MY SHADOW

New Zealand Tablet, 7 September 1911, Page 1773

MY SHADOW

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, And what can be the use of him is more than I can see • * He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head, And I see him jump before me when I jump into my bed. The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow; For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india rubber ball, And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all. He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play, And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way; He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see, I’d think shame to stick to nursie as .that shadow sticks to me. One morning very early, before the sun was up, I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup; But my lazy little shadow, like an . arrant sleepy-head, Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed. 1 —Robert Louis Stevenson.