_Oh, beautiful country of Make-Believe,_ _Where in childhood I learned to play!_ _I’m not bound fast to a bed—not I!_ _Nor racked with pain till I want to cry:_ _I’m over the hills and away!_ _Poor body that lies here and cannot sleep,_ _I’m sorry to leave you so;_ _But the children are calling from far away;_ _In Make-Believe, where it’s time to play,_ _And you can’t walk, you know._ _I fly on the wings of thought, myself,_ _While the wind shrieks behind me “Wait!”_ _For he never can fly as fast as thought,_ _And, he howls because he thinks he ought;—_ _But here I am at the gate._ _No narrow, smothering walls for me,_ _Nor life shut in from the sky,_ _When Make-Believe is all outdoors,_ _With beautiful grass instead of floors,_ _And to reach it one needs but try._ _There is ice back there; but in Make-Believe_ _There’s just what you happen to choose:_ _Soft spring-time colors with silver sheen,_ _Or cool wood-reaches of summer green,_ _Or the sparkle of autumn dews._ _Oh, the woodland rambles in Make-Believe!_ _The fields where daisies grow!_ _The level light on the evening hills,_ _The wild bird-song that leaps and thrills,_ _And the rose of the sunset’s glow!_ _How the children chatter in Make-Believe,_ _Just as at home they do!_ _How close they cuddle, with laugh and kiss,_ _To tell their secrets, nor ever miss_ _Aught else if they have but you!_ _All the people you love are in Make-Believe,_ _The living, and those called dead;_ _And all the people you’d like to know—_ _The wise of the earth, both high and low,_ _And the heroes of days long fled._ _And they know what’s worth while in Make-Believe_ _That to give is the blessed way;_ _That courage, and laughter, and love, are wise;_ _That the sun shines back of the cloudiest skies;_ _That there’s end to the longest day._ _They talk of high things in Make-Believe,_ _And they love e’en the tiniest joke_ _And they take you sailing o’er land and sea;_ _And they’d know all the places you’d like to be_ _If never a word you spoke._ _But the sun is up in that wintry world;_ _And the nurse will put in her head_ _And ask, “Is the pain any better, my dear?_ _Did you sleep a little? The doctor’s here.”—_ _Well, so am I here——in bed!_