Sunday Scribblings-Bed

When I was sick and lay a-bed

I had two pillows at my head

And all my toys beside me lay

To keep me happy all the day.

Robert Louis Stevenson, The Land Of Counterpane

As a child, I was often sick - not with anything really serious, but I was prone to recurring bouts of bronchitis and asthma. My mother tended to be overprotective, and would put me to bed at the first sign of a sniffle. This was one of my favorite poems, because it helped me to imagine my bed as a place of adventure, rather than confinement. I too could "send my ships in fleets all up and down among the sheets," or "bring my trees and houses out and plant cities all about." I never resented the time I spent in bed, even if my friends were outside playing, when I was able to create adventures in my very own "pleasant Land of Counterpane."