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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson, by
+Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson
+
+Author: Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2008 [EBook #24332]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Christine P. Travers and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all
+other inconsistencies are as in the original. Author's spelling has
+been maintained.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson during the English
+period.]
+
+
+
+
+                    THE LIFE OF
+
+            MRS. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+
+                        BY
+
+            NELLIE VAN DE GRIFT SANCHEZ
+
+
+                    ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+                      LONDON
+                 CHATTO & WINDUS
+                       1920
+
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1920, by Charles Scribner's Sons, for the
+  United States of America
+
+  Printed by the Scribner Press
+  New York, U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+                        TO
+                    ISOBEL FIELD
+
+             IN TOKEN OF OUR COMMON LOVE FOR
+       HER WHOSE LIFE STORY IS TOLD IN ITS PAGES
+                     THIS BOOK
+            IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+When I first set out to tell the life story of Mrs. Robert Louis
+Stevenson, I received the following letter from her old friend Mr.
+Bruce Porter:
+
+"Once when I urged your sister to set down the incidents of her life
+she listened, pondered, and then dismissed the suggestion as
+impossible, as her life had been like a dazed rush on a railroad
+express, and she despaired of recovering the incidental memories. The
+years with Stevenson have of course been adequately told, but the
+earlier period--Indianapolis and California--had a romance as
+stirring, even if sharpened by the American glare. This sharpness has
+already, for all of us, begun to fade, to take on the glamour of time
+and distance, and I cannot think of a better literary service than to
+make the fullest possible record now, before it utterly fades away."
+
+It was not only the difficulty of recalling events that caused her to
+resist all urgings to undertake this task, but a certain shy
+reluctance in speaking of herself that was characteristic of her. It
+has, therefore, fallen to me to collect the widely scattered material
+from various parts of the world and weave it into a coherent whole as
+best I may, but my regret will never cease that she did not herself
+tell her own story.
+
+It would take a more competent pen than mine to do her justice; but
+whoever reads this book from cover to cover will surely agree that no
+woman ever had a life of more varied experiences nor went through them
+all with a stauncher courage.
+
+It is right that I should acknowledge here my profound obligation to
+the kind friends who have generously placed their personal
+recollections at my disposal. These are more definitely referred to in
+the body of the book. Aside from these personal contributions, the
+main sources of material have been as follows:
+
+Ancestral genealogies, including _The Descendants of Joeran Kyn_, by
+Doctor Gregory B. Keen, secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical
+Society.
+
+Data concerning the genealogy of the Keen and Van de Grift families
+collected by Frederic Thomas, of New York, nephew of Mrs. Stevenson.
+
+Notes covering the life of Mrs. Stevenson up to the age of sixteen
+years, as dictated by herself.
+
+A collection of her own letters to friends and relatives.
+
+Letters to Mrs. Stevenson from friends.
+
+Extracts from various books and magazines, including _The Letters of
+Mrs. M. I. Stevenson_ (Methuen and Company, London); _The Life of
+Robert Louis Stevenson_, by Graham Balfour; _The Letters of Robert
+Louis Stevenson_, edited by Sidney Colvin; _Vailima Memories_, by
+Lloyd Osbourne and Isobel Osbourne Strong, now Mrs. Salisbury Field;
+_The Cruise of the Janet Nichol_, by Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson;
+_McClure's_, _Scribner's_, and the _Century_ magazines. Acknowledgment
+is due the publishers of the above books and periodicals for their
+courteous permissions.
+
+A diary kept by Mrs. Stevenson of her life in Samoa, for which I am
+indebted to the considerate kindness of Miss Gladys Peacock, an
+English lady, into whose hands the diary fell by accident.
+
+My own personal recollections.
+
+Above all, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to Mrs.
+Stevenson's daughter, Isobel Field, without whose unflagging zeal in
+forwarding the work it could scarcely have been carried to a
+successful conclusion, and to my son, Louis A. Sanchez, for valuable
+assistance in the actual writing of the book.
+
+                                        N. V. S.
+
+Berkeley, California, January, 1919.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                         PAGE
+
+     I. Ancestors                                                    1
+
+    II. Early Days in Indiana                                        9
+
+   III. On the Pacific Slope                                        26
+
+    IV. France, and the Meeting at Grez                             42
+
+     V. In California with Robert Louis Stevenson                   55
+
+    VI. Europe and the British Isles                                82
+
+   VII. Away to Sunnier Lands                                      124
+
+  VIII. The Happy Years in Samoa                                   167
+
+    IX. The Lonely Days of Widowhood                               226
+
+     X. Back To California                                         260
+
+    XI. Travels in Mexico and Europe                               279
+
+   XII. The Last Days at Santa Barbara                             297
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson during the English period.
+                                                    _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                            Facing Page
+
+  John Keen, about 83 years of age, maternal great-grandfather
+    of Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson.                                  2
+
+  Jacob Van de Grift, about 56 years of age, father of Fanny
+    Van de Grift Stevenson.                                           6
+
+  The Van de Grift residence at the corner of Illinois and
+    Washington Streets, Indianapolis.                                22
+
+  The bridge at Grez.                                                46
+
+  Fanny Osbourne at about the time of her first meeting with
+    Robert Louis Stevenson.                                          48
+
+  Robert Louis Stevenson in the French days.                         50
+
+  Fanny Osbourne at the time of her marriage to Robert
+    Louis Stevenson.                                                 78
+
+  The house at Vailima with the additions made to the first
+    structure.                                                      194
+
+  Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson.                                      262
+
+  The house at Hyde and Lombard Streets, San Francisco,
+    with some alterations in the way of bay windows, etc.,
+    which have been made since Mrs. Stevenson sold it.              266
+
+  The house at Vanumanutagi ranch.                                  274
+
+  Stonehedge at Santa Barbara.                                      298
+
+  The last portrait of Mrs. Stevenson.                              306
+
+  The funeral procession as it wound up the hill.                   332
+
+  The tomb, showing the bronze tablet with the verse from
+    Stevenson's poem to his wife.                                   336
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF MRS. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ANCESTORS.
+
+
+To arrive at a full understanding of the complex and unusual character
+of Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, which perhaps played as large a part
+as her beauty and intellectual charm in drawing to her the affections
+of one of the greatest romance writers of our day, one must go back
+and seek out all the uncommon influences that combined to produce
+it--a long line of sturdy ancestors, running back to the first
+adventurers who left their sheltered European homes and sailed across
+the sea to try their fortunes in a wild, unknown land; her childhood
+days spent among the hardy surroundings of pioneer Indiana, with its
+hints of a past tropical age and its faint breath of Indian
+reminiscence; the early breaking of her own family ties and her
+fearless adventuring by way of the Isthmus of Panama to the distant
+land of gold, and her brave struggle against adverse circumstances in
+the mining camps of Nevada. All these prenatal influences and personal
+experiences, so foreign to the protected lives of the women of
+Stevenson's own race, threw about her an atmosphere of thrilling New
+World romance that appealed with irresistible force to the man who was
+himself Romance personified.
+
+Fanny Stevenson was a lineal descendant of two of the oldest families
+in the United States, her first ancestors landing in this country in
+the early part of the seventeenth century. In 1642 Joeran Kyn, called
+"The Snow White," reached America in the ship _Fama_ as a member of
+the life-guard of John Printz, governor of the Swedish colony
+established in the New World by King Gustavus Adolphus. He took up a
+large tract of land and was living in peace and comfort on the
+Delaware River when William Penn landed in America. He was the
+progenitor of eleven generations of descendants born on American soil.
+His memory is embalmed in an old document still extant as "a man who
+never irritated even a child."
+
+In the list of his descendants one Matthias stands out as "a tall
+handsome man, with a very melodious voice which could be intelligibly
+heard at times across the Delaware."
+
+[Illustration: John Keen, about 83 years of age, maternal
+great-grandfather of Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson.]
+
+A later descendant, John Keen, born in 1747, fought and shed his blood
+in the war of American Independence, having been wounded in the battle
+of Princeton while in the act of delivering a message to General
+Washington. It was he who married Mildred Cook, daughter of James
+Cook, an English sea-captain who commanded the _London Packet_, plying
+between London and New York. Family tradition has it that he was a
+near relative of Captain Cook of South Sea fame. When Fanny Stevenson
+went a-sailing in the South Seas, following in the track of the great
+explorer, she boldly claimed this kinship, and, much to her
+delight, was immediately christened Tappeni Too-too, which was as near
+as the natives could come to Captain Cook's name.
+
+We have a charming old-fashioned silhouette portrait in our family of
+a lovely young creature with a dainty profile and curls gathered in a
+knot. It is "sweet Kitty Weaver," who married John Cook Keen, son of
+the Revolutionary hero, and became the grandmother of Fanny Stevenson.
+Little Fanny, when on a visit to Philadelphia in her childhood days,
+was shown a pair of red satin slippers worn by this lady, and was no
+doubt given a lecture on the folly of vanity, for it was by walking
+over the snow to her carriage in the little red slippers that sweet
+Kitty Weaver caught the cold which caused her death.
+
+Our mother, Esther Thomas Keen, one of John and Kitty Keen's six
+children, was born in Philadelphia, December 3, 1811. She was
+described by one who knew her in her youth as "a little beauty of the
+dark vivid type, with perfectly regular features, black startled eyes,
+and quantities of red-brown curls just the color of a cherry wood
+sideboard that stood in her house." She was a tiny creature, under
+five feet in height, and never in her life weighed more than ninety
+pounds; but in spite of that she was exceedingly strong, swift in her
+movements, straight as an arrow to the end of her days, and always
+went leaping up the stairs, even when she was over eighty. Fear was
+absolutely unknown to her. She once caught a mad dog and held its
+mouth shut with her hands, protecting her children till help came.
+She was resourceful in emergency, whether it was sickness or accident,
+and never lost her presence of mind. She had a tender sympathy for
+animals and all weak, suffering, and young creatures, and it could be
+truthfully said of her, as of Joeran Kyn, her ancestor, that she "never
+irritated even a child." Her daughter Fanny said of her: "I never
+heard my mother speak an angry word, no matter what the provocation,
+and she was the mother of seven children. No matter what the offense
+might be she always found an excuse." In this she was like the old
+Scotch woman who, when told she would find something to praise even in
+the devil, said: "Weel, there's nae denyin' he's a verra indoostrious
+body."
+
+It was from our little mother that my sister Fanny inherited her vivid
+dark beauty, her reticence, her fortitude in suffering, her
+fearlessness in the presence of danger, and her unfailing
+resourcefulness.
+
+Jacob Leendertsen Van de Grift, the first paternal ancestor of whom we
+have any record, settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, towards the
+close of the seventeenth century. The graves of several of his
+descendants are still to be seen in the fine old cemetery at
+Andalusia, and upon the tombstone of one of them is this epitaph:
+
+     "Farewell my friends and wife so dear,
+      I am not dead but sleeping here.
+      My debts are paid, my grave you see."
+
+This name has descended in an unbroken line from Jacob Leendertsen Van
+de Grift, of New Amsterdam, through eleven generations, to the
+brother of Fanny Stevenson, Jacob Van de Grift, of Riverside,
+California.
+
+John Miller, a paternal great-grandfather of ours, was also Dutch. The
+family account of him is that he fought at Brandywine, crossed the
+Delaware with Washington, was wounded at the battle of Trenton, and
+that when he died, at the age of eighty-four years, the city of
+Philadelphia paid him the tribute of burial with military honours.
+
+Miller married twice, and it was Elizabeth, a daughter by his second
+wife, who married a Jacob Van de Grift.
+
+Her son, Jacob Van de Grift, was born in Philadelphia in 1816. Upon
+the early death of her first husband she married again, presenting to
+her children the cruel stepfather of fiction. Indeed, the story of our
+father's childhood and youth and the adventures of his brothers and
+sisters reads more like melodrama than sober fact. One brother, Harry,
+wandering disconsolate in the market-place, was carried off by a kind
+and wealthy Kentuckian, who took a fancy to the handsome boy and
+brought him up as his own son. Matilda, the beauty of the family,
+seeing a peaceful Quaker couple sitting by a window, was so struck by
+the contrast between their gentle lives and her own that she went into
+the house and asked to be allowed to stay with them. The kind-hearted
+people were so touched by her distress and beauty that they adopted
+her as their own. Little Jacob, encouraged by the success of his
+brother and sister, ran away on his own account, but fell into evil
+hands, and was beaten and ill-used until rescued by his beautiful
+sister Matilda. Fortunately for Jacob, he found favour in the sight of
+Grandfather Miller, who educated him, dressed him well, and gave him a
+good allowance. At this time there was an outbreak of small riots in
+Philadelphia, caused by roughs attacking the Quakers. The
+"shadbellies," as they were derisively called, did not fight back,
+which made the sport all the more alluring to the cowardly rioters.
+Young Van de Grift, who was an excellent amateur boxer, joined in
+these frays with enthusiasm in defense of the Quakers. It was not only
+his fine American spirit of fair play that urged him into these
+fights, but he felt a deep gratitude to the Quakers all his life on
+account of his sister Matilda. Strangely enough, Grandfather Miller
+disapproved of young Van de Grift's conduct. He scolded and fumed, and
+when, early one morning, his grandson was found on his door-step
+beaten black and blue, the unreasonable old man, utterly losing sight
+of the chivalric cause, sent the troublesome lad away--to the farthest
+place, in fact, that he could reach. This place turned out to be the
+frontier backwoods town of Indianapolis, Indiana.
+
+Here Jacob's attention was soon attracted by a pretty young woman, a
+tiny, dainty creature named Esther Keen (our mother, whom I have
+already described), who was on a visit to her sister. The records show
+that they were married in Philadelphia in 1837.
+
+[Illustration: Jacob Van de Grift, about 56 years of age, father of
+Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson.]
+
+Like many another irresponsible young man, Jacob Van de Grift married
+became quite a different person. Returning to Indianapolis, he
+built a house for himself with the aid of friends, and, launching out
+into the lumber business, soon became one of the prosperous and solid
+citizens of the place. His house was on the "Circle," next door to
+Henry Ward Beecher's church. This was Mr. Beecher's first pastorate,
+and between him and his neighbour a warm friendship sprang up. In
+after years, when Beecher had become a national figure and scandal
+attacked his name, the friend of his youth, Jacob Van de Grift, clung
+loyally to his faith in his old pastor and firmly refused to believe
+any of the charges against him.
+
+The little house on the Circle was made into a pleasant home partly by
+furniture sent by Jacob's mother from Philadelphia, partly by articles
+made by himself, for he had served a short apprenticeship at
+cabinet-making while living in his grandfather's house. Among other
+pieces of furniture made by him was the cradle in which Fanny Van de
+Grift was rocked. As long as she lived she never forgot just how this
+cradle looked.
+
+Jacob Van de Grift, father of Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, was a
+fine-looking man, broad-shouldered and deep-chested, slightly above
+medium height, blue-eyed, black-haired, and with the regular features
+and rosy complexion of his Dutch ancestors. One particularly noticed
+the extraordinarily keen expression of his eyes, which seemed to pin
+you to the wall when he looked at you. This penetrating glance was
+inherited by his daughter Fanny, and was often remarked upon by those
+who met her. He made money easily but spent it royally, and, in
+consequence, died comparatively poor. He had a hasty temper but a
+generous heart, and while his hand was always open to the poor and
+unhappy, it was a closed fist ready to strike straight from the
+shoulder to resent an insult or defend the oppressed. Like his
+ancestor of the Andalusia cemetery, he could not endure to owe any man
+a debt. It was from our father that my sister Fanny inherited her
+broad and tolerant outlook on life, her hatred of injustice and
+cruelty, her punctiliousness in money matters, and her steadfast
+loyalty to friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+EARLY DAYS IN INDIANA.
+
+
+When Jacob Van de Grift arrived in Indianapolis in 1836 the first
+rawness of frontier life had passed away, and many of the comforts of
+civilization had made their way out from the East or up from New
+Orleans. When he married Esther Keen he took her to live in the little
+red house, which, as I have already said, he had built next door to
+Henry Ward Beecher's church, opposite the Governor's Circle. Seven
+children in all were granted to them, of whom the eldest, a daughter,
+was born on March 10, 1840, in this same little red house on the
+Circle. When the infant was two years old she and her mother were
+taken into the Second Presbyterian Church, and were baptized by Henry
+Ward Beecher in the White River, in the presence of a concourse of
+several thousand spectators. The record of this noteworthy occasion is
+still preserved in the church at Indianapolis.
+
+The little girl was named Frances Matilda, but when she grew older the
+second name was finally dropped. To her family and friends she was
+known as "Fanny."
+
+The main source, in fact almost the only one, from which I have been
+able to draw a description of the childhood of Fanny Stevenson is an
+article on early reminiscences written by my sister herself, which was
+found among her papers after her death. As she was always her own
+worst critic, she has dwelt on mischievous childish escapades and has
+said little of the sweetness and charm and warm generosity that even
+then drew all hearts to her. From this article, called _A Backwoods
+Childhood_, I quote the following extracts for the sake of the vivid
+picture they give of those Indiana days:
+
+"Our life in the backwoods was simple and natural; we had few
+luxuries, but we had few cares. In our kitchen gardens potatoes,
+cabbages, onions, tomatoes, Indian corn, and numerous other vegetables
+grew most luxuriantly; and of fruits we had great abundance. We lived
+a natural life and were content. The loom and the spinning-wheel,
+though they had by this time largely disappeared from the towns, still
+had a place in every farmhouse. We raised our own food and made our
+own clothing, often of the linsey-woolsey woven by the women on their
+home-made looms. We breakfasted by the light of a tin lamp fed with
+lard, four o'clock being a not unusual hour, dined at noon, supped at
+five, and went to bed with the chickens. Our carpets were made of our
+old cast-off garments torn into strips, the strips then sewn together
+at the ends and woven into carpet breadths by a neighbor, who took her
+pay in kind. Wheat broken and steeped in water gave a fine white
+starch fit for cooking as well as laundry work. We tapped the maple
+tree for sugar, and drank our sassafras tea with relish. The virgin
+forest furnished us with a variety of nuts and berries and wild
+fruits, to say nothing of more beautiful wild flowers than I have
+seen in any other part of the world, and, laid up in the trunks of
+hollow trees, were rich stores of wild honey.
+
+"Except for ague we had little sickness, and for ordinary ailments
+healing herbs waited everywhere for seeing eyes. These were calamus,
+bloodroot, snakeroot, slippery elm, tansy, and scores that I do not
+remember the names of. There was sumach for tanning and butternut for
+dyeing; hickory wood for our fires and hard black walnut for our
+house-building and fences. Everything that we needed for comfort or
+health was within reach of our hands. Nor in this wholesome simple
+life were the arts forgotten. Among us lived a poetess who is quoted
+wherever English is spoken.[1] Theatricals were cultivated, and my
+father belonged to a Thespian society. We had good painters, too, and
+at this moment there hangs before me my father's portrait at the age
+of twenty, done by Cox of Indianapolis, which has been praised and
+admired by both French and English artists of reputation.
+
+              [Footnote 1: Sarah Tittle Bolton, known for her
+              patriotic and war songs, among them "Paddle Your Own
+              Canoe" and "Left on the Battlefield."]
+
+"When we made maple sugar there were the great fires built
+out-of-doors with logs that needed the strength of two men to carry;
+the bubbling cauldrons, and the gay company of neighbors come to help;
+the camp where the work went on all night to the sound of laughter and
+song.
+
+"And the woods, traversed by cool streams, where wild vines clambering
+from tree to tree made bowers fit for any fairy queen--what a place of
+enchantment for a child! There were may apples to be gathered and
+buried to ripen, and as you turned up the earth there was always the
+chance that you might find a flint arrowhead.
+
+"Then, too, there were shell barks, hickory nuts, walnuts, and
+butternuts to be gathered, husked and dried, an operation which
+produced every fall a sudden eruption of the society of the 'Black
+Hand' among the boys and girls. Haw apples, elderberries, wild
+gooseberries, blackberries, and raspberries provided variety of
+refreshment. Or you might, as I often did, gather the wild grapes from
+over your head, press them in your hands, catch the juice in the neck
+of a dried calabash, and toss off the blood-red wine. With my romantic
+notions, imbibed from my reading, I always called it the blood-red
+wine, though it was in reality a rather muddy looking gray-colored
+liquid with the musky flavor peculiar to wild grapes. This wild
+dissipation I felt compelled to abandon after I joined a temperance
+society and wore a tinsel star on my breast.
+
+"Through the little hamlet where I was born ran, like a great artery,
+the National Road. Starting in the far East, it crossed the continent,
+looked in on us rustics, and finally lost itself in the wilds of
+Illinois. Though we lay on the banks of a romantic river, and a canal,
+a branch of the Erie, languidly crawled beside us, breathing fever and
+ague as it passed, the Road was our only real means of communication
+with the outside world. The river, though of a good breadth, had too
+many shoals and rapids to be navigable; and though now and then boats
+crept along by the towpath of the canal, I never heard that they
+landed or received any produce. The streets of Indianapolis had no
+names then; it was too lost a place for that, and we just said the
+'main street.' This was afterwards called Washington Street, and was
+really a part of the National Road. Oh but that was romantic to me,
+leading as it did straight out into the wide, wide world! At certain
+intervals, about once in two weeks, the weather and the state of the
+road allowing, a lumbering vehicle called a 'mud wagon' left for
+regions unknown to me with passengers and freight. I don't know where
+it came from, but on its return it brought letters to my father from
+his mother, who lived in Philadelphia.
