To Alison Cunningham from R.L. Stevenson

From the dedication by RL Stevenson in his A Child's Garden of Verses to his childhood nanny.



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 bright, fireside, nursery clime,

May hear it in as kind a voice

As made my childish days rejoice.