Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–1894). A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods. 1913.
7. The Land of Story-books
A
Around the fire my parents sit;
They sit at home and talk and sing,
And do not play at anything.
All in the dark along the wall,
And follow round the forest track
Away behind the sofa back.
All in my hunter’s camp I lie,
And play at books that I have read
Till it is time to go to bed.
These are my starry solitudes;
And there the river by whose brink
The roaring lions come to drink.
As if in firelit camp they lay,
And I, like to an Indian scout,
Around their party prowled about.
Home I return across the sea,
And go to bed with backward looks
At my dear land of Story-books.