A Child's Garden of Verses

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.

      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's 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
            1.  Good-Night
            2.  Shadow March
            3.  In Port

   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

   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

  I  To Willie and Henrietta
 II  To My Mother
III  To Auntie
 IV  To Minnie
  V  To My Name-Child
 VI  To Any Reader