MY SHADOW

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 182, 22 October 1927, Page 27 (Supplement)

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. lie 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— Kot 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. lie 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. —Robert Louis Stevenson.