Produced by Juliet Sutherland Christine D. and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: "Where the golden apples grow."] [Illustration] A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: ILLUSTRATED BY MILLICENT SOWERBY PHILADELPHIA DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER 604-8 So. Washington Square 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. A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES 1 THE CHILD ALONE 71 GARDEN DAYS 93 ENVOYS 113 A CHILD'S GARDEN PAGE. I. BED IN SUMMER 3 II. A THOUGHT 4 III. AT THE SEASIDE 5 IV. YOUNG NIGHT THOUGHT 6 V. WHOLE DUTY OF CHILDREN 7 VI. RAIN 8 VII. PIRATE STORY 9 VIII. FOREIGN LANDS 11 IX. WINDY NIGHTS 13 X. TRAVEL 14 XI. SINGING 17 XII. LOOKING FORWARD 18 XIII. A GOOD PLAY 19 XIV. WHERE GO THE BOATS? 20 XV. AUNTIE'S SKIRTS 22 XVI. THE LAND OF COUNTERPANE 23 XVII. THE LAND OF NOD 25