~My Kingdom~

Down by a shining water well 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!

~Robert Louis Stevenson~ (A Child's Garden of Verses)