Part 1 — FOREIGN LANDS
Reading edition
Up into the cherry tree Who should climb but little me? I held the trunk with both my hands And looked abroad on foreign lands.
I saw the next door garden lie, Adorned with flowers, before my eye, And many pleasant places more That I had never seen before.
I saw the dimpling river pass And be the sky's blue looking-glass; The dusty roads go up and down With people tramping in to town.
If I could find a higher tree, Farther and farther I should see, To where the grown-up river slips Into the sea among the ships;
To where the roads on either hand Lead onward into fairy land, Where all the children dine at five, And all the playthings come alive.
Robert Louis Stevenson [1850-1894]