# The Lamplighter

- Source: A Child's Garden of Verses (child-garden.gutenberg.org), Public domain, Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885; pictures by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1905; via Project Gutenberg
- Reading level: Grades 1 and 2
- Subjects: Poems
- Topics: leerie, light, before, ladder, night, take
- Length: 139 words, about 1 min
- Original: <https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/25609/pg25609-images.html>
- Page: <https://sprout.rootsofreason.org/r/child-garden/s-35-the-lamplighter>
- Open in Sprouts: <https://sprout.rootsofreason.org/?read=child-garden/s-35-the-lamplighter>

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My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky.  
It's time to take the window to see Leerie going by;  
For every night at teatime and before you take your seat,  
With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.

Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,  
And my papa's a banker and as rich as he can be;  
But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I'm to do,  
O Leerie, I'll go round at night and light the lamps with you!

For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,  
And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;  
And oh! before you hurry by with ladder and with light;  
O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him tonight!

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## Picture credits

- Jessie Willcox Smith, Public domain (<https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/25609/pg25609-images.html>)
- Jessie Willcox Smith, Public domain (<https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/25609/pg25609-images.html>)