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 shore;
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….”

Illustrations by E. (Ethel) Mars and M. H. (Maud Hunt) Squire, “A Child’s Garden of Verses” by Robert Louis Stevenson.