A Good Play

  We built a ship upon the stairs   All made of the back-bedroom chairs,   And filled it full of sofa pillows   To go a-sailing on the billows.   We took a saw and several nails,   And water in the nursery pails;   And Tom said, "Let us also take   An apple and a slice of cake;"    Which was enough for Tom and me   To go a-sailing on, till tea.   We sailed along for days and days,   And had the very best of plays;   But Tom fell out and hurt his knee,   So there was no one left but me. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON