MY SHIP AND I

IT'S I that am the captain of a tidy

O little ship,

Of a ship that goes a-sailing on the pond; And my ship it keeps a-turning all around and all about;

But when I'm a little older, I shall find the secret out

How to send my vessel sailing on beyond.

For I mean to grow as little as the dolly at the helm,

And the dolly I intend to come alive; And with him beside to help me, it's a-sailing

I shall go,

It's a-sailing on the water, when the jolly breezes blow

And the vessel goes a divie-divie-dive.

O it's then you'll see me sailing through the rushes and the reeds,

And you'll hear the water singing at the

prow;

For beside the dolly sailor, I'm to voyage

and explore,

To land upon the island where no dolly was before,

And to fire the penny cannon in the bow.

MY KINGDOM

OWN by a shining water well

Do

I found a very little dell,

No higher than my head.

The heather and the gorse about
In summer bloom were coming out,
Some yellow and some red.

I called the little pool a sea;
The little hills were big to me;
For I am very small.

I made a boat, I made a town,
I searched the caverns up and down,
And named them one and all.

And all about was mine, I said,
The little sparrows overhead,
The little minnows too.

This was the world and I was king;
For me the bees came by to sing,
For me the swallows flew.

I played there were no deeper seas, Nor any wider plains than these, Nor other kings than me.

At last I heard my mother call
Out from the house at evenfall,
To call me home to tea.

And I must rise and leave my dell, And leave my dimpled water well, And leave my heather blooms. Alas! and as my home I neared, How very big my nurse appeared, How great and cool the rooms!

PICTURE-BOOKS IN WINTER

UMMER fading, winter comes -
Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs,
Window robins, winter rooks,
And the picture story-books.

Water now is turned to stone
Nurse and I can walk upon;
Still we find the flowing brooks
In the picture story-books.

All the pretty things put by,
Wait upon the children's eye,
Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks,
In the picture story-books.

We may see how all things are,
Seas and cities, near and far,
And the flying fairies' looks,
In the picture story-books.

How am I to sing your praise,
Happy chimney-corner days,
Sitting safe in nursery nooks,
Reading picture story-books?