A Child s Garden of Verses

TO ALISON CUNNINGHAMFROM HER BOYFor the long nights you lay awakeAnd watched for my unworthy sake:For your most comfortable handThat 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 readMay find as dear a nurse at need,And every child who lists my rhyme,In the bright, fireside, nursery clime,May hear it in as kind a voiceAs made my childish days rejoice!