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

XXVI 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

     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