Robert Louis Stevenson – The Complete Collection

Chapter 1

Robert Louis Stevenson – The Complete Collection

A Childs Garden of Verses

A Christmas Sermon

A Footnote to History

Across The Plains

An Inland Voyage

Ballads

Catriona

David Balfour

Edinburgh Picturesque Notes

Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson

Essays of Travel

Fables

Familiar Studies of Men & Books

Father Damien

In the South Seas

Island Nights' Entertainments

Kidnapped

Lay Morals

Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson vol 1

Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson vol 2

Master of Ballantrae

Masterpieces of Mystery in Four Volumes

Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin

Memories and Portraits

Moral Emblems

New Arabian Nights

New Poems

Plays of Henley and RL Stevenson

Prayers Written at Vailima

Prince Otto

Records of a Family of Engineers

Scribners Stories by English Authors in France

Songs of Travel

St Ives

Stories by English Authors

Tales and Fantasies

The Art of Writing

The Black Arrow

The Body-Snatcher

The Dynamiter

The Ebb-Tide

The Merry Men

The Pocket

The Sea Fogs

The Silverado Squatters

The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

The Waif Woman

The Wrecker

The Wrong Box

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne

Treasure Island

Underwoods

Vailima Letters

Virginibus Puerisque

Walter Raleigh

Weir of Hermiston

A Child's Garden of Verses

by

Robert Louis Stevenson

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

Good-Night Shadow March In PortThe 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

I

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 people's 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?

II

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.

III

At the Sea-Side

When I was down beside the sea

A wooden spade they gave to me

To dig the sandy shore.

My holes were empty like a cup.

In every hole the sea came up,

Till it could come no more.

IV

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 emperor 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.

As first they move a little slow ,

But still the faster on they go,

And still beside me close I keep

Until we reach the town of Sleep.

V

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.

VI

Rain

The rain is falling all around,

It falls on field and tree ,

It rains on the umbrellas here,

And on the ships at sea.

VII

Pirate Story

Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing,

Three of us abroad 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 harbour and the garden is the shore.

VIII

Foreign Lands

Up into the cherry tree

Who should climb but little me?

I held the trunk with both my hands

And looked abroad in 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.

IX

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?

Whenever the trees are crying aloud,

And ships are tossed at sea ,

By, on the highway, low and loud,

By at the gallop goes he.

By at the gallop he goes, and then

By he comes back at the gallop again.

X

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 the voice and bell 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 n***o 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 the 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.

XI

Singing

Of speckled eggs the birdie sings

And nests among the trees ;

The sailor sings of ropes and things

In ships upon the seas.

The children sing in far Japan,

The children sing in Spain ;

The organ with the organ man

Is singing in the rain.

XII

Looking Forward

When I am grown to man's estate

I shall be very proud and great ,

And tell the other girls and boys

Not to meddle with my toys.

XIII

A Good Play

We built a ship upon the stairs

All made of the back-bedroom chairs ,

And filled it full of sofa pillows

To go a-sailing on the billows.

We took a saw and several nails ,

And water in the nursery pails;

And Tom said, "Let us also take

An apple and a slice of cake;"--

Which was enough for Tom and me

To go a-sailing on, till tea.

We sailed along for days and days ,

And had the very best of plays;

But Tom fell out and hurt his knee,

So there was no one left but me.

XIV

Where Go the Boats?

Dark brown is the river,

Golden is the sand.

It flows along for ever,

With trees on either hand.

Green leaves a-floating,

Castles of the foam ,

Boats of mine a-boating--

Where will all come home?

On goes the river

And out past the mill ,

Away down the valley,

Away down the hill.

Away down the river,

A hundred miles or more ,

Other little children

Shall bring my boats ashore.

XV

Auntie's Skirts

Whenever Auntie moves around ,

Her dresses make a curious sound,

They trail behind her up the floor,

And trundle after through the door.

XVI

The Land of Counterpane

When I was sick and lay a-bed,

I had two pillows at my head,

And all my toys beside me lay,

To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so

I watched my leaden soldiers go ,

With different uniforms and drills,

Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets

All up and down among the sheets;

Or brought my trees and houses out,

And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still

That sits upon the pillow-hill ,

And sees before him, dale and plain,

The pleasant land of counterpane.

XVII

The Land of Nod

From breakfast on through all the day

At home among my friends I stay ,

But every night I go abroad

Afar into the land of Nod.

All by myself I have to go ,

With none to tell me what to do--

All alone beside the streams

And up the mountain-sides of dreams.

The strangest things are these for me ,

Both things to eat and things to see,

And many frightening sights abroad

Till morning in the land of Nod.

Try as I like to find the way ,

I never can get back by day,

Nor can remember plain and clear

The curious music that I hear.

XVIII

My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me ,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head ;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow; For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india -rubber ball, And he sometimes goes so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play ,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close behind me, he's a coward you can see ;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!