Volume I Part 39 (2/2)

MY BED IS A BOAT

My bed is like a little boat; Nurse helps me in when I embark; She girds me in my sailor's coat And starts me in the dark.

At night, I go on board and say Good night to all my friends on sh.o.r.e; I shut my eyes and sail away And see and hear no more.

And sometimes things to bed I take, As prudent sailors have to do; Perhaps a slice of wedding-cake, Perhaps a toy or two.

All night across the dark we steer; But when the day returns at last, Safe in my room, beside the pier, I find my vessel fast.

Robert Louis Stevenson [1850-1894]

THE PEDDLER'S CARAVAN

I wish I lived in a caravan, With a horse to drive, like a peddler-man!

Where he comes from n.o.body knows, Or where he goes to, but on he goes!

His caravan has windows two, And a chimney of tin, that the smoke comes through; He has a wife, with a baby brown, And they go riding from town to town.

Chairs to mend, and delf to sell!

He clashes the basins like a bell; Tea-trays, baskets ranged in order, Plates, with alphabets round the border!

The roads are brown, and the sea is green, But his house is like a bathing-machine; The world is round, and he can ride, Rumble and slash, to the other side!

With the peddler-man I should like to roam, And write a book when I came home; All the people would read my book, Just like the Travels of Captain Cook!

William Brighty Rands [1823-1882]

MR. COGGS

A watch will tell the time of day, Or tell it nearly, any way, Excepting when it's overwound, Or when you drop it on the ground.

If any of our watches stop, We haste to Mr. Coggs's shop; For though to scold us he pretends, He's quite among our special friends.

He fits a dice-box in his eye, And takes a long and thoughtful spy, And prods the wheels, and says, ”Dear, dear!

More carelessness, I greatly fear.”

And then he lays the dice-box down And frowns a most prodigious frown; But if we ask him what's the time, He'll make his gold repeater chime.

Edward Verrall Lucas [1868-

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