+
+"Sometimes bands of Indians, wrapped in blankets, came through the
+town. They seemed friendly enough and no one showed any fear of them.
+
+"We little girls wore pantalettes, to our ankles, and our dresses were
+whale-boned down the front, with very long bodices. We had wide flat
+hats trimmed with wreaths of roses and tied under our chins. We wore
+low necks and short sleeves summer and winter. I was thin but very
+tough. My Aunt Knodle[2] made long mittens for me out of nankeen
+beautifully embroidered; they came up to my shoulders, and were sewn
+on every day to keep me from spoiling my hands. My hair was braided in
+front and my everyday gingham sunbonnet sewn to my hair. This was done
+in the vain hope of keeping off sunburn, for I was dark, like my
+mother, and my complexion was the despair of her life. Beauty of the
+fair blonde type was in vogue then, so that I was quite out of
+fashion. It was thought that if one was dark one had a wicked temper."
+
+              [Footnote 2: The "k" is silent in this name. Elizabeth
+              Knodle was the elder sister of Esther Van de Grift.]
+
+In reality, Fanny, with her clear olive skin, her bright black eyes,
+her perfectly regular features, and mass of half-curling dark hair,
+was the prettiest in the family; but the dictates of fashion are
+imperious, so her mother put lotions on her face and her grandmother
+washed it with strong soap, saying: "She is that color by nature--God
+made her ugly." The little girl asked rather pathetically if they
+would not change her name to Lily, to which her mother replied: "You
+are a little tiger lily!" In after years in her many gardens in
+different parts of the world there were always tiger lilies growing.
+She was a high-spirited, daring creature, a little flashing firefly of
+a child, eagerly seeking for adventure, that might have brought upon
+her frequent punishment were it not that her parents held exceedingly
+liberal views in such matters. About this she says:
+
+"Henry Ward Beecher and my father were great friends, and used to
+discuss very earnestly the proper method of bringing up children. At
+that time it was the custom to be extremely severe with youth, and
+such axioms as 'spare the rod and spoil the child,' 'to be seen and
+not heard,' were popular; so that the views held by Mr. Beecher and my
+father were decidedly modern. They argued that if a child was bad by
+nature it would grow up bad, and that if it was good it would grow up
+good, and that it was best not to interfere with the development of
+children's characters, but to allow them to have their own way."
+
+As Esther Van de Grift limited her corrections of her children to an
+occasional mild remonstrance, they worked out their own
+individualities with little interference. Fanny was what the children
+called a "tomboy," and always preferred the boys' sports, the more
+daring the better. She roamed the woods with her cousin Tom Van de
+Grift, and the two kindred wild spirits climbed trees, forded streams
+up to their necks, did everything, in fact, that the most adventurous
+boy could think of. School was a secondary affair then, and, except
+for drawing and painting, in which she was thought to have a
+remarkable talent, Fanny paid little attention to her studies.
+
+When she was a little girl she was caught in the wave of a great
+temperance revival which was sweeping over the country, and, in her
+enthusiasm to aid in the work, she produced two drawings that caused a
+sensation. One, representing a rickety house with broken windows, a
+crooked weed-grown path leading up to a gate fallen off the hinges,
+and a fence with half the pickets off, she labelled "The Drunkard's
+Home." Then she drew a companion picture of a neat farmhouse with a
+straight path, and fence and gate all in apple-pie order, which she
+called "The Reformed Drunkard's Home." These two drawings she
+presented at a public meeting to Doctor Thompson, the leader of the
+movement. Fifty years afterwards she met Mrs. Thompson, who said she
+still had the pictures and thought them "very beautiful."
+
+In spite of her indifference to study she was very precocious, and
+learned to read at what was considered by her parents' friends as an
+objectionably early age. Her father was very proud of the
+accomplishments of his little daughter, and liked to show her off
+before his friends, who, to speak the truth, looked with extreme
+disfavour upon the performance. Once Mr. Page Chapman, editor of a
+newspaper, put her through an examination on some subjects about which
+she had been reading in _Familiar Science_, a work arranged in the
+form of questions and answers. He asked: "What is the shape of the
+world?" "Round," she replied. "Then why don't we fall off?" he asked,
+and she answered: "Because of the attraction of gravitation." "This is
+awful," he said, in horror at such precocity.
+
+Her father had a taste for verse, and often when walking with his
+children would recite a favourite poem, more, evidently, for his own
+amusement than theirs. Of this Fanny writes: "He used to declaim so
+often, in a loud, solemn voice, 'My name is Norval--on the Grampian
+Hills my father feeds his flocks,' that I naturally received the
+impression that these flocks and hills were part of my paternal
+grandfather's estate. Years afterwards when I was travelling in
+Scotland and asked the name of some hills I saw in the distance, I
+felt a mental shock when told they were the Grampian Hills."
+
+As I have said before, there was no discipline in the Van de Grift
+household, and though the neighbours predicted dire results from such
+a method of bringing up a family, one result, at least, was that every
+one of Jacob Van de Grift's children adored him, and none more
+whole-heartedly than his eldest born. She writes of him:
+
+"My father was a splendid horseman and excelled in all athletic
+things. He had such immense shoulders and such a deep chest, though
+his hands and feet were remarkably small. I can remember when he and I
+would go out to a vacant lot that he owned near Indianapolis and I
+would sit on the fence and watch him ride and perform circus tricks on
+horseback, riding around in a circle. Though his hands were so small
+and fair, with rosy palms and delicately pointed fingers, they were
+strong hands and capable, for they fashioned the cradle my mother
+rocked me in, and the chest of drawers made of maple-wood stained to
+imitate mahogany, where she stored my baby linen with those
+old-fashioned herbs, ambrosia and sweet basil. Years ago the cradle
+was passed on to a neighbor who needed it more than we, but the chest
+of drawers is still in use, a sound and very serviceable piece of
+furniture, good for several generations more. It was an eventful day
+in my childhood when, perched on a high chair, I was allowed to
+explore the mysteries of the top drawer and hold in my own hands the
+trinkets, ear-rings, brooches, and fine laces worn by my mother in her
+youth, but now laid aside as useless in this new, strange, and busy
+life of the backwoods. There, too, were pieces of my maternal
+grandmother's (Kitty Weaver's) gowns, satin that shimmered and changed
+from purple to gold, 'stiff enough,' as my mother said, 'to stand
+alone,' and my great-grandfather Miller's tortoise-shell snuff-box
+containing a tonquin bean that had not yet lost its peculiar
+fragrance.
+
+"While I gazed reverently on these treasures, the tale of Kitty
+Weaver's death, which I already knew by heart, was told me once again.
+She was a beauty and loved gaiety, and got her death by going to a
+ball in thin slippers. I supposed, in my childish ignorance, that this
+radiant creature went about all day long in shining silks that stood
+alone, and never by any chance wore other than red satin slippers. My
+paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Miller, sniffed a little at my
+enthusiasm, and averred that she, too, in her time, had worn silks
+that stood alone and slippers of a much smaller size than those of
+Kitty Weaver. But when I looked at my grandmother, with her high
+hooked nose, her large black-browed blue eyes, as keen as swords, the
+haughty outline of her curved lips, her massive shoulders and deep
+chest, her domineering expression, and listened to her imperious
+voice, doubts assailed me. I could believe that she had led an army of
+amazons in cuirass and buckler, but my imagination refused to picture
+her in a silken train smiling at gallants from behind her fan; and
+surely, I thought, no one in the whole world ever went tripping to a
+ball in such strange and monstrous headgear as she wore. Yet she had
+been a notable beauty in her day, and even in her old age was still
+something of a coquette.
+
+"It was sometimes my privilege to sleep with my grandmother, and I
+felt it to be a great one, for she was the best teller of stories I
+ever heard. Her religion was of the most terrible kind--the
+old-fashioned Presbyterianism which taught that hell was paved with
+infants' souls, and such horrors. She always said, when she heard of
+the death of a young child, that the chances were it would become a
+little angel, which it would not have done if it had lived to be a
+little older. I was shocked to hear my mother say she preferred having
+her children little living devils rather than dead angels. After
+prayers, all about hell and damnation, which she said aloud, I was put
+to bed against the wall. The bedstead, a big mahogany four-poster, had
+to be mounted like an omnibus. That, and the feather bed, and the
+mattress stuffed with the 'best curled hair,' were presents sent to my
+father from Philadelphia, and were a great source of pride to me,
+especially the mattress, which I believed to be stuffed with beautiful
+human curls.
+
+"From my nest in the feather bed I watched my grandmother disrobe with
+growing terror. First she unpinned and folded away a white kerchief
+she always wore primly crossed over her bosom. Then she removed a
+white lace cap that was tied under her chin with ribbons; then she
+took off what I supposed to be a portion of her scalp, but now know
+was a 'false front.' This was bad enough, but there was worse to come;
+there still remained a black silk skull cap that covered the thick
+white hair worn cropped closely to her head. When she took off this
+cap she seemed to stand before me as some strange and terrible man, so
+at this point I always covered my head with the bedclothes until the
+light was extinguished.
+
+"After getting into bed, my grandmother, who told every incident as
+dramatically as though she had participated in it herself, related
+appalling stories about witches, death, apparitions, and the
+Inquisition. These stories made such a powerful impression on me that
+it is no wonder that I remember them after sixty years. Though my
+terror of my grandmother in this guise was excessive, I do not think I
+should have liked the stories, generally grim and tragic, so well in a
+different setting.
+
+"Aunt Knodle was very neat and orderly, high-tempered and somewhat
+domineering, but possessing a singular charm. Children liked to go to
+her house even though they were made to be on their best behavior
+while they were there. Everything in her house was in what we would
+call good taste to-day. She had beautiful old china, fine silver, and
+good furniture, everything rich and dark. The house was a long
+rambling cottage, with a turn in it to match the irregular shape of
+the lot. It had many gables and dormer windows, and the whole was
+covered with creeping roses, and there was a faint sweet smell about
+it that I think I would know now. The master of this delightful house,
+Adam Knodle, was as near a saint on earth as a man can be; he was kind
+to everybody and everything. He was extremely absent-minded, and his
+wife liked to tell how he once killed a chicken for the family dinner
+and threw away the chicken and brought in the head.
+
+"My aunt was an ardent lover of animals, and abhorred cruelty to them
+in any form. She had a dog named Ponto, an ugly ill-tempered little
+black dog of no pedigree whatever, who ruled as king in that house. He
+was accustomed to lie on a silk cushion in the window commanding the
+best view. My aunt used to sit at one of the windows--not Ponto's, I
+can tell you--ready, like Dickens's heroine, Betsy Trotwood, to pounce
+out upon passing travellers. Sometimes, when she thought a horse was
+being driven too fast, she rushed out and seized it by the bridle
+while she read its driver a severe lecture."
+
+As the years passed the young girl's restless energies found other
+outlets. At school she was a brilliant but not an industrious pupil.
+It was in composition that she shone especially, and one of her
+schoolmates says of her: "She always wrote her compositions in such an
+attractive way, weaving them into a story, so that the children were
+eager to hear them."
+
+While attending high school she became fired with the idea of writing
+a book in conjunction with a friend, a beautiful Southern girl named
+Lucy McCrae. The writing was done secretly, after school hours, on the
+steps of the schoolhouse, while a third friend, Ella Hale,[3] kept
+guard, for the whole thing was to be a profound secret until the world
+should receive it as the wonder of the age. This great work was
+brought to a sudden end by the illness of Lucy McCrae.
+
+              [Footnote 3: Now Mrs. Thaddeus Up de Graff, of Elmira,
+              New York.]
+
+At this time the Van de Grift family were living in a house on
+Illinois Street. This house had a cellar door at the back. To quote
+the words of her schoolmate, Ella Hale: "At this cellar door the
+children used to gather to hear fairy and ghost stories. Fanny was
+always the central figure, because she was the only one who could tell
+really interesting stories. These gatherings always took place after
+supper, and as the shadows grew darker and darker during the recital
+of a particularly thrilling ghost story, I clearly remember the
+fearful glances toward the dark corners and the crowding closer
+together of the little ones, till it sometimes resulted in a
+landslide, and we would find ourselves in a heap on the ground at the
+foot of the slanting door, our laughter quickly dispelling all our
+fears."
+
+Among Fanny's playmates there was a dark, handsome boy, with large,
+melancholy eyes, named George Marshall, who was not only exceedingly
+attractive in looks but had many other graces. He was a born artist,
+and could dance, and act, and sing like an angel; and, best of all, he
+was as good as he was charming. These two were close companions in all
+sorts of strenuous sports, and nothing annoyed them more than to have
+little teasing Josephine, Fanny's younger sister, trailing after them
+and breaking up their games. George finally announced that he would
+play no more unless Josephine could be kept away. But boys change, and
+when he grew up he married Josephine.
+
+[Illustration: The Van de Grift residence at the corner of Illinois
+and Washington Streets, Indianapolis.]
+
+All too soon came the time when these days of careless childish joys
+were brought to a close. A new era opened, and romance, which budded
+early in that time and place, began to unfold its first tender leaves.
+Various youths of the town, attracted by the piquant prettiness and
+sparkling vivacity of the eldest daughter, began to haunt the Van de
+Grift house. In the sentimental fashion of the day, these sighing
+swains carved her name on the trees, and so wide was the circle of
+her fascination that there was scarcely a tree in the place that did
+not bear somewhere on its long-suffering trunk the name or initials of
+Fanny Van de Grift. None of these suitors, however, made any
+impression on the object of their attentions, who was so much of a
+child that she was walking on stilts in the garden when Samuel
+Osbourne first called at the house. He was an engaging youth, a
+Kentuckian by birth, with all the suavity and charm of the Southerner.
+Behind him lay a truly romantic ancestry, for, through John Stewart,
+who was stolen and brought up by the Indians, and never knew his
+parentage, he was a collateral descendant of Daniel Boone.[4]
+
+              [Footnote 4: Stewart, who acquired by his life among the
+              Indians a thorough knowledge of the trails of the
+              country, became a guide, and it was he that led Boone on
+              the expedition to explore Kentucky. The connection
+              between them became even closer when he married Boone's
+              youngest sister, Hannah. At the State capitol there is a
+              picture of him in the striking costume of the hunter and
+              trapper, pointing out to Boone the lovely land of
+              Kentucky.]
+
+On December 4, 1857, in a house on Michigan Street, which had already
+been prepared and furnished for their occupancy, Samuel Osbourne, aged
+twenty, and Fanny Van de Grift, aged seventeen, were united in
+marriage. All the notables of the town, including Governor Willard, to
+whom young Osbourne was private secretary, and the entire staff of
+State officers, attended. The young bride looked charming in a
+handsome gown of heavy white satin, of the kind that "could stand
+alone," of the "block" pattern then in vogue, and made in the fashion
+of the day, with full long-trained skirt and tight low-necked bodice
+trimmed with a rich lace bertha. Her hair was worn in curls, fastened
+back from the face on each side. The groom, who is seldom mentioned
+in these affairs, deserves a word or two, for he made a gallant figure
+in a blue coat with brass buttons, flowered waistcoat, fawn-coloured
+trousers, strapped under varnished boots, and carrying a bell-topped
+white beaver hat. One who was a guest at the wedding says, "They
+looked like two children," as indeed they were. It was a boy-and-girl
+marriage of the kind people entered into then with pioneer
+fearlessness, to turn out well or ill, as fate decreed.
+
+The young couple took up their residence in the same house in which
+they were married, and before the young husband was twenty-one years
+old their first child, Isobel, was born. The little mother was so
+small and young-looking that once when she was on a railroad-train
+with her infant an old gentleman, looking at her with some concern,
+asked: "Sissy, where is the baby's mother?"
+
+It was now that the great black storm-cloud which had been hovering
+over the nation for years broke in all its fury upon this border
+State. The Osbournes, together with nearly all their friends and
+relatives, cast in their lot with the North, and young Osbourne left
+his family and went to the war as captain in the army.
+
+We must now return to the dark, handsome boy, George Marshall, once
+the favourite playmate and now the brother-in-law of Fanny Van de
+Grift. He, too, joined the colours, in command of a company of Zouaves
+whom he had himself gathered and trained. After a time spent in active
+service on some of the hardest fought battle-fields of the Civil War,
+the hardships and exposure of the life told upon a constitution never
+at any time robust, and he returned to his young wife a victim of
+tuberculosis. The doctors said his only chance was to get to the
+milder climate of California, and at the close of the war Samuel
+Osbourne, who was his devoted friend, gave up position and prospects
+to accompany him thither. The two young men, leaving their families
+behind them, took ship at New York for Panama; but the Angel of Death
+sailed with them, and Captain Marshall breathed his last while
+crossing the Isthmus.
+
+Osbourne decided to go on to California, and on his arrival there was
+so pleased with the country that he wrote to his wife to sell her
+property at once and follow him. Bidding a long farewell to the loving
+parents who had up to that time stood between her and every trouble,
+Fanny Osbourne, at an age when most young women are enjoying the
+care-free life of irresponsible girlhood, took her small daughter
+Isobel and set forth into a new and strange world.
+
+Crossing the Isthmus by the crookedest railroad ever seen, she stopped
+at Panama to visit the burial-place of the young soldier, George
+Marshall, her childhood playmate, beloved friend, and brother-in-law,
+and over that lonely grave the child for the first time saw her
+girlish mother shed tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE.
+
+
+When at last the long voyage up the Western coast came to an end and
+the ship sailed into the broad bay of San Francisco, which lay serene
+and beautiful under the shadow of its towering guardian, Mount
+Tamalpais, Fanny Osbourne hung over the rail and surveyed the scene
+with eager interest. Yet it is altogether unlikely that any
+realization came to her then that the lively seaport town that lay
+before her was to become to her that magic thing we call "home," for
+men still regarded California as a place to "make their pile" in and
+then shake its dust from their feet. Her stay here was very brief, for
+her husband had gone at once to Nevada in the hope of getting a
+foothold in the silver-mines, which were then "booming," and she
+immediately followed him.
+
+From the level green corn-fields of Indiana, the land of her birth, to
+the grey sage-brush of the desert and the naked mountains of Nevada
+was a long step, but regrets were lost in the absorbing interest of
+the new life.
+
+In a canyon high up in the Toyabee Range, about six miles from Reese
+River, lay the new mining camp of Austin, then only about a year old.
+Reese River, though in summer it dries up in places so that its bed is
+only a series of shallow pools, is nevertheless a most picturesque
+stream, and Austin is surrounded by mountain scenery of the
+stupendous, awe-inspiring sort.
+
+In a little cabin on a mountainside Fanny Osbourne took up her new
+life amidst these strange surroundings, which she found most
+interesting and exciting. The men, who were generally away from the
+camp during the day, working in the mines, were all adventurers--young,
+bold men--and though they wore rough clothes, were nearly all college
+bred. In Austin and its vicinity there were but six women, and when it
+was decided to give a party at another camp miles away, a thorough
+scouring of the whole surrounding country produced just seven of the
+fair sex. These ladies came in a sleigh, made of a large packing-box
+put on runners, to beg the newcomer, Mrs. Osbourne, to join them in
+this festivity. Having some pretty clothes she had brought with her,
+she hastily dressed by the aid of a shining tin pan which one of the
+women held up for her, there being no such thing as a mirror in the
+entire camp. Years afterwards, when Mrs. Osbourne was in Paris, she
+read in the papers of this woman as having taken the whole first floor
+of the Splendide Hotel, which led her to remark: "I wonder if she
+remembers when she held the tin pan for me to do my hair!" At the
+party there were fifty men and seven women, and no woman danced twice
+with the same man. Among the men was a clergyman, who made himself
+very agreeable to Mrs. Osbourne. She asked why she had never heard of
+him before, and he replied: "You have heard of me, I am sure, but not
+by my real name. They call me 'Squinting Jesus'!"
+
+Her pioneer blood now began to show itself in all kinds of inventions
+with which she mitigated the discomforts of the raw mining camp. As
+vegetables were exceedingly scarce, the diet of the miners consisted
+almost exclusively of meat, and Mrs. Osbourne made a great hit by her
+ingenuity in devising variations of this monotonous fare. She learned
+how to cook beef in fifteen different ways. Her great achievement,
+however, was in making imitation honey, to eat with griddle-cakes, out
+of boiled sugar with a lump of alum in it.
+
+All about in the mountains there were Indians, belonging to the Paiute
+tribe, and between 1849 and 1882 there was constant trouble with them.
+They were a better-looking and more spirited race than the "Diggers"
+of California, and consequently more disposed to resent the frequent
+outrages put upon them by irresponsible men among the whites. As an
+instance, in 1861 some white men stole horses from the Indians, who
+then rose up in retaliation, and all the whites, the innocent as well
+as the guilty, were compelled to unite for defense, a large number
+losing their lives in the subsequent fight.
+
+In the mornings, while Mrs. Osbourne was doing her housework in the
+little cabin on the hillside, Indians would gather outside and press
+their faces against the window-panes, their eyes following her about
+the room. There were blinds, but she was afraid to give offense by
+pulling them down. The absence of the Indians was sometimes even more
+alarming than their presence, and once when it was noticed that none
+of them had been seen about the camp for several days, the residents
+knew that trouble threatened. One night signal fires blazed on the
+distant mountain tops, and a thrill of fear ran through the little
+community. The women and children were gathered in one cabin and made
+to lie on the floor and keep quiet. Even the smallest ones must have
+felt the danger, for not a whimper escaped them. One of them was a
+baby called Aurora. Little Isobel Osbourne thought she was called
+"Roarer" because she bawled all the time, but even "Roarer" was quiet
+that night.
+
+Among the Austin Indians there was a little boy who named his pony
+"Fanny." "Did you name it for me?" my sister asked. He nodded his
+head. "Why?" she asked, and he said it was because the pony had such
+little feet.
+
+Near the Osbourne cabin lived a miner named Johnny Crakroft. Mrs.
+Osbourne never saw him, for he was too shy to speak to a woman, but he
+left offerings on her door-step or tied to the knob. Johnny had killed
+a man in Virginia City, not an unusual occurrence in those days, but
+the circumstances seem to have been such that he did not dare go back
+there. Yet, with one of those strange contrasts so common in the life
+of the mines, he was a kind-hearted, domestic soul, and on baking days
+he made little dogs and cats and elephants out of sweetened dough,
+with currants for eyes, for his little pal, Isobel Osbourne. One day
+he bestowed upon the child the rather incongruous present of a bottle
+of quicksilver and a bowie-knife, which she proudly carried home.
+
+Other neighbours in a cabin on the mountainside were two young
+Englishmen, mere boys of twenty or thereabout, named John Lloyd and
+Tom Reid. Wishing to celebrate the Queen's birthday in true British
+fashion, they went to Mrs. Osbourne to learn how to concoct a plum
+pudding. They learned, only the string broke and the pudding had to be
+served in soup-plates.
+
+Whatever else the life and the society may have been, they were never
+dull or tame. On one occasion, while crossing the desert in a
+stage-coach, Mrs. Osbourne met the man said to be the original of Bret
+Harte's Colonel Starbottle. When the coach stopped at a little
+station, this gentleman politely asked his pretty fellow passenger
+what he could bring her. He was so flowery and pompous that as a
+little joke she asked for strawberries, thinking them the most
+impossible thing to be found at the forlorn little place. To her
+amazement he actually brought her the berries.
+
+On another desert trip she was allowed, as a special favour, to sit on
+the front seat, between the driver and the express messenger. There
+had been, not long before, a number of hold-ups by "road agents," and
+when the stage came to suspicious-looking turns in the road the
+messenger made her put her head down on her knees while he laid his
+gun across her back. She could have gone inside with the other women,
+of course, but it was like her to prefer the seat with the driver,
+with its risk and its adventure.
+
+Later the Osbournes moved to Virginia City, where the life, while not
+quite so primitive as at Austin, was still highly flavoured with all
+the spice of a wild mining town. Gambling went on night and day, and
+the killing of men over the games still happened often enough. In the
+diary of a pioneer of that time, Samuel Orr, of Alameda, who later
+married one of Mrs. Osbourne's sisters, Cora Van de Grift, I find this
+entry: "This is the hardest place I ever struck. I saw two men killed
+to-day in a gambling fight." Men engaged at their work or passing
+along the streets were quite often compelled to duck and dodge to
+escape sudden fusillades of bullets. There was little regard for the
+law, and "killings" seldom received legal punishment.
+
+Virginia City, despite its desolate environment of grey, naked
+mountains and deep, narrow ravines, had its own rugged charm. The air
+was so crystal-pure that at times one could see as far as one hundred
+and eighty miles from its lofty seat on the skirts of Mount Davidson.
+Far to the west and south stretched a wonderful panorama of
+multicoloured and snow-capped mountains, and in the gap between lay
+the desert and a fringe of green to mark the course of the Carson
+River. The town, which lay immediately over the famous Comstock Lode,
+was built on ground with such a pitch that what was the second story
+of a house in front became the first in the back. Every winter snow
+falls to a depth of several feet in the town, and on the summit of
+Mount Davidson it never melts. At that time Virginia City was
+described as "a lively place, wherein all kinds of industry as well as
+vice flourished."
+
+After their arrival here Samuel Osbourne bought the Mills, Post, and
+White mine, and in the interval of waiting for results worked, like
+the resourceful American that he was, at various employments to earn
+a living for himself and his family. For a time he was clerk of the
+Justice's Court in Virginia City.
+
+It was even so early as in these Nevada mining days that the grey
+cloud which was to darken some of the best years of her life first
+appeared above the young wife's horizon, for it was there that the
+first foreboding came to her that her marriage was to be a failure.
+The wild, free life of the West had carried her young and
+impressionable husband off his feet, and the painful suspicion now
+came to her that she did not reign alone in his heart. As time passed
+this trouble went from bad to worse, but no more need be said of it at
+this point except to make it clear that years before her meeting with
+the true love of her heart, Robert Louis Stevenson, the disagreements
+which finally resulted in the shattering of her first romance had
+already begun.
+
+In 1866, lured by reports of rich strikes in Montana, Osbourne set off
+on a prospecting tour to the Coeur d'Alene Mountains, leaving his wife
+and child in Virginia City. While in Montana he met another
+prospector, Samuel Orr (who afterwards became his brother-in-law), and
+the two joined forces, becoming, in miners' phrase, "pardners."
+
+Led on by the ever-fleeing hope of the great "strike" that might lie
+just ahead, the two men penetrated so far into the depths of this
+rugged mountain country that they were for some time out of the reach
+of mails, causing their friends to finally give them up as dead.
+Running out of funds, they were obliged to take work at what they
+could get, and Osbourne sold tickets in a theatre at Helena, Montana,
+and later took a job in a sawmill at Bear Gulch. At one place he and
+another man bought up all the coffee to be had, and, after grinding it
+up, sold it in small lots at an advanced price.
+
+Failing in their quest for the elusive treasure, Osbourne and Orr, not
+being able to cash the cheques with which they were paid for their
+work, were at last compelled to borrow the money with which to make
+their way back to civilization and their families.
+
+About this time the silver-mining boom in Nevada began to ebb, and
+there was an exodus of men and women, mostly discouraged and "broke,"
+to San Francisco. As Mrs. Osbourne had arranged to meet her husband in
+that city, she decided to join some of her friends in their removal to
+the coast, and began to make preparations for the long, hard journey.
+In those days little girls wore very short dresses, with several white
+petticoats, like ballet dancers, and long white stockings. This dress
+seemed peculiarly unsuitable for the dusty stage trip across the
+desert, and Mrs. Osbourne, meeting the situation with her usual common
+sense, bought a boy's suit and dressed her little girl in it. The
+passengers called her "Billy," and a sensation was created among them
+when, after arrival at the Occidental Hotel in the bustling city of
+San Francisco, the child appeared in her own little ballet costume.
+
+At this date, 1866, San Francisco was no longer a mere resting-place
+for the birds of passage on their way to the mines, but had become a
+settled town, with an air of permanency and solidity. It was then
+compactly built, for it was only the advent years later of the
+cable-cars that enabled it to spread out over its many hills. The
+glamour of the days of the first mad rush for gold, with their
+feverish alternations of mounting hope and black despair, was gone,
+but in its stead had come safety and comfort, and there were few
+places in the world where one could live more agreeably, or even more
+luxuriously, than in San Francisco in the '60's.
+
+Here word was brought that Osbourne had been killed by the Indians,
+and life began to bear heavily upon the young wife and mother,
+stranded without means in a strange city. She put on widow's weeds and
+looked about for employment with which to eke out her fast diminishing
+store. When she was a little girl she had learned to do fine sewing on
+the ruffles for her father's shirts, and had always made her own and
+her child's dresses. This talent, which proved exceedingly useful at
+various times in her life, now served her in good stead. She secured a
+situation as fitter in a dressmaking establishment, where, on account
+of her foreign looks, she was thought to be French.
+
+Friends were not lacking, for many looked with pity upon the supposed
+widow struggling to keep her head above water in a land so far from
+her own home and family. During her absence at work she left the child
+in the care of the kind-hearted landlady of the boarding-house and her
+young son, Michael, still gratefully remembered as "Mackerel" by
+Isobel. In the same boarding-house John Lloyd, the young Englishman of
+the Reese River days, had also established himself. On Sundays, no
+doubt to give the tired mother a long rest, he would take little Bel
+to the beach out by old Fort Point, where he made swords for her out
+of driftwood, played at Jack the Giant-Killer, and told stories about
+Mr. and Mrs. Sea-Gull and what they said to each other. He even
+borrowed fairy-tale books from the public library in order to learn
+stories to tell his little friend on these Sunday outings. There came
+a birthday, with very little to make it gay, but the kind-hearted
+young man bought a small jointed doll with his meagre earnings, and
+the mother made a set of beautiful clothes for it out of bits of
+bright-coloured silks she had saved from her sewing. This, with a
+little table whittled out of a cigar-box and a ten-cent set of dishes,
+made a glorious day for the happy child. This friendship was
+maintained in later years, and when the once poor clerk became a bank
+president, Fanny Stevenson put her money in his bank.
+
+So life went on for the mother and child until one eventful day, when
+a tall, handsome man in high boots and a wide hat suddenly appeared at
+the door, and crying out, "Is this my little girl?" caught her up in
+his arms. As one risen from the dead, the husband and father had
+returned, and, to the child's amazement, they immediately moved into
+what seemed to her a very fine house, and she had a wax doll for
+Christmas.
+
+For a few succeeding years happiness seemed to have returned to dwell
+with the little family. Osbourne soon made his way in the busy city
+and all went well. They lived in San Francisco for several years.
+There a son was born to them, and they named him Lloyd, after their
+good friend, John Lloyd, now a successful lawyer.
+
+Those peaceful days were brought to an end when Mrs. Osbourne
+discovered that her husband had again betrayed her, and she returned
+to her father's house in Indiana. After nearly a year she yielded to
+entreaties and promises of reform, and again journeyed to California,
+taking Cora Van de Grift, one of her younger sisters, with her.
+
+A little while after their return to San Francisco, in 1869, Osbourne
+bought a house and lot for his family in East Oakland, then known as
+Brooklyn, at the corner of Eleventh Avenue and East 18th Street.
+Settled under their own rooftree in the golden land of California, the
+family for a time were measurably happy. Mrs. Osbourne, who is
+described as being then "a young and slender woman, wearing her hair
+in two long braids down her back," was evidently making a strong
+effort to forget past differences and to make home a pleasant place
+for her children. Though she cared little for society in the general
+sense of the word, yet she contrived to gather about her in East
+Oakland a little intimate circle of clever, talented, and agreeable
+people. Among them were Judge Timothy Rearden, a well-known attorney
+and _litterateur_ of San Francisco; Virgil Williams, director of the
+San Francisco School of Design, and his wife; Yelland, Bush, and other
+distinguished artists; the musician Oscar Weil, and many more whose
+names do not now come to mind.
+
+She built a studio where she painted, had a dark room where she took
+photographs--and photography in those days of "wet plates" was a
+mysterious and unheard-of accomplishment for an amateur; then there
+was a rifle-range where she set up a target, and, occasionally, when
+it was the cook's day out, she would make wonderful dishes, while odd
+moments were filled in at a sewing-machine making pretty clothes. By
+this time she had become a famous cook, and often prepared dinners fit
+to set before a king. She little thought then that some day she would
+break bread with real kings, even though they were but Polynesian
+monarchs.
+
+Of all her activities that from which she drew the purest joy was her
+gardening, for in this fortunate place, where sun and soil and balmy
+air all conspire to produce a paradise for flowers, "her Dutch blood
+began to come out," as she said, and she threw herself with ardour
+into the business of digging and pruning and planting. The little
+cottage was soon curtained with vines, and the whole place glowed with
+the many-coloured hues of gorgeous roses. There, too, the tawny golden
+bells of the tiger lily, her own particular flower, hung from their
+tall stalks. This was the first of the many wonderful gardens that
+were made to bloom under her skilful tending in various parts of the
+world.
+
+The charming domestic picture of her life in this period can be given
+in no better way than by quoting the words of her daughter:
+
+"At that time our fashionable neighbors gave 'parties' for their
+children. One night a fire broke out in a house where I had gone to a
+party. My mother was at home, sitting at her work, when she suddenly
+cried 'Something is the matter with Bel!' and rushing out, ran across
+ploughed fields, her slippers falling off, leaving her to run in
+stockings all the way. It was not until she was half-way there that
+she saw the smoke and realized the meaning of her intuition. When she
+found that I was all right and had been sent home she fainted and had
+to be carried home herself. She made my clothes herself, and I can
+remember to this day how pretty they were. I was very dark and of
+course ashamed of it, but she told me it was very nice to be different
+from other people, and dressed me in crisp yellow linen or pale blue,
+which made me look still darker, on the principle that Sarah Bernhardt
+followed in exaggerating her thinness when it was the fashion to have
+a rounded form. My mother told me to consider my dark skin a beauty,
+for she believed that if children had a good opinion of themselves
+they would never be self-conscious.
+
+"All the other girls in my school had given parties and I begged to be
+allowed to give one too. Our little house was not very suitable for
+the purpose, but my mother put her wits to work. She fitted up the
+stable with a stage and seats, and persuaded a neighbor who played the
+cornet to act as 'band.' Then she taught a small group of us to act
+'Villikens and his Dinah,' which she read aloud behind the scenes, and
+'Bluebeard,' made into a little play. My paternal grandmother, a
+straight-backed, severe looking old lady, was then visiting us. How my
+mother managed it I don't know, but Grandma, who abhorred
+theatricals, was soon reading 'Villikens' for us to practice, and she
+even consented to appear as one of Bluebeard's departed wives. A sheet
+was hung up to represent a wall; the wives stood behind it and put
+their heads through holes that had been cut for the purpose; their
+hair was pulled up and tacked to imaginary nails, and very realistic
+pieces of red flannel arranged to represent gore. My grandmother was a
+truly awful sight when my mother had painted her face and made her up
+for the show. The party was a great success, and only the other day I
+met a woman who had been one of the guests and she still remembered it
+as one of the striking events of her childhood.
+
+"My mother influenced me in those days in many ways that I shall never
+forget, especially in her hatred of anything that savored of snobbery.
+When I gave the party I placed the invitations in little pink
+envelopes and put them on the desks of my schoolmates. A neighbor's
+son who was poor and had to carry newspapers and peddle milk, sat next
+to me in school. Children are snobs by nature, and this boy was never
+asked to any of our parties. I consulted my mother as to what I should
+do about Danny, for he had been nice to me and I hated to leave him
+out. 'Of course you must invite him,' she said. 'But none of the other
+girls invited him to their parties,' said I. 'There is nothing against
+him, is there, except being poor?' 'Nothing at all,' I replied, and so
+I was directed to include him in the invitations. I shall never forget
+poor slighted Danny's radiant face when he saw there was a note for
+him. He came to the party dressed in new clothes from head to foot,
+and made such a success that after that he was always asked in 'our
+set.'
+
+"My mother also taught me to be considerate of other people's
+feelings. My teacher once kept me in for slamming a door; I told my
+mother about it and admitted that I had slammed it purposely because
+my teacher was so cross. In the guise of an entertaining story, she
+told me how the teacher, a pretty young woman named Miss Miller, had
+come to teach a big class, a stranger, alone, and that perhaps she had
+a headache from having cried the night before from homesickness. In
+this way she harrowed my feelings to such an extent that I went to
+Miss Miller of my own accord and begged her pardon, and the poor girl
+wept and loved me, and thenceforth made life miserable for me among my
+schoolmates by acts of 'favoritism.'"
+
+In the little rose-covered cottage in Oakland a second son, Hervey,
+was born to the Osbournes. He was an extraordinarily beautiful child,
+with the rare combination of large dark eyes and yellow curls, but
+there was an ethereal look about him that boded no long stay on this
+earthly sphere.
+
+It was perhaps partly to fill a great void that she began to feel in
+her life that Mrs. Osbourne took up the study of art in the School of
+Design conducted by Virgil Williams in San Francisco. Mother and
+daughter studied there side by side. While there Mrs. Osbourne won the
+prize, a silver medal, for the best drawing. She seemed not to value
+it at the time, but after her death her daughter found it in a little
+box laid away in her jewel-case.
+
+When the little yellow-haired boy was about four years old, the cloud
+which had menaced the happiness of the family for so long again
+descended upon them. For years Mrs. Osbourne had made earnest and
+conscientious efforts to avoid the disruption of her marital ties,
+plighted with such high hopes in the springtime of her girlhood, but
+her husband's infidelities had now become so open and flagrant that
+the situation was no longer bearable. Divorce was at that time a far
+more serious step than it is now, and, for the sake of her family, she
+hesitated long before taking it, but there is no doubt that she was
+deeply wounded and humiliated by this painful episode in her life,
+and, in 1875, partly to remove herself as far as possible from
+distressing associations, partly to give her daughter the advantage of
+instruction in foreign schools of art, she took her three children and
+set out for Europe. When she left California for this journey it is no
+exaggeration to say that every bond of affection that held her to
+Samuel Osbourne had been broken.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+FRANCE, AND THE MEETING AT GREZ.
+
+
+When they arrived on the other side, the Osbournes went directly to
+Antwerp, having decided to make a trial of that place first for their
+art studies. They landed at night in that most picturesque old city
+and took quarters at the Hotel du Bien-etre, a quaint little old
+bourgeois inn where you walked in through the kitchen--full of copper
+pots and pans. It was in the days before "improvements"--broad
+avenues, street-cars, and the like--had robbed the old town of much of
+its distinctive charm, when at the corners of the narrow, stone-paved
+streets shrines of the Virgin and Child might still be seen. The
+passing crowds--peasant women in elaborate lace caps and long cloaks,
+groups of soldiers, milk carts drawn by dogs--all were intensely
+interesting to the newcomers from America, for whom this was the first
+foreign experience. The evening of their arrival they hung fascinated
+from their windows, listening to the glorious chimes from the
+cathedral near by, and watching the changing spectacle below. There
+were little tables in the street where soldiers sat drinking, while
+maids in huge caps filled their flagons. Isobel remarked: "It is like
+a scene in an opera; all we need is music." At that moment a band at
+the corner struck up "La Fille de Madame Angot," and the illusion was
+complete.
+
+The Hotel du Bien-etre was kept by the Gerhardts, a delightful family
+of father, mother, and eleven children. It was a happy time in Antwerp
+for the Osbourne children, for this large family of young people
+provided them with pleasant companionship.
+
+But if the Osbourne children had a happy time in Antwerp, it was far
+otherwise with their mother, for she was alone with her family in a
+foreign land and had little money, and the responsibility weighed
+heavily upon her, her anxiety being further increased by signs of
+ill-health in her youngest child, Hervey. In this state of mind she
+was deeply touched by the warm-hearted kindness of the Gerhardts,
+which they exhibited in a thousand ways. One day the newspapers
+published an account of the failure of a bank in San Francisco, and,
+knowing that his guests came from that city, Papa Gerhardt was
+troubled lest they might suffer some pecuniary distress from the
+failure. Out of the fulness of his good heart he said to Mrs.
+Osbourne: "Do not be anxious; it does not matter if you have lost your
+money; you can stay with Papa Gerhardt." Fortunately, the bank failure
+did not affect her in any way, but the generosity of these good people
+in her lonely situation went straight to her heart, and to the end of
+her days one only had to be a Belgian to call forth her help and
+sympathy.
+
+Finding it necessary to economize, she took a house, a queer little
+stone building with a projecting roof, containing four small rooms,
+one on top of the other. The rooms were so tiny that when the big
+front door stood ajar it opened up almost all the little apartment
+dignified by the name of "salon." The entire Gerhardt family took a
+hand in getting them settled, bringing little gifts--crocheted mats,
+bouquets of artificial flowers, and two pictures, bright-coloured
+chromos of "Morning" and "Night," representing two little children,
+awake and asleep. Mrs. Osbourne loyally kept these pictures for years,
+hanging them upon her wall in tender and grateful memory of the
+Gerhardts.
+
+After three months' stay in Antwerp, finding it to be a difficult
+place for women to study art, and having been told of a good and cheap
+school in Paris, she decided to go there. When they parted, with many
+tears, from their dear Belgian friends, Mrs. Osbourne, with a swelling
+heart, tried to thank Papa Gerhardt for his kindness to her and her
+children, but he said he had a large family who would some day have to
+go out into the world, and he had treated the Americans as he hoped
+his own would be treated.
+
+From Antwerp they went to Paris, and Fanny and her daughter entered
+the Julien School of Art on the Passage des Panorama, where they spent
+a very busy time working at their drawings under the instruction of
+Monsieur Tony Fleury. The older of the two boys, Lloyd, was placed in
+a French school, and he still remembers that in any quarrel with the
+boys he was called "Prussian" as a dire insult. He did not know what
+it meant, but nevertheless resented it promptly.
+
+The family lived very plainly, their meals often consisting of smoked
+herring and brown bread; yet these straitened circumstances did not
+prevent Mrs. Osbourne from taking pity on poor and homesick young
+students, fellow countrymen, whom she met at the school, and, when
+funds allowed, she invited them to eat Dutch-American dishes prepared
+by her own hands.
+
+During these Paris days a heavy sorrow fell upon the family. The
+beautiful golden-haired boy, Hervey, then about five years old, fell
+ill, and after lingering for some time, passed away, and was buried in
+an exile's grave at St. Germain. Though the mother bore even this
+heart-crushing blow with outward fortitude, the memory of it dwelt
+always in an inner chamber of her heart. In a letter of sympathy
+written by her years afterwards to the Graham Balfours,[5] on hearing
+of the death of one of their children, she says: "My Hervey would have
+been a man of forty now had he lived, and yet I am grieving and
+longing for my little child as though he had just gone. Time doesn't
+always heal wounds as we are told it does."
+
+              [Footnote 5: Now Sir Graham and Lady Balfour. Sir Graham
+              is a cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson, and his
+              biographer.]
+
+After this sad event the bereaved mother was so listless and broken in
+health that the doctor advised a change to some quiet country place,
+where she could get the benefit of outdoor life and better air than in
+the stuffy little Paris apartment. A casual acquaintance, Mr.
+Pardessus, an American sculptor whom they had met at the art school,
+told them about Grez, a little village in Fontainebleau Forest on the
+River Loing, where there was a ruined castle, a picturesque old inn,
+and a lovely garden on the river-bank. Above all, it was modest in
+price and so retired that it was almost unknown to ordinary
+travellers. This alluring description was not to be resisted, and Mrs.
+Osbourne, with her little family, now sadly bereaved, left for the
+place which was to play so momentous a part in her future.
+
+When they reached Grez they found there only one visitor--Mr. Walter
+Palmer, then a young student, who was painting in the garden. It was a
+quiet, restful place, and Mrs. Osbourne began to recover the tone of
+her health and spirits in its peaceful atmosphere.
+
+[Illustration: The bridge at Grez.]
+
+Previous to this time women artists had been practically unknown in
+the colonies about Fontainebleau, and the men who haunted these places
+were disposed to resent the coming of any of the other sex. The news
+that an American lady and her two children had arrived at Grez spread
+consternation among them, and they sent a scout, Mr. R. A. M.
+Stevenson,[6] ahead to look over the situation and report. The choice
+of scout was scarcely a wise one, for "Bob" Stevenson, as he was known
+to his friends, instantly fell a victim to the attractions of the
+strangers--who, by the way, were utterly unconscious that they were
+regarded as intruders--and so he stayed on from day to day. After
+waiting some time for the return of the faithless emissary, another,
+Sir Walter Simpson, was sent, but he, too, failed to return. Then
+Robert Louis Stevenson set out to look into the mystery. His coming
+had been led up to like a stage entrance, for first his cousin had
+told wonderful stories of adventures in which Louis was always the
+hero--what Louis did, what Louis said--until the two Americans,
+mother and daughter, began to get interested in this fascinating
+person; and then came Sir Walter, with more stories of Louis--stories
+that are now well known through _An Inland Voyage_.
+
+              [Footnote 6: Robert Alan Mowbray Stevenson, cousin of
+              Robert Louis.]
+
+One evening in the summer of 1876 the little party of guests at the
+old inn sat at dinner about the long table in the centre of the
+_salle-a-manger_ with the painted panels--handiwork of artists who had
+stopped there at various times. It was a soft, sweet evening, and the
+doors and windows were open; dusk drew near, and the lamps had just
+been lit. Suddenly a young man approached from the outside. It was
+Robert Louis Stevenson, who afterwards admitted that he had fallen in
+love with his wife at first sight when he saw her in the lamplight
+through the open window.
+
+The autumn months passed swiftly by after this meeting in an ideal
+existence of work and play. Mrs. Osbourne worked industriously at her
+painting, and as she sat at her easel the acquaintance between her and
+the young Scotchman rapidly flowered into a full and sympathetic
+understanding. Everything about this American family, speaking as it
+did of a land of new and strange customs and habits of thought,
+appealed strongly to the ardent young man. He was a devoted admirer of
+Walt Whitman, and thought he knew America. The daughter, Isobel,
+described by one of the members of the colony[7] at Grez as "a
+bewitching young girl of seventeen, with eyes so large as to be out of
+drawing," amazed and delighted him by the piquancy of the contrast
+between her and the young women he had previously known. In a girlish
+description given in one of her letters home, written at the time, she
+says:
+
+              [Footnote 7: Mr. Birge Harrison, in the _Century
+              Magazine_, December, 1916.]
+
+"There is a young Scotchman here, a Mr. Stevenson, who looks at me as
+though I were a natural curiosity. He never saw a real American girl
+before, and he says I act and talk as though I came out of a book--I
+mean an American book. He says that when he first met Bloomer[8] he
+came up to him and said in his western way: 'These parts don't seem
+much settled, hey?' He laughed for an hour at the idea of such an old
+place not being much settled. He is such a nice looking ugly man, and
+I would rather listen to him talk than read the most interesting book
+I ever saw. We sit in the little green arbor after dinner drinking
+coffee and talking till late at night. Mama is ever so much better and
+is getting prettier every day."
+
+              [Footnote 8: An American artist.]
+
+Again she writes:
+
+"Yesterday I canoed to Nemours in Louis Stevenson's _Rob Roy_. We
+generally congregate down in the garden by the big tree after dinner.
+Mama swings in the hammock, looking as pretty as possible, and we all
+form a group around her on the grass, Louis and Bob Stevenson babbling
+about boats, while Simpson, seated near by, fans himself with a large
+white fan."
+
+[Illustration: Fanny Osbourne at about the time of her first meeting
+with Robert Louis Stevenson.]
+
+The little party in the old inn, "entirely surrounded by peasants," as
+Bob Stevenson said, devised all sorts of sports, for which the river
+afforded many opportunities. There was a huge old boat, a double
+canoe, lying at the water's edge; this they put on rollers, and after
+the entire party had climbed into it, persuaded the passing peasants
+to come and push it off the bank, like a sort of "shoot the chutes."
+Another game was to divide the canoes into bands, each under a
+captain, and engage in a contest, each side trying to tip over the
+enemy canoes. In all this hilarious fun Louis Stevenson was the
+leader.
+
+In the old hall they had great times, with dances, now and then a
+performance by strolling players, and once a masquerade given by the
+guests of the inn themselves, in which they dressed as gods and
+goddesses in sheets and wreaths. Once when a couple of wandering
+singers arrived after a disappointing season, the artists contributed
+a purse and invited them to spend a week and rest. These people told
+Stevenson the story he made into _Providence and the Guitar_, and the
+money which he received for it he sent to them afterwards to help pay
+for the education of their little girl in Paris.
+
+But of all that went on at Grez the talks are remembered as the best,
+for, notwithstanding their merry fooling in their idle hours, there
+were brilliant minds among the company, and the conversation sparkled
+with rare conceits.
+
+Three summers the Osbournes returned to spend at Grez, lingering on
+the last time until the snow came. A short visit was made to Barbizon,
+too, and once when there the whole party had their silhouettes drawn
+on the walls of the dining-room. This was done by placing a lamp so
+that it threw a shadow of the face in profile on the wall, then
+outlining the shadow and filling it in with black. Louis Stevenson
+wrote verses to them all. The place was repainted the next spring,
+which was to be regretted, for the walls were completely covered with
+the most interesting silhouettes and drawings by painters who later
+became famous, to say nothing of the verses made by Stevenson, which
+would now have been a priceless memorial of those youthful days.
+
+Among the joyous coterie was the American painter Will H. Low, who
+writes thus of Fanny Osbourne in his _Chronicle of Friendships_:
+
+"One evening at Grez we saw two new faces, mother and daughter, though
+in appearance more like sisters; the elder, slight, with delicately
+moulded features and vivid eyes gleaming from under a mass of dark
+hair; the younger of more robust type, in the first precocious bloom
+of womanhood."
+
+Another of the company, Mr. Birge Harrison, writing in the _Century
+Magazine_ of December, 1916, expresses his mature judgment of her as
+he knew her at the little French village:
+
+[Illustration: Robert Louis Stevenson in the French days.]
+
+"Among a few women who were doing serious work at this place was the
+lady, 'Trusty, dusky, vivid, and true,' to whom Robert Louis Stevenson
+inscribed the most beautiful love song of our time. Mrs. Osbourne
+could not have been at that time more than thirty-five years of age--a
+grave and remarkable type of womanhood, with eyes of a depth and
+sombre beauty that I have never seen equalled--eyes, nevertheless,
+that upon occasion could sparkle with humor and brim over with
+laughter. Yet upon the whole Mrs. Osbourne impressed me as first of
+all a woman of profound character and serious judgment, who could, if
+occasion called, have been the leader in some great movement. But she
+belonged to the quattrocento rather than to the nineteenth century.
+Had she been born a Medici, she would have held rank as one of the
+remarkable women of all time. That she was a woman of intellectual
+attainments is proved by the fact that she was already a magazine
+writer of recognized ability, and that at the moment when Stevenson
+first came into her life she was making a living for herself and her
+two children with her pen. But this, after all, is a more or less
+ordinary accomplishment, and Mrs. Osbourne was in no sense ordinary.
+Indeed, she was gifted with a mysterious sort of over-intelligence,
+which is almost impossible to describe, but which impressed itself
+upon every one who came within the radius of her influence. Napoleon
+had much of this; likewise his arch enemy, the great Duke of
+Wellington; and among women, Catherine of Russia and perhaps Elizabeth
+of England. She was therefore both physically and mentally the very
+antithesis of the gay, hilarious, open-minded and open-hearted
+Stevenson, and for that very reason perhaps the woman in all the world
+best fitted to be his life comrade and helpmate. At any rate we may
+well ask ourselves if anywhere else he would have found the kind of
+understanding and devotion which she gave him from the day of their
+first meeting at Grez until the day of his death in far-away Samoa; if
+anywhere else there was a woman of equal attainments who would
+willingly, nay gladly, throw aside all of the pleasures and comforts
+of civilization to live among savages, and the still rougher whites of
+the South Pacific, in order that her husband might have just a little
+more oxygen for his failing lungs, a little more _chance_ for a
+respite and an extension of his shortening years? Probably no one ever
+better deserved than she the noble tribute of verse which her husband
+gave her, and from which I have quoted the opening line."
+
+In 1878 the Osbournes returned to America, travelling by way of
+Queenstown, where, for the sake of stepping on Irish soil, they went
+ashore for a few hours and took a ride in a real jaunting-car, with a
+driver who was as Irish as possible, with a thick brogue, a hole in
+his hat, and a smiling, good-humoured countenance.
+
+A short stop was made in Indiana to visit the old family home in
+Hendricks County, now saddened by the death of our father, and then
+Fanny Osbourne once more turned her steps towards the setting sun. At
+this time she added me, her youngest sister, to her party, and I
+remained with her until her marriage to Stevenson and their departure
+for Scotland. She was then in the full flower of her striking and
+unusual beauty, and so youthful in appearance that she, her daughter,
+and I passed everywhere as three sisters. To me, reared as I had been
+in the flat country of central Indiana, where mountains and the sea
+were wonders known only through books, the journey across the
+continent--with its glimpses of the mighty snow-capped crags of the
+Rockies outlined against the fiery sunset skies of that region, the
+weird castellated rocks of the "Bad Lands," the colonies of funny
+little prairie-dogs peeping out of their burrows, the blanket-wrapped
+Indians waiting at the stations, and finally the awesome vision of the
+stupendous canyons and precipices of the Sierras, was like some
+strange, impossible dream; and when at last we came out into the warm
+sun and flowery brightness of California, straight from the gloom and
+chill of an Indiana November, it was as though the gates of paradise
+had suddenly opened.
+
+Not long after her return to California, finding a reconciliation with
+her husband to be quite out of the question, Mrs. Osbourne decided to
+bring suit for divorce, which was eventually granted without
+opposition.
+
+In the meantime, being much run down in health as a result of these
+harassing anxieties, she wished to seek rest in some quiet place free
+from unpleasant associations. This she found in the charming little
+coast town of Monterey, which was then still unspoiled by tourist
+travel, and, taking her family with her, she went there for a stay of
+several months. In the soft air and peaceful atmosphere of this place
+her health and spirits soon revived. There she found an opportunity to
+indulge her skill as a horsewoman, and at any time she might have been
+seen galloping along the country roads on her little mustang,
+Clavel.[9] She even joined a party of friends who accompanied a band
+of _vaqueros_[10] in a great _rodeo_[11] on the San Francisquito ranch
+near Monterey. We rode for days from station to station, through a
+delightful country, under the feathery, scented redwoods and beside
+clear mountain-streams in which the trout leaped. We slept in barns on
+the hay or on the far-from-downy rawhide cots in the ranch shanties,
+and subsisted on freshly killed beef hastily barbecued over the
+campfire, coming back to Monterey sunburned to a fine mahogany.
+
+              [Footnote 9: A Spanish word, pronounced clahvel, and
+              meaning a pink.]
+
+              [Footnote 10: Cowboys.]
+
+              [Footnote 11: Cattle round-up.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+IN CALIFORNIA WITH ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
+
+
+As the months passed, Stevenson, drawn by an irresistible desire to
+see the one who had become dearest in all the world to him, and having
+heard that she was soon to be freed from the bonds that held her to
+another, decided to take ship for America. After the long ocean voyage
+and the fatiguing journey from sea to sea, which he has himself so
+graphically described, he went straight to meet the family at
+Monterey.
+
+In the year 1879 there remained one spot in practical America where
+the Spirit of Romance still lingered, though even there she stood
+a-tiptoe, ready to take wing into the mists of the Pacific. It seems
+fitting that it should have been at that place that I first knew
+Robert Louis Stevenson. Although the passing of the years has dimmed
+the memory of those days to a certain degree, yet here and there a
+high light gleams out in the shadowy haze of the picture and brings
+back the impression of his face and personality and of the
+surroundings and little events of our daily life in his company as
+though they had happened but yesterday. The little town of Monterey,
+being out of the beaten track of travel, and having no mines or large
+agricultural tracts in its vicinity to stimulate trade, had dreamed
+away the years since American occupation, and still retained much of
+the flavour of the pastoral days of Spanish California. It is true
+that at the _cascarone_[12] balls--at which the entire population,
+irrespective of age or worldly position, dressed in silks or in
+flannel shirts, as the case might be, still gathered almost weekly in
+truly democratic comradeship--the egg-shells were no longer filled
+with gold-dust, as sometimes happened in the prodigal Spanish days;
+yet time was still regarded as a thing of so little value that no one
+thought of abandoning the pleasures of the dance until broad daylight.
+Along the narrow, crooked streets of the little town, with its
+precarious wooden sidewalks, the language of old Castile, spoken with
+surprising purity, was heard more often than English. In fact, as Mr.
+Stevenson himself says in his essay on _The Old Pacific Capital_: "It
+was difficult to get along without a word or two of that language for
+an occasion."
+
+              [Footnote 12: These entertainments were so called in
+              allusion to the custom of breaking _cascarones_
+              (egg-shells), previously filled with finely cut coloured
+              or tinsel paper, upon the heads of the dancers. By the
+              time the midnight hour rolled around, every head
+              glittered with the confetti, and the floor was piled
+              several inches deep with it.]
+
+High adobe walls, topped with tiles, concealed pleasant secluded
+gardens, from which the heavy perfume of the floribundia and other
+semitropical flowers poured out on the evening air. Behind such a wall
+and in the midst of such a garden stood the two-story adobe dwelling
+of the Senorita Maria Ygnacia Bonifacio, known to her intimates as
+Dona Nachita. In the "clean empty rooms" of this house, furnished
+with Spanish abstemiousness and kept in shining whiteness, "where the
+roar of the water dwelt as in a shell upon the chimney," we had our
+temporary residence, and here Louis Stevenson came often to visit us
+and share our simple meals, each of which became a little fete in the
+thrill of his presence and conversation. Something he had in him that
+made life seem a more exciting thing, better worth living, to every
+one associated with him, and it seemed impossible to be dull or bored
+in his company. It is true that he loved to talk, and one of his
+friends complained that he was too "deuced explanatory," but it seemed
+to me that the flood of talk he sometimes poured out was the overflow
+of a full mind, a mind so rich in ideas that he could well afford to
+bestow some of it upon his friends without hope of return. His was no
+narrow vein to be jealously hoarded for use in his writings, but his
+difficulty lay rather in choosing from the wealth of his store. He
+once remarked that he could not understand a man's having to struggle
+to "find something to write about," and perhaps it is true that one
+who has to do that has no real vocation as a writer.
+
+When he came to us at Monterey he was newly arrived in this country,
+and seemed to be in a rather peculiar state of mind concerning it,
+complaining that it was too much like England to have the piquancy of
+a foreign land, and yet not enough like it to have the restfulness of
+home, therefore it left him with a strange, unsatisfied feeling. One
+of the things in the new land that pleased him much was its food, for
+he believed in enjoying the good things of this life, and he was like
+a second Christopher Columbus, just discovering green corn and sweet
+potatoes. In a letter to his friend Sidney Colvin he says: "In America
+you eat better than anywhere else; fact. The food is heavenly!" During
+his first days at Monterey he kept singing the praises of certain
+delectable "little cakes," which he had found much to his liking in
+the railroad eating-houses while crossing the continent. These were a
+great mystery to us until one day Ah Sing, the Chinese cook, placed
+upon the table a plate of smoking-hot baking-powder biscuits. Behold
+the famous "little cakes"!
+
+The unexpected discovery in the town of Jules Simoneau, to whom he
+refers in his letters as "a most pleasant old boy, with whom I discuss
+the universe and play chess," a man of varied talents, who was able to
+furnish him with an excellent dinner, as well as the intelligent
+companionship that he valued more than food, was a great satisfaction
+to him. Often we all repaired together to Simoneau's little
+restaurant, where we were served meals that were a rare combination of
+French and Spanish cookery, for our host's wife, Dona Martina, was a
+native of Miraflores, in Lower California, and was skilled in the
+preparation of the _tamales_[13] and _carne con chile_[14] of the
+Southwest. It has always seemed to me that in the oft-told story of
+the friendship between Jules Simoneau and Robert Louis Stevenson but
+scant justice has been done to that uncommonly fine woman Dona
+Martina, who, no doubt, had her part in caring for the writer when he
+lay so ill in Monterey. Perhaps more often than not it was her kind
+and skilful hand that prepared the broth and smoothed the pillow for
+Don Roberto Luis, as she called him; and though she had but little
+book knowledge, she was, in her native good sense, her well-chosen
+language, and the dignity and courtesy of her manners, what people
+call a "born lady." Mrs. Stevenson was profoundly grateful to Jules
+Simoneau for his early kindness to her husband, and had a sincere
+admiration for his wife as well. When he fell into straitened
+circumstances in his old age, she went to his rescue and provided him
+with a comfortable living during his last years. When he died she
+followed him to his last resting-place, and afterwards erected a
+suitable monument to mark it, only stipulating that the name of Dona
+Martina should also be placed upon it, she having died some time
+before him.
+
+              [Footnote 13: _Tamales_, perhaps the most famous
+              culinary product of the Southwest, were probably of
+              Indian origin. Their construction is too complicated to
+              explain here, further than to say that they are made of
+              corn-meal and chopped meat rolled in corn-husks and
+              boiled.]
+
+              [Footnote 14: _Carne con chile_ (meat with chile) is
+              what its name indicates, a stew of meat and red
+              peppers.]
+
+In the Senorita Bonifacio's garden, where we spent much of our time,
+there was a riot of flowers--rich yellow masses of enormous
+cloth-of-gold roses, delicate pink old-fashioned Castilian roses,
+which the Senorita carefully gathered each year to make rose-pillows,
+besides fuchsias as large as young trees, and a thousand other blooms
+of incredible size and beauty. Loving them all, their little Spanish
+mistress flitted about among them like a bird, alert, active,
+bright-eyed, straight as an arrow, and as springy of step as a girl of
+sixteen, although even then she was past her first youth.
+
+As to flowers, it seemed to me that they made no particular appeal to
+Mr. Stevenson except for their scent, in which he was very like the
+rest of his sex the world over. He cared rather for nature's larger
+effects--a noble cloud in the sky, the thunder of the surf on the
+beach, or the fresh resinous smell of the pine forest.
+
+To this house he came often of an afternoon to read the results of his
+morning's work to the assembled family. While we sat in a circle,
+listening in appreciative silence, he nervously paced the room,
+reading aloud in his full sonorous voice--a voice that always seemed
+remarkable in so frail a man--his face flushed and his manner
+embarrassed, for, far from being overconfident about his work, he
+always seemed to feel a sort of shy anxiety lest it should not be up
+to the mark. He invariably gave respectful attention and careful
+consideration to the criticism of the humblest of his hearers, but in
+the end clung with Scotch pertinacity to his own opinion if he was
+sure of its justice. In this way we heard _The Pavilion on the Links_,
+which he wrote at Monterey, and read to us chapter by chapter as they
+came from his pen. While there he also began another story which was
+to have been called _Arizona Breckinridge_, or _A Vendetta in the
+West_. This story, with its rather lurid title, was to have been based
+upon some of his impressions of western America, but his heart could
+not have been in it, for it was never finished. The name of Arizona
+came out of his intense delight in the "songful, tuneful" nomenclature
+of the United States, in which terms he refers to it in _Across the
+Plains_. The name Susquehanna was a special joy to him, and he took
+pleasure in rolling it on his tongue, adding to its music with the
+rich tones of his voice, as he repeated it: "Susquehanna! Oh,
+beautiful!" While on the train passing through Pennsylvania he wrote
+some verses in a letter to Sidney Colvin about the beautiful river
+with the "tuneful" name, of which one stanza runs thus:
+
+     "I think, I hope, I dream no more
+      The dreams of otherwhere;
+      The cherished thoughts of yore;
+      I have been changed from what I was before;
+      And drunk too deep perchance the lotus of the air
+      Beside the Susquehanna and along the Delaware."
+
+Again, in writing the poem entitled _Ticonderoga_, it was the name
+that first drew his attention, and
+
+     "It sang in his sleeping ears,
+      It hummed in his waking head;
+      The name--Ticonderoga."
+
+Some story that we told him about a man who named his numerous family
+of daughters after the States--Indiana, Nebraska, California,
+etc.--took his fancy and suggested the name of Arizona Breckinridge to
+him.
+
+Out of the mist arise memories of walks along the beach--the long
+beach of clean white sand that stretches unbroken for many miles
+around the great sweeping curve of Monterey Bay, where we "watched the
+tiny sandy-pipers, and the huge Pacific seas." Sometimes we walked
+there at night, when the blood-red harvest-moon sprang suddenly like a
+great ball of fire above the rim of horizon on the opposite side of
+the circling bay, sending a glittering track across the water to our
+very feet. To walk with Stevenson on such a night, and watch "the
+waves come in slowly, vast and green, curve their translucent necks
+and burst with a surprising uproar"--to walk with him on such a night
+and listen to his inimitable talk is the sort of memory that cannot
+fade. On other nights when the waters of the bay were all alight with
+the glow of phosphorescence, we walked on the old wooden pier and
+marvelled at the billows of fire sent rolling in beneath us by the
+splashing porpoises.
+
+Perhaps nothing about the place interested him more deeply than the
+old mission of San Carlos Borromeo, once the home of the illustrious
+Junipero Serra, and now the last resting-place of his earthly remains.
+Within its ruined walls mass was celebrated once a year in honour of
+its patron, Saint Charles Borromeo, and after the religious service
+was over the people joined in a joyous _merienda_[15] under the trees,
+during which vast quantities of _tamales_, _enchiladas_,[16] and other
+distinctive Spanish-American viands were generously distributed to
+friend and stranger, Catholic and Protestant. Mr. Stevenson attended
+one of these celebrations, and was greatly moved by the sight of the
+pitiful remnant of aged Indians, sole survivors of Father Serra's once
+numerous flock, as they lifted their quavering voices in the mass. He
+expressed much surprise at the clarity of their pronunciation of the
+Latin, and in his essay on _The Old Pacific Capital_, he says: "There
+you may hear God served with perhaps more touching circumstances than
+in any other temple under Heaven.... These Indians have the Gregorian
+music at their finger-ends, and pronounce the Latin so correctly that
+I could follow the music as they sang." Much has been changed since
+then, for the church has been "restored," and the little band of
+Indians have long since quavered out their last mass and gone to meet
+their beloved pastor, the saintly Serra.
+
+              [Footnote 15: _Merienda_--noonday luncheon.]
+
+              [Footnote 16: _Enchiladas_ are a sort of corn-meal
+              pancake rolled up and stuffed with cheese and a sauce
+              made of red peppers.]
+
+Those were _dolce-far-niente_ days at Monterey, dreamy, romantic days,
+spent beneath the bluest sky, beside the bluest sea, and in the best
+company on earth, and all glorified by the rainbow hues of youth. But,
+as Mr. Stevenson prophesied, the little town was "not strong enough to
+resist the influence of the flaunting caravanserai which sprang up in
+the desert by the railway," and after the coming of the fashionable
+hotel the commercial spirit came to life in the place. The tile-topped
+walls, hiding their sweet secluded gardens, gave way to the new frame
+or brick buildings, the narrow, crooked streets were straightened and
+graded, the breakneck sidewalks replaced by neat cement pavements,
+and, at last, the Spirit of Romance spread her wings and vanished into
+the mists of the Pacific.
+
+The setting of the picture is now changed to Oakland, across the bay
+from San Francisco, where we lived for some months in the little house
+which Mr. Stevenson himself describes in the dedication to _Prince
+Otto_ as "far gone in the respectable stages of antiquity, and which
+seemed indissoluble from the green garden in which it stood, and that
+yet was a sea-traveller in its younger days, and had come round the
+Horn piecemeal in the belly of a ship, and might have heard the seamen
+stamping and shouting and the note of the boatswain's whistle." This
+cottage was of the variety known as "cloth and paper," a flimsy
+construction permitted by the kindly climate of California, and on
+winter nights, when the wind blew in strongly from the sea, its sides
+puffed in and out, greatly to the amusement of the "Scot," accustomed
+as he was to the solid buildings of his native land. It was, as he
+says, "embowered in creepers," for over its front a cloth-of-gold rose
+spread its clinging arms, and over one side a Banksia flung a curtain
+of green and yellow.
+
+It was during his stay in this house that we first realized the
+serious nature of his illness, and yet there was none of the
+depressing atmosphere of sickness, for he refused to be the regulation
+sick man. Every day he worked for a few hours at least, while I acted
+as amanuensis in order to save him the physical labour of writing. In
+this way the first rough draught of _Prince Otto_ was written, and
+here, too, he tried his hand at poetry, producing some of the poems
+that afterwards appeared in the collection called _Underwoods_,
+although it is certain that he never believed himself to be possessed
+of the true poetic fire. Brave as his spirit was, yet he had his dark
+moments when the dread of premature death weighed upon him. It was
+probably in such a mood that he wrote the poem called _Not Yet, My
+Soul_, an appeal to fate in which he expressed his rebellion against
+an untimely end.
+
+     "Not yet, my soul, these friendly fields desert,
+      .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .
+      The ship rides trimmed, and from the eternal shore
+      Thou hearest airy voices; but not yet
+      Depart, my soul, not yet awhile depart.
+      .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .
+      Leave not, my soul, the unfoughten field, nor leave
+      Thy debts dishonored, nor thy place desert
+      Without due service rendered. For thy life,
+      Up, spirit, and defend that fort of clay,
+      Thy body, now beleaguered."
+
+While engaged in dictating, he had a habit of walking up and down the
+room, his pace growing faster and faster as his enthusiasm rose. We
+feared that this was not very good for him, so we quietly devised a
+scheme to prevent it, without his knowledge, by hemming him in with
+tables and chairs, so that each time he sprang up to walk he sank back
+discouraged at sight of the obstructions. When I recall the sleepless
+care with which Mrs. Stevenson watched over him at that critical point
+in his life, it seems to me that it is not too much to say that the
+world owes it to her that he lived to produce his best works.
+
+But above and beyond his wife's care for his physical well-being was
+the strong courage with which she stood by him in his hours of gloom
+and heartened him up to the fight. Her profound faith in his genius
+before the rest of the world had come to recognize it had a great
+deal to do with keeping up his faith in himself, and her
+discriminating taste in literature was such that he had begun even
+then to submit all his writings to her criticism.
+
+Although his own life work lay entirely in the field of letters, he
+had a sincere admiration for work with the hands, and often expressed
+his surprise at the mechanical cleverness of American women. He took
+pleasure in seeing that we could cut, fit, and make our own clothing,
+and do a pretty good job of it, too, and looked on at the operation
+with serious interest, sometimes making useful suggestions, for he had
+a genuine and unaffected sympathy with the work and aims of other
+people, no matter how humble they might be. Any one could go to him
+with a tale of daily struggle, of little ambitions bravely fought for,
+even though it were nothing more than a job as waiter in a restaurant,
+and be sure of his respectful consideration and sincere advice, always
+granting that the ambition were honest and the fight well fought.
+
+Sickness and discouragement were not enough to keep down his boyish
+gaiety, which he sometimes manifested by teasing his womenfolk. One of
+his favourite methods of doing this was to station himself on a chair
+in front of us, and, with his brown eyes lighted up with a whimsical
+smile, talk broad Scotch, in a Highland nasal twang, by the hour,
+until we cried for mercy. Yet he was decidedly sensitive about that
+same Scotch, and his feelings were much wounded by hearing me express
+a horror of reading it in books.
+
+A pleasant trivial circumstance of our life that comes to mind is an
+occasion when we were all rejoicing in the possession of new
+clothes--a rare event with any of us in those days, and Louis proposed
+that we should celebrate this extraordinary prosperity by an evening
+at the theatre. Women wore pockets then, but there had been no time to
+provide my dress with one, so Louis agreed to carry my handkerchief,
+but only on condition that I should ask for it when needed in a true
+Scotch twang, "Gie me the naepkin!" a condition that I was compelled
+to fulfill, no doubt to the surprise of our neighbours at the theatre.
+Gilbert and Sullivan were in their heyday then, and the play given
+that night was _The Pirates of Penzance_. Louis said the London
+"bobbies" were true to life.
+
+Chief among the amusements with which we tried to brighten the extreme
+quietude of our lives in the little Oakland house was reading aloud.
+We obtained books from the Mercantile Library of San Francisco, among
+which I especially remember the historical works of Francis Parkman,
+who was a great favourite with Mr. Stevenson. He had a theory that the
+not uncommon distaste among the people for that branch of literature
+was largely the fault of the dull style adopted by many historians,
+and saw no good reason why the thrilling story of the great events of
+the world should not be presented in a manner that would hold the
+interest of readers. Yet he had no patience with the sort of writing
+that subordinates truth to the desire of presenting a striking
+picture. As an instance, certainly of rare occurrence in Parkman, he
+noticed a paragraph in _The Conspiracy of Pontiac_, in which the
+author refers to the shining of the moon on a certain night when a
+party was endeavouring to make a secret passage down the river through
+hostile country. He thought it unlikely that Parkman could have known
+that the moon shone on that particular night, though it is possible
+that he did him an injustice, for it sometimes happens that just such
+a trivial circumstance is mentioned in the documents of the early
+explorers.
+
+Sometimes he read aloud to us from some French writer, translating it
+into English as he read for our benefit. _Les Etrangleurs_ was one of
+the books that he read to us in this way, while we sat and sewed our
+seams. He seemed to get a good deal of rest as well as amusement from
+the reading of such books of mystery and adventure. His taste was
+always for the decent in literature, and he was much offended by the
+works of the writers of the materialistic school who were just then
+gaining a vogue. Among these was Emile Zola, and he exacted a promise
+from me never to read that writer--a promise that has been faithfully
+kept to this day.
+
+His stay at Monterey had given him a fancy to study the Spanish
+language, so we obtained books and began it together. He had a theory
+that a language could be best acquired by plunging directly into it,
+but I have a suspicion that our choice of a drama of the sixteenth
+century, one of Lope de Vega's, I think, was scarcely a wise one for
+beginners. He refers to this venture of ours in a letter to Sidney
+Colvin as "the play which the sister and I are just beating our way
+through with two bad dictionaries and an insane grammar."
+Nevertheless, we made some headway, and I remember that he marvelled
+greatly at the far-fetched, high-flown similes and figures of speech
+indulged in by the writers of the "Golden Age" of Spain. In spite of
+his confessed dislike for the cold-blooded study of the grammar, we
+did not altogether neglect it, and a day comes to my mind when he was
+assisting me in the homely task of washing the dishes in the pleasant
+sunny kitchen where the Banksia rose hung its yellow curtain over the
+windows. We recited Spanish conjugations while we worked, and he held
+up a glass for my inspection, saying: "See how beautifully I have
+polished it, Nellie. There is no doubt that I have missed my vocation.
+I was born to be a butler." "No, Louis," I replied, "some day you are
+to be a famous writer, and who knows but that I shall write about you,
+as the humble Boswell wrote about Johnson, and tell the world how you
+once wiped dishes for me in this old kitchen!"
+
+For the long evenings of winter we had a game which Louis invented
+expressly for our amusement. Lloyd Osbourne, then a boy of twelve, had
+rather more than the usual boy's fondness for stories of the sea. It
+will be remembered that it was to please this boy that Mr. Stevenson
+afterwards wrote _Treasure Island_. Our game was to tell a continued
+story, each person being limited to two minutes, taking up the tale at
+the point where the one before him left off. We older ones had a
+secret understanding that we were to keep Lloyd away from the sea, but
+strive as we might, even though we left the hero stranded in the
+middle of the Desert of Sahara, Lloyd never failed to have him sailing
+the bounding main again before his allotted two minutes expired.
+
+Many and long were the arguments that we had on the merits of our
+respective countries, and I remember that Mr. Stevenson did not place
+the sentiment of patriotism at the top of the list of human virtues,
+for he believed that to concentrate one's affections and interest too
+closely upon one small section of the earth's surface, simply on
+account of the accident of birth, had a narrowing effect upon a man's
+mental outlook and his human sympathies. He was a citizen of the world
+in his capacity to understand the point of view of other men, of
+whatsoever race, colour, or creed, and it was this catholicity of
+spirit that made it possible for him to sit upon the benches of
+Portsmouth Square in San Francisco and learn something of real life
+from the human flotsam and jetsam cast up there by fate.
+
+Of all the popular songs of America he liked _Marching Through
+Georgia_ and _Dixie_ best. For _Home, Sweet Home_ he had no liking,
+perhaps from having heard it during some moment of poignant
+homesickness. He said that such a song made too brutal an assault upon
+a man's tenderest feelings, and believed it to be a much greater
+triumph for a writer to bring a smile to his readers than a
+tear--partly, perhaps, because it is a more difficult achievement.
+
+Here the scene changes again, this time to San Francisco, the city of
+many hills, of drifting summer fogs, and sparkling winter sunshine,
+the old city that now lives only in the memories of those who knew it
+in the days when Stevenson climbed the steep ways of its streets.
+Although he had something about him of the _ennui_ of the
+much-travelled man, and complained that
+
+     "There's nothing under heaven so blue,
+      That's fairly worth the travelling to,"
+
+yet no attraction was lost on him, and the Far Western flavour of San
+Francisco, with its added tang of the Orient, and the feeling of
+adventure blowing in on its salt sea-breezes, was much to his liking.
+My especial memory here is of many walks taken with him up Telegraph
+Hill, where the streets were grass-grown because no horse could climb
+them, and the sidewalks were provided with steps or cleats for the
+assistance of foot-passengers. This hill, formerly called "Signal
+Hill," was used in earlier days, on account of its commanding outlook
+over the sea, as a signal-station to indicate the approach of vessels
+and give their class, and possibly their names as they neared the
+city. When we took our laborious walks up its precipitous paths it
+was, as now, the especial home of Italians and other Latin people. Mr.
+Stevenson wondered much at the happy-go-lucky confidence, or perhaps
+it was their simple trust in God, with which these people had built
+their houses in the most alarmingly insecure places, sometimes hanging
+on the very edge of a sheer precipice, sometimes with the several
+stories built on different levels, climbing the hill like steps. About
+them there was a pleasant air of foreign quaintness--little railed
+balconies across the fronts, outside stairways leading up to the
+second stories, and green blinds to give a look of Latin seclusion.
+
+In stories of his San Francisco days there is much talk of the
+restaurants where he took his meals. The one that I particularly
+remember was a place kept by Frank Garcia, familiarly known as
+"Frank's." This place, being moderately expensive, was probably only
+frequented by him on special occasions, when fortune was in one of her
+smiling moods. Food was good and cheap and in large variety in San
+Francisco in those days, and venison steak was as often served up to
+us at Frank's as beef, while canvasback ducks had not yet flown out of
+the poor man's sight; so we had many a savory meal there, generally
+served by a waiter named Monroe, with whom Mr. Stevenson now and then
+exchanged a friendly jest. I remember one day when Monroe, remarking
+on the depression of spirits from which Louis suffered during the
+temporary absence of the women of his family, said: "I had half a mind
+to take him in a piece of calico on a plate."
+
+Once more the picture changes, now to the town of Calistoga--with its
+hybrid name made up of syllables from Saratoga and California--where
+we stayed for a few days at the old Springs Hotel while on our way to
+Mount Saint Helena, to which mountain refuge Mr. Stevenson was fleeing
+from the sea-fogs of the coast. The recollection of this journey seems
+to have melted into a general impression of winding mountain roads, of
+deep canyons full of tall green trees, of lovely limpid streams
+rippling over the stones in darkly shaded depths where the fern-brakes
+grew rankly, of burning summer heat, and much dust. At the Springs
+Hotel we lived in one of the separate palm-shaded cottages most
+agreeably maintained for the guests who liked privacy. On the premises
+were tiny sheds built over the steaming holes in the ground which
+constituted the Calistoga Hot Springs. It gave one a sensation like
+walking about on a sieve over a boiling subterranean caldron.
+Determined not to miss any experience, we each took a turn at a
+steambath in these sheds, but the sense of imminent suffocation was
+too strong to be altogether pleasant.
+
+Then came the wild ride up the side of the mountain, in a six-horse
+stage driven at a reckless rate of speed by its indifferent driver,
+whirling around curves where the outer wheels had scarcely an inch to
+spare, while we looked fearfully down upon the tops of the tall trees
+in the canyon far below. If the horses slackened their pace for an
+instant, the driver stooped to pick up a stone from a pile that he
+kept at his feet and bombarded them into a fresh spurt. At the Toll
+House, half-way up the mountain, which still exists in much the same
+condition as in those days, we arrived as mere animated pillars of
+fine white dust, all individuality as completely lost as though we had
+been shrouded in masks and dominoes.
+
+The Toll House was a place of somnolent peace and deep stillness,
+broken only by a pleasant dripping from the wooden flume that brought
+down the cold waters of some spring hidden in the thick green growth
+far up on the mountainside. And such water! He who has once tasted of
+the nectar of a California mountain spring "will not ask for wine!" At
+the Toll House we had liberal country meals, with venison steaks,
+served to us every day. Bear were still killed on the mountain, but I
+do not remember having any to eat. From this place we climbed, by way
+of a toilsome and stiflingly hot footpath running through a tangle of
+thick undergrowth, to the old Silverado mine bunk-house, where the
+Stevenson family took up their headquarters. People said there were
+many rattlesnakes about, and now and then we saw indubitable evidence
+of their presence in a long, spotted body lying in the road, where it
+had been killed by some passer-by, but fear of them never troubled our
+footsteps. In _The Silverado Squatters_ Mr. Stevenson says, "The place
+abounded with rattlesnakes, and the rattles whizzed on every side like
+spinning-wheels," but I am inclined to think that he often mistook the
+buzzing noise made by locusts, or some other insect, for the rattle of
+the snakes.
+
+The old bunk-house seemed to me an incredibly uncomfortable place of
+residence. Its situation, on top of the mine-dump piled against the
+precipitous mountainside, permitted no chance to take a step except
+upon the treacherous rolling stones of the dump; but we bore with its
+manifest disadvantages for the sake of its one high redeeming
+virtue--its entire freedom from the fog which we dreaded for the sick
+man. It was excessively hot there during the day, but there was one
+place where coolness always held sway--the mouth of the old tunnel,
+from whose dark, mysterious depths, which we never dared explore for
+fear of stepping off into some forgotten shaft, a cold, damp wind blew
+continuously. Just inside its entrance we established a cold-storage
+plant, for there all articles kept delightfully fresh in the hottest
+weather. When the coolness of the evening fell, "it was good to gather
+stones and send them crashing down the chute," and indeed this was
+almost our only pastime in our queer mountain eyrie. The noise made by
+these stones as they went bounding down the chute was sent back in
+tremendous rolling echoes by the mountains on the opposite side of the
+valley, and it pleased us to liken it to the noise heard by Rip Van
+Winkle, "like distant peals of thunder," made by the ghosts of Hendrik
+Hudson's men playing at ninepins in the Catskill Mountains.
+
+Then back to San Francisco, where the only memory that remains is that
+of a confused blur of preparations for leaving--packing,
+ticket-buying, and melancholy farewells--for the time had come to
+return to old Scotland to introduce a newly acquired American wife to
+waiting parents.
+
+One day Louis came in with his pockets full of twenty-dollar gold
+pieces, with which he had supplied himself for the journey. He thought
+this piece of money the handsomest coin in the world, and said it made
+a man feel rich merely to handle it. In a jesting mood, he drew the
+coins from his pockets, threw them on the table, whence they rolled
+right and left on the floor, and said: "Just look! I'm simply lousy
+wid money!"
+
+Then came the parting, which proved to be eternal, for I never saw him
+again; but perhaps it is better to remember him only as he was
+then--before the rainbow hues of youth had faded.
+
+To this picture, which represents my own personal recollections of the
+California period,[17] something yet remains to be added. Many
+obstacles seemed to block the path to happiness of these two people,
+not the least of which was Louis's ill health and consequent inability
+to earn a sufficient sum to support new obligations. To his great joy
+this difficulty was finally smoothed away by a promise from his father
+of an allowance large enough for their needs until such time as
+restored health might bring about his independence. I remember the day
+this word came from his father, and the exceeding happiness it gave
+him. While it is true that his parents had at first objected to his
+marriage, their objections were based, not on the matter of the
+divorce, for they held extremely liberal views on that subject, but
+simply on the fact of his choice being an American and a stranger.
+They would, quite naturally, have preferred a daughter-in-law of their
+own race and acquaintance, but both were intensely attached to their
+only and gifted son, and, although his decision caused their own plans
+to "gang agley," when they found that his mind was irrevocably made
+up, they yielded without reserve, and prepared to welcome their new
+daughter to their home and hearts. Writing at this time to his friend
+Mr. Edmund Gosse, Stevenson expressed his satisfaction at the turn
+affairs were taking in these words:
+
+"Many of the thunderclouds that were overhanging me when last I wrote
+have silently stolen away, like Longfellow's Arabs; and I am now
+engaged to be married to the woman whom I have loved for three years
+and a half. I will boast myself so far as to say that I do not think
+many wives are better loved than mine will be."
+
+              [Footnote 17: Previously published in _Scribner's
+              Magazine_, October, 1916.]
+
+When the rain-clouds at last rolled away, and the snow had melted from
+the mountain-tops in the Coast Range, Fanny Osbourne and Robert Louis
+Stevenson went quietly across the bay and were married, on May 19,
+1880, by the Reverend Mr. Scott, with only Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Virgil
+Williams as witnesses. It was a serious, rather than a joyous
+occasion, for both realized that a future overcast with doubt lay
+before them. In 1881 Stevenson wrote from Pitlochry in Scotland to Mr.
+P. G. Hamerton:
+
+"It was not my bliss that I was interested in when I was married; it
+was a sort of marriage _in extremis_; and if I am where I am, it is
+thanks to the care of that lady, who married me when I was a mere
+complication of cough and bones, much fitter for an emblem of
+mortality than a bridegroom."
+
+As for her, she married him when his fortunes, both in health and
+finances, were at their lowest ebb, and she took this step in the
+almost certain conviction that in a few months at least she would be a
+widow. The best that she hoped for was to make his last days as
+comfortable and happy as possible, and that her self-sacrifice was to
+receive the bountiful reward of fourteen rich years in his
+companionship, during which time she was to see him win fame and
+fortune by the exercise of his genius, was far from her dreams.
+
+At the time of their marriage they took with them Mrs. Stevenson's
+son, Samuel Lloyd Osbourne, her daughter having been married a short
+time before to Joseph Strong, a well-known artist of the Pacific
+Coast. Mr. Stevenson took this boy, then about twelve years of age, to
+his heart as his own. In fact he always counted it as one of the
+blessings that came through his wife that she brought to him, a
+childless man, a son and daughter to be a comfort to him in all the
+years of his life. In his talk at his last Thanksgiving dinner he
+referred to this as one of his chief reasons for gratitude.
+
+In the healing air of Mount Saint Helena the invalid grew better with
+astonishing rapidity, and at the end of June he wrote to his mother:
+
+"You must indeed pardon me. This life takes up all my time and
+strength. I am truly better; I am allowed to do nothing, never leave
+our little platform in the canyon nor do a stroke of work. No one to
+see me now would think I was an invalid."
+
+When, in 1883, his mother expressed surprise that such a rough place
+should have been chosen for his cure, her daughter-in-law answered:
+
+[Illustration: Fanny Osbourne at the time of her marriage to Robert
+Louis Stevenson.]
+
+"You wonder at my allowing Louis to go to such a place. Why, if you
+only knew how thankful I was to get there with him! I was told that
+nothing else would save his life, and I believe it was true. We could
+not afford to go to a 'mountain resort' place, and there was no other
+chance. Then, on the other hand, the next day I put in doors and
+windows of light frames covered with white cotton, with bits of
+leather from the old boots (miners' boots found in the deserted cabin)
+for hinges, made seats and beds, and got things to look quite
+homelike. We got white and red wine, dried peaches and fruits which we
+kept cool in the tunnel and which we enjoyed extremely. Louis says
+nothing about the flowers, but the beauty of them was beyond
+description, to say nothing of the perfume. At the back door was a
+thicket of trees covered with cream-colored and scarlet lilies. I have
+never seen the like anywhere in the world."
+
+Again she writes from Calistoga, July 16, 1880, to the yet unknown
+mother-in-law:
+
+"As to my dear boy's appearance, he improves every day in the most
+wonderful way, so that I fancy by the time you see him you will hardly
+know that he has ever been ill at all. I do try to take care of him;
+the old doctor insists that my nursing saved him; I cannot quite think
+it myself, as I shouldn't have known what to do without the doctor's
+advice, but even having it said is a pleasure to me. Taking care of
+Louis is, as you must know, very like angling for shy trout; one must
+understand when to pay out the line, and exercise the greatest caution
+in drawing him in. I am becoming most expert, though it is an anxious
+business. I do not believe that any of Louis's friends, outside of his
+own family, have ever realized how very low he has been; letters
+followed him continually, imploring, almost demanding his immediate
+return to England, when the least fatigue, the shortest journey,
+might, and probably would, have proved fatal; and, which at the moment
+filled my heart with bitterness against them, they actually asked for
+work. Now, at last, I think he may venture to make the journey without
+fear, though every step must be made cautiously. I am sure now that he
+is on the high road to recovery and health, and I believe his best
+medicine will be the meeting with you and his father, for whom he
+pines like a child. I have had a sad time through it all, but it has
+been worse for you, I know. I am now able to say that all things are
+for the best. Louis has come out of this illness a better man than he
+was before; not that I did not think him good always, but the
+atmosphere of the valley of the shadow is purifying to a true soul;
+and though he may be no nearer your hearts than before, I believe you
+will take more comfort in your son than you have ever done. I trust
+that in about two weeks we shall be able to start, and perhaps in less
+time than that. Please remember that my photograph is flattering;
+unfortunately all photographs of me are; I can get no other. At the
+same time Louis thinks me, and to him I believe I am, the most
+beautiful creature in the world. It is because he loves me that he
+thinks that, so I am very glad. I do so earnestly hope that you will
+like me, but that can only be for what I am to you after you know me,
+and I do not want you to be disappointed in the beginning in anything
+about me, even in so small a thing as my looks. Your fancy that I may
+be a business person is a sad mistake. I am no better in that respect
+than Louis, and he has gifts that compensate for any lack. I fear it
+is only genius that is allowed to be stupid in ordinary things."
+
+In this letter the natural trepidation with which she looked forward
+to the meeting with her husband's parents, divided as they were from
+her in race and customs, is evident. She was, as she confessed to some
+of her friends, quite terrified at the prospect, especially as
+concerned the elder Mr. Stevenson, whose portrait represented a
+serious Scotchman with a stern, almost forbidding face, firm mouth,
+and long upper lip. Her fear of her mother-in-law was less, for from
+her she had had many affectionate and reassuring letters. How utterly
+groundless her apprehensions were in this matter we shall see later.
+
+Notwithstanding the uncertainty of the future that lay before them,
+they were both exceedingly happy in the fruition of their
+long-frustrated plans, and for her it lifted a cloud that had rested
+upon her spirits for years. One day in San Francisco, shortly after
+the marriage, her daughter, upon entering a room, stopped with a
+sudden shock, startled by the unaccustomed sound of a light happy
+laugh, the first she remembered ever having heard from the lips of her
+mother. For the first time she realized what a sad and bitter life
+Fanny Osbourne's had been.
+
+Louis's health now being considered strong enough for the journey,
+they left their sunny eyrie on the mountainside in July, and on August
+7, 1880, sailed from New York for England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+EUROPE AND THE BRITISH ISLES.
+
+
+When the newly married pair reached Scotland all the fears of the
+American bride vanished like mist before the sun, for her husband's
+parents instantly took her to their hearts as though she had been
+their own choice. In _The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson_ Sir
+Sidney Colvin says:
+
+"Of her new family Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson, brought thus strangely
+and from afar into their midst, made an immediate conquest. To her
+husband's especial happiness, there sprang up between her and his
+father the closest possible affection and confidence. Parents and
+friends, if it is permissible for one of the latter to say as much,
+rejoiced to recognize in Stevenson's wife a character as strong, as
+interesting, and romantic as his own; an inseparable sharer of all his
+thoughts, and staunch companion of all his adventures; the most
+open-hearted of friends to all who loved him, the most shrewd and
+stimulating critic of his work; and in sickness ... the most devoted
+and efficient of nurses."
+
+Mr. Edmund Gosse writes in the _Century Magazine_, 1895:
+
+"He had married in California a charming lady whom we all learned to
+regard as the most appropriate and helpful companion that Louis could
+possibly have secured."
+
+Concerning her relations with her mother-in-law, another friend, Lady
+Balfour, writes:
+
+"It is a testimonial both to her and to Mrs. Thomas Stevenson that
+though they were as the poles apart in character, yet each loved and
+appreciated the other most fully." How different they were in training
+and ideas of life is illustrated by a trivial incident that occurred
+when the younger woman was visiting at the home of her husband's
+parents in Scotland. Her mother-in-law asked her if she never
+"worked." In some surprise she replied that she had indeed worked, and
+then found out that the elder lady meant fancy-work. Thereupon the two
+went out shopping and bought all the things needful for a piano-cover
+to be embroidered with roses. In a few days the piano-cover,
+exquisitely finished, was triumphantly brought for Mrs. Thomas
+Stevenson's inspection, but that lady, shocked at this American
+strenuousness, threw up her hands and exclaimed: "Oh, Fanny! How could
+you! That piece should have lasted you all summer!"
+
+Thomas Stevenson, however, was far more formidable; to the female
+members of his family his word was law, but to his pretty
+daughter-in-law he capitulated--horse, foot, and dragoons--and his son
+was heard to say that he had never seen his father so completely
+subjugated. It is true, on the other hand, that she made every effort
+to please him, and took pains not to offend his old-fashioned and
+rigidly conventional ideas. For instance, when he objected to black
+stockings, which were just then coming into vogue for ladies, she
+yielded to his prejudice and always wore white ones while at his
+house. He had a deep respect for her judgment in literary matters, and
+made his son promise "never to publish anything without her approval."
+This regard was mutual, and she said of him: "I shall always believe
+that something unusual and great was lost to the world in Thomas
+Stevenson. One could almost see the struggle between the creature of
+cramped hereditary conventions and the man nature had intended him to
+be." As his health failed he grew to depend upon her more and more,
+and there was between them an interchange of much friendliness and
+many little jests. A rather amusing thing happened once when the two
+were together in London picking out furnishings for the house he had
+bought for her at Bournemouth. One afternoon they dropped in at a
+hotel for tea. It had been ordered by the doctors that he should have
+bicarbonate of soda in his tea, which it seems he did not like if he
+saw it put in, but if he did not see it never knew the difference.
+When the tea was brought his daughter-in-law, having diverted his
+attention, slyly dropped in the soda. Glancing up, she saw in the
+looking-glass the reflection of the horrified face of the waiter. When
+she told this story to her husband he immediately began to weave a
+thrilling plot around the suspicion that might have fallen upon her if
+her father-in-law had happened to die suddenly just then, especially
+as his son was his chief heir. Uncle Tom, as she usually called him,
+had all sorts of pet names for her, but the usual remark was "I doot
+ye're a besom."[18] She was in all ways a true daughter to him, a
+comfort in his old age and last distressing illness, and when he died
+she mourned him sincerely.
+
+              [Footnote 18: In American phrase, a "bossy" person.]
+
+To the Scotch servants in her mother-in-law's house she was something
+of an enigma. One of them told her she "spoke English very well for a
+foreigner." One day she heard two of them talking about a Mr. McCollop
+who had just returned from Africa. "He's merrit a black woman," said
+one, and in a mirror the other was seen to point to Mrs. Stevenson's
+back and put her finger to her lips, as though to say: "Don't mention
+black wives before her!"
+
+It was soon seen that Louis could not face a Scotch winter, with its
+raw winds and cold, drizzling rains, and sometimes his wife felt
+regrets for the sunny perch on the California mountainside, where
+health and strength had once come back to him so marvellously. It was
+finally decided to try the dry, clear air of Davos Platz, in the high
+Alps of Switzerland, which was just then coming into prominence as a
+cure for lung diseases, and in October, 1880, the little family,
+husband, wife, and the boy, Lloyd Osbourne, set forth on the arduous
+journey thither.
+
+To see publishers and for other necessary business, they stopped in
+London on the way, where Mrs. Stevenson was much troubled lest her
+husband should suffer harm from the thick, foggy atmosphere and the
+fatigue of meeting people. Because he was too weak to see many
+visitors, she kept them off, which threw a sort of mystery about him,
+and led to his being called in London "the veiled prophet." The only
+persons she had trouble with were the doctors, who were themselves so
+fascinated by his conversation that they often stayed too long. The
+task of keeping his parents informed of his state was now added to her
+duties, and in letters to her mother-in-law from London she says:
+
+"As it is short and often that seems to be wanted, I thought I would
+send off a note to-night to say that if nothing happens we leave
+London to-morrow, and glad enough I shall be to get away.... For no
+one in the world will I stop in London another hour after the time
+set. It is a most unhealthful place at this season, and Louis knows
+far too many people to get a moment's rest.... Company comes in at all
+hours from early morning till late at night, so that I almost never
+have a moment alone, and if we do not soon get away from London I
+shall become an embittered woman. It is not good for my mind, nor my
+body either, to sit smiling at Louis's friends until I feel like a
+hypocritical Cheshire cat, talking stiff nothings with one and another
+in order to let Louis have a chance with the one he cares the most
+for, and all the time furtively watching the clock and thirsting for
+their blood because they stay so late...."
+
+The vigilant eyes of love had taught her by this time something yet
+undiscovered by the scientists, that is, the contagious nature of
+influenza, and, having observed that whenever her husband came in
+contact with any one suffering from a cold, he invariably caught it--a
+very serious matter for one in his condition--she kept guard over him
+like a fiery little watch-dog, never allowing any one with a cold to
+enter the house. If she had one herself she kept away from him till
+it was over. There were many quarrels on the subject, for his friends,
+some of whom refused to recognize the necessity for such precautions,
+would be furious; but the worst trouble was with the doctors
+themselves, who would come to attend him with sneezing and snorting,
+and find their way blocked. One doctor said she was silly about it,
+for it was absolutely impossible to catch a cold from anything but an
+open window, or wet feet, or a draught. Her friends, or rather Louis's
+friends, were well trained in time, and she would sometimes get a
+message something like this: "I can't keep my engagement to see Louis
+to-day, for I have a cold, but as soon as I am over it I will let you
+know." Mr. Stevenson himself had a humourous way of referring to
+persons with colds as "pizon sarpints," and strangers may have
+wondered to hear him say: "I'm not seeing my friend So-and-so just
+now, because he's a pizon sarpint." Once at Saranac, in the Adirondack
+Mountains in America, their friends the Fairchilds came to see them,
+but, as both had colds, they were not permitted to enter, and
+conversed by signs with Mr. Stevenson through a closed window. They
+were good-natured, however, about what they probably regarded as Mrs.
+Stevenson's whim, and when both were well came again, waving from a
+distance perfectly clean handkerchiefs as their passport.
+
+Having at last escaped from the dreaded London fogs, they reached
+Troyes in France, where Fanny's heart expanded under the brighter
+skies that brought back memories of her own land. She writes: "We have
+had lovely weather--warm, sunny, fragrant. I did not realize before
+how much like America France is. The sky seems so high, and the world
+so big and fresh." Reluctantly these two sun-loving people turned
+their steps from this pleasant place towards the frozen heights of
+Davos, where they arrived on November 4, and were pleased to find
+congenial friends in John Addington Symonds and his wife.
+
+Life was far from exciting in this remote place, and the shut-in
+feeling of its situation, enclosed by hills and with no outlook,
+sometimes made the sick man impatient, yet his health improved and he
+was even able to take part in outdoor sports, such as tobogganing.
+Mrs. Stevenson writes:
+
+"Life is most monotonous here, which is after all the best thing for
+Louis, although he tires of it sometimes. We have had a few badly
+acted plays and one snowstorm; there was a quarrel between a lady and
+her son's tutor, and a lady lost a ring. Otherwise the current of our
+lives flows on without change.... I have made a couple of pretty caps
+for the ladies' bazaar, and if I can get the use of a sitting room
+will paint them some things.... We have an enormous porcelain stove
+like a monument that reaches from the floor to the ceiling. It has,
+however, to be fed only twice a day, and then not in great quantities.
+Louis has long boots and is very proud of them. He said himself that
+he looked like 'puss in boots,' but was much hurt because the
+suggestion was received as a good one. He thought we would say: 'How
+ridiculous! Why, you look just like a brigand!' But the great thing is
+that the climate is doing Louis good. To have him recover entirely
+will be so splendid that I must murmur at nothing." The last is
+perhaps a reference to the bad effect of the altitude on her own
+health, for her heart was so severely affected that she was compelled
+to spend much of the time lying on a couch, and was finally obliged to
+go away for a time.
+
+These two were congenially alike in their careless indifference to the
+minor details of life. Neither ever dated a letter, and both
+invariably forgot all anniversaries, even having to be reminded of
+their own wedding-day by his scandalized mother. What Mr. S. S.
+McClure called Fanny Stevenson's "robust, inconsequential philosophy
+of life" permitted her to accept with calm situations which would have
+driven another woman to distraction. Even in that sad colony of the
+sick she found compensations, and writing of this she says:
+
+"It is depressing to live with dying and suffering people all about
+you, but a sanatorium develops a great deal of human interest and
+sympathy. Every one knows what the others should do, and each among
+the patients helps to look after the rest. The path of duty always
+lies so plain before other people's feet.... Then there are always
+little kindnesses going on that warm the heart. The other morning I
+told Louis I had dreamed that Alfred Cornish had made him a present of
+his toboggan, and sure enough the first thing when Louis went out up
+came Cornish and presented him with the toboggan. I had never thought
+of such a thing and don't see why I dreamed it."
+
+At Davos they had a great deal of trouble with their little dog,
+Woggs, a beautiful but eccentric Skye terrier that had been given them
+by Sir Walter Simpson. Both were tenderly considerate of animals, and
+when this little creature was ill with a cankered ear they took turns
+sitting up at night with him. She writes of him: "Woggs is
+ill-tempered, and obstinate, and rather sly, but he is lovable and
+intelligent. I imagine that it is with dogs as with people--it is not
+for being good alone that we love them."
+
+Here Stevenson wrote but little. Of his work she says:
+
+"Louis is worried because he thinks he cannot write as gracefully as
+he used to, but I believe his writing is more direct and stronger, and
+that when he is able to join his old style with the new he will do
+better work than he dreams of now. His later work is fuller of
+thought, more manly in every way."
+
+With the month of March came Mrs. Stevenson's birthday, and, to her
+great surprise and confusion, it was made the occasion of a general
+fete in which the whole colony took part. She thus describes the
+affair:
+
+"I was told there was to be a dance in the dining-room and cake and
+ices in my honor, so Louis and I went down in the evening. I watched
+the dancing awhile, when suddenly I found myself seated alone at the
+end of the room. Judge of my surprise, and I must confess, dismay,
+when I saw the two little Doney children, in Watteau costumes, looking
+just like bits of porcelain painting, coming down the center towards
+me, one bearing a large birthday cake and the other a bouquet of
+flowers. The beautiful little creatures dropped on their knees at my
+feet and presented their offerings. I suppose I should have said
+something, but Louis said I did the best thing possible; I only kissed
+both the darlings. Other people had had birthdays and only received
+congratulations, so I felt horribly embarrassed by all these grand
+doings in a public room, though I was very grateful for the friendly
+feelings of those who arranged the affair."
+
+The snow came late, but during the winter it lay deep and heavy on the
+ground, making the roads almost impassable and their isolation more
+complete. Both husband and wife began to feel an almost uncontrollable
+depression amid these bleak surroundings, aggravated as they were by
+many deaths among the patients. As spring approached Mrs. Stevenson
+wrote:
+
+"Louis is not very well and not very ill. Spring, I think, sits upon
+him, and so also all these deaths and Bertie's[19] illness. As soon as
+he is a little stronger the doctor is going to send him to some place
+in the neighborhood for a change."
+
+              [Footnote 19: The son of Mrs. Sitwell, now Lady Colvin.]
+
+And she, to whom warmth and colour were a very part of her nature, was
+an exotic, a lost tropic bird, in these icy mountains. In a letter to
+her mother-in-law her heart cried out: "I cannot deny that living here
+is like living in a well of desolation. Sometimes I feel quite frantic
+to look out somewhere, and almost as though I should suffocate. But
+may Davos forgive me! It has done so much for Louis that I am ashamed
+to say anything against it."
+
+In the latter part of April their discontent went beyond endurance,
+and, believing his health now sufficiently improved to warrant the
+risk, they turned their steps once more towards their beloved France,
+where they spent a month between Barbizon, St. Germain, and Paris.
+
+In Paris their haunting Nemesis gave them a little breathing spell,
+and when Louis's strength permitted, they wandered about the streets
+in their own careless, irresponsible fashion, having a delightful time
+poking into all sorts of strange places, in one of which he insisted
+on spending practically his last _sou_ for an antique watch for which
+she had expressed admiration. "Now we'll starve," said she, but after
+reaching home he happened to put his hand in the pocket of an old coat
+and drew out an uncashed cheque which had been forgotten. One day when
+out alone she went into a dismal-looking pawn-shop in a part of the
+city that was not considered exactly safe. She was puzzled by the
+evident superiority of the proprietor to his surroundings, and when he
+invited her to follow him, she went without hesitation back through
+winding passages until they stepped out into a beautiful garden, where
+sat a charming invalid lady, wife of the pawnbroker. It seemed that
+they were people who had fallen from a high estate, and, through
+devotion to his wife, who was helplessly confined to her chair, he had
+for years kept the secret of his occupation from her, and she had
+lived in her garden like a fair flower, uncontaminated by the slums of
+Paris. In this shop Mrs. Stevenson bought four rich mahogany posts,
+part of an antique bedstead, which she used many years afterwards as
+pillars in the drawing-room of her San Francisco house.
+
+But alas, their pleasant jaunting soon came to an end, for Louis had a
+relapse which brought desperate disappointment to them both, and of
+which she writes to his mother: "I felt compelled to tell him that he
+must be prepared for whatever may happen. Naturally the poor boy
+yearned for his mother. I think it must be very sweet to you to have
+this grown-up man of thirty still clinging to you with his child
+love."
+
+The setback dashed their spirits so severely that his conscientious
+Scotch parents thought it their duty to lecture them on the sin of
+ingratitude for the blessings that were still theirs. In great
+contrition their daughter-in-law writes:
+
+"I was just about to write when a double letter from you and Mr. Tommy
+came to hand. When I read what Mr. Tommy said about gratitude I felt
+more conscience-stricken than words can express. Neither Louis nor I
+have any right to feel even annoyed about anything. Certainly God has
+been good. I have seen others, apparently no more ill than Louis was
+at one time, laid in their graves, and I see others, quite as ill,
+struggling wearily for their daily bread. We see misery and
+wretchedness on every hand, and here we sit, none of it touching us,
+Louis feeling better, and both of us complaining shamefully because in
+the smallest things the world does not go round smoothly enough for
+us.... I fancy we shall start for Scotland Tuesday, but will travel
+slowly on account of Louis's fatigue and nervous exhaustion from the
+shaking of the train."
+
+Edinburgh was reached on May 31, 1881, and a few days later,
+accompanied by his mother, they went to Pitlochry, where they spent
+two months in Kinnaird Cottage, on the banks of a lovely river. This
+was a beautiful but inclement region, and cold winds and rain
+prevailed almost constantly. The two ladies never ventured out without
+umbrellas, and even then usually returned in a drenched condition.
+Imprisoned by the weather, the sick man was compelled to spend all his
+waking time in the sitting-room, where his confinement was made the
+more penitential by the absence of books. It happened that the only
+books in the house were two volumes of Voltaire, and these were taken
+from the younger pair one dreary Sunday by their stern parents as not
+proper "Sabba'-day" reading.
+
+Thrown entirely on their own resources, they decided to write stories
+and read them to each other. These tales, coloured by the
+surroundings, were of a sombre cast. Here _Thrawn Janet_ was begun. In
+a preface, written years later, Mrs. Stevenson gives a graphic
+description of the first writing of this gloomy but powerful story.
+
+"That evening is as clear in my memory as though it were
+yesterday--the dim light of our one candle, with the acrid smell of
+the wick that we had forgotten to snuff, the shadows in the corners of
+the 'lang, laigh, mirk chamber, perishing cauld,' the driving rain on
+the roof close above our heads, and the gusts of wind that shook our
+windows. The very sound of the names, 'Murdock Soulis, the Hangin'
+Shaw in the beild of the Black Hill, Balweary in the vale of Dule,'
+sent a 'cauld grue' along my bones. By the time the tale was finished
+my husband had fairly frightened himself, and we crept down the stairs
+clinging hand in hand like two scared children."
+
+"Weather wet, bad weather, still wet, afraid to go out, pouring rain,"
+appeared almost constantly in Mrs. Thomas Stevenson's diary, and
+though Stevenson, whether inspired by home scenes or driven in upon
+himself for relief from the outer dreariness, did some of his best
+work here, it became clear that a more favourable spot must be sought.
+From Pitlochry they went to Braemar, but that place proved to be no
+improvement. Mrs. Stevenson writes of it in her preface to _Treasure
+Island_:
+
+"It was a season of rain and chill weather that we spent in the
+cottage of the late Miss McGregor, though the townspeople called the
+cold, steady, penetrating drizzle 'just misting,' In Scotland a fair
+day appears to mean fairly wet. 'It is quite fair now,' they will say,
+when you can hardly distinguish the houses across the street. Queen
+Victoria, who had endeared herself greatly to the folk in the
+neighborhood, showed a true Scotch spirit in her indifference to the
+weather. Her Majesty was in the habit of driving out to take tea in
+the open, accompanied by a couple of ladies-in-waiting. The road to
+Balmoral ran not far behind the late Miss McGregor's cottage, and as
+the Queen always drove in an open carriage, with her tea basket
+strapped on behind, we could see her pass very plainly. Our admiration
+for the sturdy old lady was very much tempered by our sympathy with
+the ladies-in-waiting, with whom driving backward on the front seat
+did not apparently agree. Their poor noses were very red, and the
+expression of their faces anxious, not to say cross, as they miserably
+coughed and sneezed."
+
+At Braemar the working fever continued, and _Treasure Island_ was
+planned, but when autumn came they fled before the Scotch mists, and
+once more wended their way to the frozen Alps, settling for the winter
+in the Chalet am Stein. From mist to snow was but a rueful change, but
+this time Louis's health seemed to gain greater benefit, and a
+reasonable amount of work was accomplished.
+
+So the level current of their lives flowed on through a rather mild
+winter, with an occasional _foehn_[20] wailing about their chalet as
+the "rocs might have wailed in the valley of diamonds," until one
+morning they heard a bird sing, and soon the snow on the higher levels
+began to melt and send the water with a rush down the sides of the
+streets. Almost in a breath the hill slopes about them turned as white
+with crocus blooms as they had been in their winter covering of snow.
+Into their hearts something of the springtime entered, and one day
+Louis sat singing beside his wife, who writes: "I do not care for the
+music, but it makes me feel so happy to see him so well. When I wake
+in the morning I wonder what it is that brings such a glow to my
+heart, and then I remember!"
+
+              [Footnote 20: Foehn--a violent south wind in
+              Switzerland.]
+
+Yet it was then, as the flowers began to bloom and the birds to sing,
+that many of those to whom they had become attached with the pitiful
+bond of a common affliction broke the slender cord that held them to
+life and quietly slipped away. Of these she writes: "Louis is much cut
+up because a young man whom he liked and had been tobogganing with has
+been found dead in his bed. Bertie still hovers between life and
+death. Poor little Mrs. Doney is gone; my heart is sad for those two
+lovely little girls. In a place like this there are many depressing
+things, but it is encouraging to know that many are going away cured."
+
+Their own case had gone better, and Doctor Ruedi had given them leave
+"to live in France, fifteen miles as the crow flies from the sea, and
+if possible near a fir wood."
+
+In April they left the Alps and ventured back to their misty island,
+where they spent an unsatisfactory summer, moving from place to place
+in a fruitless search for better weather. Several hemorrhages forced
+them to the conclusion that they must be once more on the wing, and as
+both felt an unconquerable repugnance to spending another winter at
+bleak Davos, it was finally decided to go where their hearts led them,
+and seek a suitable place in the south of France. As Mrs. Stevenson
+was too ill just then to travel, the invalid, accompanied by his
+cousin, Mr. R. A. M. Stevenson, started about the middle of September,
+1882, for Marseilles. The wife's anxiety, however, gave her little
+rest, and almost before she was able to stand she set out after him,
+arriving in an alarmed and fatigued condition, of which he wrote to
+his mother in his humourous way: "The wreck was towed into port
+yesterday evening at seven P.M. She bore the reversed ensign in
+every feature; the population of Marseilles, who were already vastly
+exercised, wept when they beheld her jury masts and helpless hull."
+
+To her mother-in-law she wrote from here: "This is a lovely spot, and
+I cannot tell you how my heart goes out to it. It is so like Indiana
+that it would not surprise me to hear my father or mother speak to me
+at any moment, and yet it is not like home either. The houses and the
+ships look foreign, but the color of the sky and the quality of the
+air, the corn, the grapes, the yellow pumpkins, the flowers, and the
+trees, are the same. Everything seems as it is at home, steeped in
+sunshine."
+
+In a few days they found a house, the Campagne Defli, in the suburbs
+of St. Marcel, "in a lovely spot, among lovely wooded and cliffy
+hills," where they fondly hoped their pursuing fate would forget them
+for a time. Of Campagne Defli she joyfully writes to her
+mother-in-law: "Of all the houses in the world I think I should choose
+this one. It is a garden of paradise, and I cannot tell you how I long
+to have you here to enjoy things with me. It is such happiness to be
+in a place that combines the features of the land where I was born and
+California, where I have spent the best years of my life."
+
+She set eagerly to work to turn this charming but neglected place into
+a pleasant home, directing servants in the cleaning and scrubbing,
+hanging curtains over draughty doors, repapering walls, putting fresh
+coverings on old furniture, planting flowers and vegetables in the
+garden--in fact, pouring out her Dutch housekeeping soul in a thousand
+and one ways. The French servants, amazed at these activities,
+thought she was very queer. Once when she was on a step-ladder, with a
+hammer in her hand, putting up some pictures, she heard some one
+whisper outside: "_Elle est folle._" As the two servants came in she
+cried out indignantly, waving the hammer for emphasis, "Pas folle!
+Beaucoup d'intelligence!" and then, losing her balance, fell over,
+step-ladder and all, while the servants fled shrieking. To her
+mother-in-law she writes: "For Louis's birthday I found a violet
+blooming at the back of the house, and yesterday I discovered in our
+reserve a large magnolia tree, the delight of my heart. I am
+continually finding something new."
+
+Two things were to her as a closed book: one was foreign languages and
+the other was music. She could not sing a note nor hardly tell one
+tune from another, yet she liked to listen to music. Her speaking
+voice was low, modulated, and sweet, but with few inflections, and her
+husband once compared it to the pleasantly monotonous flow of a
+running brook under ice. As to languages, although she never seemed
+able to acquire any extended knowledge of the tongue of any foreign
+land in which she dwelt, she always managed in some mysterious way of
+her own to communicate freely with the inhabitants. In Spanish she
+only learned _si_, yet, supplemented with much gay laughter and many
+expressive gesticulations, that one word went a long way. She writes
+amusingly of this difficulty from Marseilles:
+
+"Yesterday the servant and I went out shopping, which was difficult
+for me, but, although she knows no English, she seems to understand,
+as did the shopkeepers, my strange lingo. I had to put on the manner
+of an old experienced shopper and housekeeper, and count my change
+with great care, for it was important that I should impress both the
+woman and the shop people with the notion that I knew what was what. I
+have been in town all day, making arrangements with butchers, buying
+an American stove--for the enormous gaudy French range is of no
+account whatever--and even went and got my luncheon in a restaurant,
+and all upon my pidgin French. To Louis's great amusement I sometimes
+address him in it. I bought some cups and saucers to-day of a man who
+said 'yes' to all I said, while to all his remarks I answered '_oui_.'
+The servant we have is very anxious to please us, and I have finally
+got her to the length of bringing the knives to the table cleaned; she
+could hardly believe at first that I was serious in wanting clean
+knives when there was no company."
+
+It was very pleasant to her to be received everywhere in France with a
+warm cordiality on the ground of her being an American, and she tells
+a little story about this in one of her letters:
+
+"When I went in search of doctors I arrived in town at an hour when
+they all refused to see me, being at luncheon. One man, however, had
+not yet come in, though his luncheon was waiting for him, so I waited
+too and caught him in his own hall. He was quite furious and said the
+most dreadful things to his servant because she had let me in. I sat
+in a chair and waited till he had done abusing her, and then politely
+explained my errand. After much beating about the bush, he gave me the
+information that I wanted, and then, to the astonishment of his
+servant, went downstairs with me and put me into my cab with the most
+impressive politeness. Just as I left he told me he had allowed me to
+break his rule and spoil his lunch because I was an American."
+
+To their deep disappointment, Louis's health gained little or nothing
+in this charming place, and for a time a heavy sadness fell upon his
+wife, and in desperation her thoughts turned towards the frozen Alps,
+which they both disliked and where she had suffered so much. She
+writes: "I am sorry to say that Louis has had another hemorrhage. I
+begin almost to think we had better go back to Davos and become
+Symondses[21] and just stay there. Symonds himself, however, has taken
+a cold and the weather there has not been good. I have news from Davos
+that the well people that we knew are all dead and the hopeless cases
+are all right."
+
+              [Footnote 21: Mr. Symonds never dared to leave Davos,
+              but remained there until his death.]
+
+Trouble with drains now came to add to their fear that beautiful
+Campagne Defli would not do for their permanent home. An epidemic
+broke out in St. Marcel, and many died. Mrs. Stevenson, stricken with
+fear for her husband, hurried him off to Nice, while she, armed with a
+revolver, remained behind to keep guard over their effects, the
+situation of their place being lonely, and reports of robberies and
+even murder in the neighbourhood having reached them.
+
+In the next week or two a series of distressing events took place
+which brought Mrs. Stevenson almost to the verge of nervous
+prostration. The night before her husband's departure a peasant on the
+estate died of the prevailing disease, and for some unknown reason the
+body, much swollen and disfigured, was permitted to lie just outside
+the gate during the entire morning. Next in the chapter of unfortunate
+accidents was the failure to reach her of the promised telegram
+announcing Louis's safe arrival at Nice. After four days' anxious
+waiting she decided to follow him, and her subsequent adventures may
+best be told in her own language as written to her mother-in-law:
+
+"The fourth night I went to Marseilles and telegraphed to the _gare_
+and the police at Nice. All the people said it was no use, and that it
+was plain that he had been taken with a violent hemorrhage on the way
+and was now dead and buried at some little station. They said all I
+could do was to pack up and go back to Scotland. All were very kind in
+a dreadful way, but assured me that I had much better accept what '_le
+bon Dieu_' had sent and go back to Scotland at once. After much
+telegraphing back and forth I found that Louis was at the Grand Hotel
+at Nice, and when I reached there he was calmly reading in bed. At St.
+Marcel and Marseilles every one was furious with me; they were all
+fond of Louis and said I had let a dying man go off alone. You may
+imagine my feelings all this time!"
+
+As though all that went before had not been enough, her return journey
+to St. Marcel was made so uncomfortable by a tactless fellow passenger
+that she arrived in a state of complete exhaustion. Of this she
+writes:
+
+"I have had a miserable time altogether, and the people, meaning to be
+so kind, were really so dreadful. There was a man on the train, an
+Englishman, who said such terrible things to me about Louis that when
+we reached Marseilles another Englishman[22] who had been in the
+carriage came to me and spoke about it, saying he had been so wretched
+all the time. He insisted on stopping his journey a day to help me in
+my affairs. Here is a specimen of the horrid person's talk: 'What are
+you going to do when your husband dies?' 'I don't expect him to die.'
+'Oh, I know all about that. I've heard that kind of talk before. He's
+done for, and in this country they'll shovel him underground in
+twenty-four hours, almost before the breath is out of his body. His
+mother'll never see him again.' I do not speak but look intently out
+of the window. Again he speaks, leaning forward to be sure that I hear
+him. 'Have him embalmed; that's the thing; have you got money enough?'
+Can you fancy five hours of this? I got out in the rain several times
+to try to get into another carriage, but they were all filled. But I
+never heard of anybody being so nice as Mr. Hammond was. I think he
+was more proud to be able to help Louis and those belonging to him
+than to help the Queen."
+
+              [Footnote 22: Mr. Basil Hammond, of Trinity College,
+              Cambridge.]
+
+Anxious to prevent her husband's return to St. Marcel while conditions
+were so unfavourable, she wrote to him: "Don't you dare to come back
+to this home of 'pizon' until you are really better. I do not see
+how you are to come back at all under the circumstances, deserting
+your family as you have done and being hunted down and caught by your
+wife. Madame desires me to say that she knows what is keeping you in
+Nice--it is another lady. I told her that instead of amusing yourself
+with another lady you were weeping for me and home and your Wogg. She
+was greatly touched at that and almost wept herself into her dishpan.
+You are a dear creature and I love you, but I am not going to say that
+I am lonesome lest you come flying back to this den of death." In the
+meantime he wrote her letters in which he expressed his own loneliness
+in humourous verses, illustrated with drawings, one of which runs like
+this:
+
+     "When my wife is far from me
+      The undersigned feels all at sea."
+                              R. L. S.
+
+     "I am as good as deaf
+      When separate from F.
+
+      I am far from gay
+      When separate from A.
+
+      I loathe the ways of men
+      When separate from N.
+
+      Life is a murky den
+      When separate from N.
+
+      My sorrow rages high
+      When separate from Y.
+
+      And all things seem uncanny
+      When separate from Fanny."
+
+     "Where is my wife? Where is my Wogg?
+      I am alone, and life's a bog."
+
+All his wife's expostulations, however, were of no avail, and, much to
+her annoyance, it was not long before he appeared at Campagne Defli,
+where she was busy packing up their effects for another flitting. She
+writes to her mother-in-law:
+
+"I don't wonder you ask what Louis is doing in Marseilles. He became
+filled with the idea that it was shirking to leave me here to do all
+the work. He was a good deal hurt, poor boy, because I wasn't pleased.
+Wasn't it delightful about the article in the _Century_?[23] The
+person was evidently writing in such an ecstasy of joy at having found
+out Louis. I am so pleased that it was in the _Century_, for every
+friend and relation I have in the world will read it. I suppose you
+are even prouder of Louis than I am, for he is only mine accidentally,
+and he is yours by birth and blood. Two or three times last night I
+woke up just from pure pleasure to think of all the people I know
+reading about Louis.... He is incredibly better, and I suppose will
+just have to stay in Marseilles until I get done with things, for
+nothing will keep him away from me more than a week. It is so
+surprising, for I had never thought of Louis as a real domestic man,
+but now I find that all he wanted was a house of his own. Just the
+little time that we have been here has sufficed for him to form a
+quite passionate attachment for everything connected with the place,
+and it was like pulling up roots to get him away. I am quite
+bewildered with all the letters I have to write and all the things I
+have to do. For the present I think we shall have to cling to the
+little circle of country around Nice, so when you come it must be
+somewhere there."
+
+              [Footnote 23: An editorial review of _New Arabian
+              Nights_ in the _Century Magazine_ of February, 1883.]
+
+After some search they finally decided upon Hyeres, and by the latter
+part of March had once more hopefully set up their household goods in
+a little cottage, the Chalet la Solitude, which clung to a low cliff
+almost at the entrance of the town. This house had been a model Swiss
+chalet at the Paris Exposition of 1878, and had been removed and again
+erected at Hyeres, where, amid its French neighbours, it was an
+incongruous and alien object. Mrs. Stevenson writes of it: "It is the
+smallest doll house I ever saw, but has everything in it to make it
+comfortable, and the garden is magnificent. The wild flowers are
+lovely, and the walks, all so close at hand, most enchanting."
+
+In the garden grew old grey olive-trees, and in them nightingales
+nested and sang. On the rocky crags above stood the ruins of an
+ancient Saracen castle, and before them lay the sea--indeed a "most
+sweet corner of the universe." Not far away were the rose farms of
+Toulon, of which Mrs. Stevenson writes:
+
+"I shall never forget the day my husband and I drove through lanes of
+roses from which the attar of commerce is made. On either side of us
+the rose hedges were in full bloom; the scent, mingled with the
+fragrance of innumerable violets, was truly intoxicating. When we
+alighted at a place dappled with sunlight that filtered through the
+trees, and cooled by a spouting fountain where girls in colored gowns
+laughed and chattered as they plied their trade of lace-making, we
+felt that our lines had indeed fallen in pleasant places."
