In the great and busy city where the East and West are met, All the little letters did the English printer set; While you thought of nothing, and were still too young to play, Foreign people thought of you in places far away. Ay, and while you slept, a baby, over all the English lands Other little children took the volume in their hands; Other children questioned, in their homes across the seas: Who was little Louis, won't you tell us, mother, please? 2 Now that you have spelt your lesson, lay it down and go and play, Seeking shells and seaweed on the sands of Monterey, Watching all the mighty whalebones, lying buried by the breeze, Tiny sandpipers, and the huge Pacific seas. And remember in your playing, as the sea-fog rolls to you, Long ere you could read it, how I told you what to do; And that while you thought of no one, nearly half the world away Some one thought of Louis on the beach of Monterey! [Illustration] [Illustration] TO ANY READER As from the house your mother sees You playing round the garden trees, So you may see, if you will look Through the windows of this book, Another child, far, far away, And in another garden, play. But do not think you can at all, By knocking on the window, call That child to hear you. He intent Is all on his play-business bent. He does not hear; he will not look, Nor yet be lured out of this book. For, long ago, the truth to say, He has grown up and gone away, And it is but a child of air That lingers in the garden there. THE SCRIBNER ILLUSTRATED CLASSICS THE ARABIAN NIGHTS Edited by KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN _Illustrated by Maxfield Parrish_ THE STORY OF ROLAND by JAMES BALDWIN _Illustrated by Peter Hurd_ THE STORY OF SIEGFRIED by JAMES BALDWIN _Illustrated by Peter Hurd_ DRUMS by JAMES BOYD _Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth_ A LITTLE PRINCESS by FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT _Illustrated by Ethel Franklin Betts_ THE DEERSLAYER by JAMES FENIMORE COOPER _Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth_ THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS by JAMES FENIMORE COOPER _Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth_ ROBIN HOOD by PAUL CRESWICK _Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth_ THE ENCHANTED BOOK Edited by ALICE DALGLIESH _Illustrated by Concetta Cacciola_ ROBINSON CRUSOE by DANIEL DEFOE _Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth_ THE CHILDREN OF DICKENS by CHARLES DICKENS Edited by Samuel McChord Crothers _Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith_ HANS BRINKER by MARY MAPES DODGE _Illustrated by George W. Edwards_ POEMS OF CHILDHOOD by EUGENE FIELD _Illustrated by Maxfield Parrish_ THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME by JOHN FOX, JR. _Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth_ GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES _Illustrated by Elenore Abbott_