Robert Louis Stevenson gives an everyday Victorian job a touch of wonder here: the lamplighter, nicknamed Leerie, who went street to street lighting gas lamps by hand each evening. The steady rhythm and the small wish to grow up and join him make it a lovely one to read at teatime.
From A Child's Garden of Verses. See the whole collection.
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!
Public domain. Text from A Child's Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition