
Fairer things than these,
Fairer though they be than dreams of ours.
Baby, hear the birds!
Baby knows
Better songs than those,
Sweeter though they sound than sweetest words.

Baby, see the moon!
Baby's eyes
Laugh to watch it rise,
Answering light with love and night with noon.

Baby, hear the sea!
Baby's face
Takes a graver grace,
Touched with wonder what the sound may be.

Baby, see the star!
Baby's hand
Opens, warm and bland,
Calm in claim of all things fair that are.

Baby, hear the bells!
Baby's head
Bows as ripe for bed,
Now the flowers curl round and close their cells.

Baby, flower of light,
Sleep and see
Brighter dreams than we,
Till good day shall smile away good night.

Algernon Charles Swinburne

_Little Gustava_

I

Little Gustava sits in the sun,
Safe in the porch, and the little drops run
From the icicles under the eaves so fast,
For the bright spring sun shines warm at last,
And glad is little Gust