+
+In this charming spot it seemed for a time that their pursuing fate
+had forgotten them, and for the greater part of a year happiness sat
+by their fireside. Louis always referred to this time as the happiest
+period of his life, and in a letter to his old friend in California,
+Jules Simoneau, he says: "Now I am in clover, only my health a mere
+ruined temple; the ivy grows along its shattered front, otherwise I
+have no wish that is not fulfilled; a beautiful large garden, a fine
+view of plain, sea, and mountain; a wife that suits me down to the
+ground, and a barrel of good Beaujolais."
+
+Under these happy conditions much work was accomplished, and, to the
+great pride and satisfaction of both husband and wife, they were at
+last able to live upon his earnings. Their almost idyllic life here is
+described by Mrs. Stevenson:
+
+"My husband was then engaged on _Prince Otto_, begun so long ago in
+the little rose-covered cottage in Oakland, California. Our life in
+the chalet was of the utmost simplicity, and with the help of one
+untrained maid I did the cooking myself. The kitchen was so narrow
+that I was in continual danger of being scorched by the range on one
+side, and at the same time impaled by the saucepan hooks on the
+other, and when we had a guest at dinner our maid had to pass in the
+dishes over our heads, as our chairs touched the walls of the
+dining-room, leaving her no passageway. The markets of Hyeres were
+well supplied, and the wine both good and cheap, so we were able, for
+the first time, to live comfortably within our limited income.
+
+"My husband usually wrote from the early morning until noon, while my
+household duties occupied the same time. In the afternoon the work of
+the morning was read aloud, and we talked it over, criticising and
+suggesting improvements. This finished, we walked in our garden,
+listened to the birds, and looked at our trees and flowers; or,
+accompanied by our Scotch terrier, wandered up the hill to the ruins
+of the castle. After dinner we talked or read aloud, and on rare
+occasions visited Mr. Powell or received a visit from him. The chalet
+was well named, as far as we were concerned, for it was almost a
+solitude _a deux_, but the days slipped by with amazing celerity."
+
+Their mutual affection and their dependence upon each other grew as
+the years went by, and in 1884 he wrote to his mother: "My wife is in
+pretty good feather; I love her better than ever and admire her more;
+and I cannot think what I have done to deserve so good a gift. This
+sudden remark came out of my pen; it is not like me; but in case you
+did not know, I may as well tell you, that my marriage has been the
+most successful in the world.... She is everything to me; wife,
+brother, sister, daughter, and dear companion; and I would not change
+to get a goddess or a saint. So far, after four years of matrimony."
+
+At another time he wrote: "As for my wife, that was the best
+investment ever made by man; but 'in our branch of the family' we seem
+to marry well. Here am I, who you were persuaded was born to disgrace
+you, no very burning discredit when all is said and done; here am I
+married, and the marriage recognized to be a blessing of the first
+water--A1 at Lloyds."
+
+As Christmas, 1883, approached, their content seemed to reach its
+highest tide, and out of a full heart Mrs. Stevenson wrote to her
+mother-in-law:
+
+"What a Christmas of thanksgiving this should be for us all, with
+Louis so well, his father so well, everything pointing to comfort and
+happiness. Louis is making such a success with his work, and doing
+better work every day. Dear mother and father of my beloved husband, I
+send you Christmas greetings from my heart of hearts. I mean to have a
+Merry Christmas and be as glad and thankful as possible for all the
+undeserved mercies and blessings that have been showered upon me."
+
+They snatched at these moments of respite from eating care with an
+almost pathetic eagerness, and set to work once more to make a home in
+their doll's house. Mrs. Stevenson had what she called a "painting
+fever," and devised a scheme of Japanese decorations for the doors of
+the chalet which her husband thought might be made to produce a lot of
+money if they were nearer London. One of the panels had a woman
+yawning over a fire in the early morning, and the hypnotic effect of
+it kept the family and their guests yawning their heads off, so that
+Mrs. Stevenson decided the sleepy lady would be better for a bedroom.
+
+Among their acquaintances here was a certain doctor who was such an
+inveterate optimist that he could have given lessons even to Louis
+Stevenson himself. She says of him: "This doctor has bought a piece of
+land here upon which he expects to build a house and settle down when
+he retires from practice. How old do you suppose he will be when he
+stops work and settles down to enjoy life? Only ninety-one, and
+subject to hemorrhages and other things! It seems to be the received
+opinion that when one passes the age of sixty-three years life takes a
+new start and one may live to almost any age. As to Louis, I verily
+believe he is going to be like the old doctor, only a little better
+looking, I hope."
+
+Notwithstanding the cramped quarters in the little chalet their
+solitude was broken now and then by a visitor. Thither went at various
+times "Bob" Stevenson, Sir Sidney Colvin, Mr. Charles Baxter, Mr. W.
+E. Henley, and Miss Ferrier. The pleasurable excitement of this
+society, to which he had been so long a stranger, raised Mr.
+Stevenson's spirits to such an extent that he rashly proposed an
+expedition to Nice, where he took cold, developed pneumonia, was
+critically ill for weeks, and returned to Hyeres still in a very low
+condition. This was one of the most harrowing periods of Mrs.
+Stevenson's life, and she tells of its distresses in a letter written
+to her mother-in-law in January, 1884:
+
+"If I write like a mad creature do not be surprised, for I have had a
+period of awful wretchedness. Louis fell ill, and when the doctor
+came he beckoned to me to follow him, and then told me Louis was dying
+and could not be kept alive until you could get here. That was
+yesterday. I watched every breath he drew all night in what sickening
+apprehension you may guess. To-day another doctor, Dr. Drummond, was
+called in, and says that Louis may well live to be seventy, only he
+must not travel about. He is steadily better and is reading a
+newspaper in bed at this moment. I, who have not slept a wink for two
+nights, am pretending to be the gayest of the gay, but in reality I am
+a total wreck, although I am almost off my head with relief and joy."
+
+As soon as the patient had sufficiently recovered they returned to
+Hyeres, but there new troubles awaited them. His eyes became so
+severely affected by a contagious ophthalmia then prevailing in the
+neighbourhood that he had to give up using them for several weeks,
+sciatic rheumatism confined him to bed, and his right arm was bound to
+his side to prevent hemorrhage. In the midst of all these afflictions
+he refused to be cast down and insisted that everything was for the
+best, for he was now forced to take a much-needed rest which he would
+not otherwise have taken. On March 25, 1884, she writes to his mother:
+
+"I am not very good at letter writing since I have been doing blind
+man's eyes, but here is a note to say that the blind man is doing very
+well, and I consider the blindness a real providence. Since he has
+been unable to read or do anything at all a wonderful change has come
+over his health, spirits, and temper, all for the better.... I wish
+you could see him with his eye tied up and singing away like mad;
+truly like mad, as there is neither time nor method in it, only a
+large voice. I am horribly busy, for I have to write for Louis from
+dictation, answer all his letters, as well as my own, keep house,
+entertain visitors, and do a good deal of the cooking. Our Wogg is an
+invalid, having got himself badly mangled in several fights, the maid
+is ill with symptoms of pleurisy, and altogether we are a forlorn
+household, but with all this Louis and I are in high spirits. He says
+it is wonderful how well one gets along without reading. He could
+never have believed it."
+
+Perhaps partly for the purpose of getting her out for a little fresh
+air, he proposed that she should go for an hour's walk every day, and
+during her absence invent a story to be told on her return. It was to
+be a sort of Arabian Nights' Entertainment, with him as the Sultan and
+her as Scheherazade. _The Dynamiter_ was suggested by certain
+attempted outrages in London which had all turned out to be fiascos.
+She began with the Mormon tale and followed with the others, one for
+each afternoon. Afterwards, when a lean time came at Bournemouth and
+money was badly needed, these stories, temporarily forgotten, were
+recalled, written, and published as the second volume of the _New
+Arabian Nights_ series. As there was only enough for a thin book he
+wrote another, _The Explosive Bomb_, to fill up. It came out at first
+under the title of _More New Arabian Nights_, but afterwards appeared
+as _The Dynamiter_. Of the stories in this second series only one,
+_The Explosive Bomb_, was entirely the work of Mr. Stevenson's own
+hand, all the others being done in collaboration with his wife. _The
+Dynamiter_ did double service, as his wife said, for first it amused
+his tedious hours of illness at Hyeres, and afterwards it replenished
+his purse in a time of need.
+
+Their peaceful life in the chalet was now broken by a new and most
+unexpected interruption. Mrs. Stevenson writes in her preface to _The
+Dynamiter_:
+
+"So quiet and secluded was our life here that we heard almost nothing
+of the outside world except through an occasional English
+correspondent. I remember before we knew that cholera was raging in
+Toulon, only some three miles away, how we watched a cloud gathering
+over the town, where it hung heavy and lowering, day after day. We
+felt that it was somehow ominous, and were vaguely depressed. We were
+told afterwards that at that very time great fires were burning in the
+streets of Toulon by order of the mayor, and that the people gathered
+at night around these fires capering fantastically in a pagan dance,
+resurrected from the dark ages no one knew by whom or how."
+
+To add to the alarm caused by the outbreak of the cholera, in the
+first week in May Mr. Stevenson had a violent hemorrhage. "It occurred
+late at night, but in a moment his wife was at his side. Being choked
+by the flow of blood and unable to speak, he made signs to her for a
+paper and pencil, and wrote in a firm neat hand, 'Don't be frightened.
+If this is death it is an easy one.' Mrs. Stevenson had always a small
+bottle of ergotin and a minim glass in readiness; these she brought
+in order to administer the prescribed quantity. Seeing her alarm he
+took bottle and glass away from her, measured the dose correctly with
+a perfectly steady hand, and gave the things back to her with a
+reassuring smile."[24] It was said that if his wife had not had
+everything ready and known exactly what to do he could not have lived.
+The clergyman came to pray with the supposed dying man, but, having
+been warned against the least excitement, she refused him admittance.
+In defense of her action she says: "I know Louis, and I know that he
+tries always to so live that he may be ready to die." When Mr.
+Stevenson heard that a clergyman had come to pray for him as a man in
+danger of dying, he said: "Tell him to come and see me when I am
+better and I will offer up a prayer for a clergyman in danger of
+living." In a few days he rallied once more, but it was now realized
+that chronic invalidism was to be his portion for the rest of his
+days, and his wife wrote to her mother-in-law:
+
+"The doctor says 'keep him alive until he is forty, and then, though a
+winged bird, he may live to ninety.' But between now and forty he must
+live as though he were walking on eggs. For the next two years, no
+matter how well he feels, he must live the life of an invalid. He must
+be perfectly tranquil, trouble about nothing, have no shocks or
+surprises, not even pleasant ones, must not eat too much, talk very
+little, and walk no more than can be helped. He must never be crossed,
+for anger, going upstairs, and walking are the worst things for
+him.... Yet he is very cheerful and has been all along. He is never
+frightened."
+
+              [Footnote 24: From _The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson_,
+              by Graham Balfour.]
+
+Driven from Hyeres by the cholera, they sought a temporary refuge at
+an enchanting little watering-place near Clermont-Ferrand called
+Royat, in whose healing springs Caesar himself had once bathed. The
+surroundings, of wooded ravines and cliffs and numberless waterfalls,
+were charming, and in the centre of the town stood an ancient
+cathedral, whose former use as a fortress was still proclaimed by the
+loopholes in its walls and the hooded projections on its towers.
+
+In this romantic place they spent the summer in the company of his
+parents, who came to visit them, but the joy of this meeting was
+tempered by the failing health and spirits of the father, who was now
+only able to keep up a semblance of cheerfulness in the presence of
+his son.
+
+At the end of the summer of 1884 they returned to Hyeres, but the
+prospect of a permanent recovery there seemed so slight that it was
+finally decided to go to England and seek medical advice. On the 1st
+of July they reached England, and shortly afterwards went to London to
+consult Sir Andrew Clark and other eminent physicians. Mrs. Stevenson
+writes from there: "I suppose it comes from being so long a recluse,
+but seeing the few people I have seen has quite shattered my nerves,
+so that I tremble and can hardly speak. Louis, on the contrary, is
+quite calm, and is at this moment, after a hearty meal, resting
+quietly in his bed."
+
+Snatching at a half-hearted permission given by some of the doctors to
+remain in England, their decision being assisted by the desire to be
+near his father, whose health was rapidly failing, they went to
+Bournemouth for a trial of its climate and conditions. Nothing
+untoward having occurred by the end of January, the elder Stevenson
+purchased a house there as a present to his daughter-in-law. Both the
+wanderers were filled with inexpressible joy at the prospect of living
+under their own rooftree, and at once plunged with ardour into the
+business of furnishing and gardening. The first thing was to change
+the name of the place to Skerryvore, in honour of the best known of
+the lighthouses built by the Stevenson family, the name being partly
+suggested by the fact that a distant view of the sea was to be had
+from the upper windows.
+
+Skerryvore was a pleasant, ivy-covered brick cottage, surrounded by a
+half-acre of garden, which has been so delightfully described by
+William Archer in the _Critic_ of November 5, 1887, that one can do no
+better than quote his words:
+
+"Though only a few paces from the public road, it is thoroughly
+secluded. Its front faces southward (away from the road) and overlooks
+a lawn,
+
+     'Linnet haunted garden ground,
+      Where still the esculents abound.'
+
+"The demesne extends over the edge, and almost to the bottom of the
+Chine; and here, amid laurel and rhododendron, broom and gorse, the
+garden merges into a network of paths and stairways, with tempting
+seats and unexpected arbors at every turn. This seductive little
+labyrinth is of Mrs. Stevenson's own designing. She makes the whole
+garden her special charge and delight, but this particular corner of
+it is as a kingdom conquered, where to reign. Mrs. Stevenson, the
+tutelary genius of Skerryvore, is a woman of small physical stature
+but surely of heroic mould. Her features are clear cut and delicate,
+but marked by unmistakable strength of character; her hair is an
+unglossy black, and her complexion darker than one would expect in a
+woman of Dutch extraction.... Her personality, no less than her
+husband's, impresses itself potently on all who have the good fortune
+to be welcomed at Skerryvore."
+
+Writing to her mother-in-law from Bournemouth, she says:
+
+"I have just been going the rounds of my garden, and have brought in
+as a sentimental reminder of you the first marguerite,[25] which I
+will enclose in this letter. The weather is like paradise, the sun is
+shining, the birds are singing, and Louis is walking up and down in
+front of the house with a red umbrella over his head, enjoying the
+day.... I could only ask one thing more to have the most perfect life
+that any woman could have, and that is, of course, good health for
+Louis.... I should be perfectly appalled if I were asked to exchange
+his faults for other people's virtues."
+
+              [Footnote 25: The elder lady's name was Margaret.]
+
+Three years were spent at this pleasant place, and though Louis's
+health was never good, and he lived there, as he afterwards wrote,
+"like a pallid weevil in a biscuit," a great deal was accomplished in
+literary work by both husband and wife. There they put together the
+stories in _The Dynamiter_, which, as will be remembered, Mrs.
+Stevenson had made up to while away the hours of illness at Hyeres.
+When the book came out little credit was given her by the book
+reviewers for her part in it, a neglect which caused her some
+mortification. Writing to her mother-in-law, she says: "I thought in
+the beginning that I shouldn't mind being Louis's scapegoat, but it is
+rather hard to be treated like a comma, and a superfluous one at that.
+And then in one paper, the only one in which I am mentioned, the
+critic refers to me as 'undoubtedly Mr. Stevenson's sister.' Why,
+pray? Surely there can be nothing in the book that points to a sister
+in particular."
+
+The morning after her husband had the dream that suggested _Dr. Jekyll
+and Mr. Hyde_, he came with a radiant countenance to show his work to
+his wife, saying it was the best thing he had ever done. She read it
+and thought it the worst, and thereupon fell into a state of deep
+gloom, for she couldn't let it go, and yet it seemed cruel to tell him
+so, and between the two horns of the dilemma she made herself quite
+ill. At last, by his request and according to their custom, she put
+her objections to it, as it then stood, in writing, complaining that
+he had treated it simply as a story, whereas it was in reality an
+allegory. After reading her paper and seeing the justice of her
+criticism, with characteristic impulsiveness he immediately burned his
+first draft and rewrote it from a different point of view. She was
+appalled when he burned it, for she had only wanted him to change it,
+but he was afraid of being influenced by the first writing and
+preferred to start anew, with a clean slate.
+
+Their discussions over the work were sometimes hot and protracted, for
+neither was disposed to yield without a struggle. Speaking of this in
+a letter to his mother, she says: "If I die before Louis, my last
+earnest request is that he shall publish nothing without his father's
+approval. I know that means little short of destruction to both of
+them, but there will be no one else. The field is always covered with
+my dead and wounded, and often I am forced to a compromise, but still
+I make a very good fight." In this battle of wits they found intense
+enjoyment, and it was, in fact, an intellectual comradeship that few
+writers have been fortunate enough to enjoy in their own households.
+
+While at Bournemouth an occasional respite from illness enabled them
+to enjoy the society of friends in a limited way--among them their
+neighbours, Sir Percy and Lady Shelley, Sir Henry Taylor and his
+daughters, and many people of note who came down from London to see
+them. The incidents of these friendships have been fully dealt with in
+Balfour's _Life of Robert Louis Stevenson_, and need not be treated
+extensively here. One of their neighbours, Miss Adelaide Boodle, who
+was given the jocose title of "gamekeeper" when she assumed charge of
+Skerryvore after their departure from England, writes thus of her
+attachment to Mrs. Stevenson: "Among all her friends here there was
+never one who loved her more whole-heartedly than her 'gamekeeper,' to
+whom in after years she gave the sweet pet name of the 'little brown
+deer.' From the first day that we met at Skerryvore she took entire
+possession of my heart, and there she will forever bear sway. There is
+an old gardener here, too, who was her devoted slave at Skerryvore. Of
+course she never trusted him the length of her little finger, but she
+used him as extra hands and feet. Her parting charge to me--given in
+his presence--has never been forgotten by either of us: 'Remember,
+child, if you ever see Philips approach my creepers with a pruning
+knife you are to snatch it from his hand and plunge it into his
+heart!"
+
+Among the visitors was John Sargent, the American painter, who came to
+paint Mr. Stevenson's portrait--a picture which was regarded as too
+peculiar to be satisfactory. When Sargent painted it he put Mrs.
+Stevenson, dressed in an East Indian costume, in the background,
+intending it, not for a portrait, but merely as a bit of colour to
+balance the picture. It was a part of the costume that her feet should
+be bare, and this fact gave rise to a fantastic story that has often
+gone the rounds in print, and will probably continue to do so till the
+end of time, that when she first came to London she was such a savage
+that she went to dinners and evening entertainments barefoot. This was
+but one of the many strange tales that appeared from time to time
+concerning her, all of which she refused to contradict, no matter how
+false or malicious they might be, for she felt that the name she bore
+was not to be lowered by appearing in stupid or ridiculous
+controversy; for that reason she would never see newspaper reporters,
+and though many so-called "interviews" with her have been printed,
+none of them are genuine. She was misrepresented by the press in many
+ways, and even wantonly attacked, but refused to break her rule under
+any circumstances. During the last days of Jules Simoneau, of
+Monterey, a statement appeared in the papers to the effect that he was
+being permitted to suffer and die in want, and although it was
+perfectly well known to her friends and many other persons that she
+had supported him in comfort for years, she would not make any
+contradiction in the public press.
+
+One of the interesting people she met while in England was Prince
+Kropotkin, the noted Russian revolutionist. Mrs. Stevenson, believing
+that Kropotkin was concerned in the blowing up of a French village
+while a country fair was in progress, resulting in the killing of a
+number of innocent people, prevented her husband from signing a
+petition that was instituted for his release from the French prison
+where he was confined. When he was finally freed and went to England,
+at the urgent request of Henry James she consented to meet him, and
+found him to be a most charming person. He assured her that, judging
+from the expression of her eyes, she was born to be a nihilist, and
+when she indignantly denied this, still insisted that she should learn
+to play the game of solitaire, for if she should ever have to go to
+prison it might save her life and reason, as it had his. She
+consented, not with the anticipation of spending any portion of her
+life behind prison-bars, but in order to use the game to amuse her
+husband during his long periods of forced and speechless seclusion.
+She would sit by his bedside and play her game, and he took great
+pleasure in watching it and pointing at the cards that he thought she
+ought to play. In later years, when he had gone to the other world,
+and the days grew long and lonely, this game of solitaire, so
+strangely acquired from the bearded Russian, became a solace.
+
+But of all the guests that came to Skerryvore, the best loved and most
+welcome was Mrs. Stevenson's fellow countryman, Henry James, who often
+ran down to see them. In the house there was a certain large blue
+chair in which he liked to sit. It was called the "Henry James" chair,
+and no one else was allowed to use it. It was to him that Louis
+Stevenson wrote the poem called "Who Comes To-Night?" Speaking of
+their first meeting, Mrs. Stevenson wrote to her mother-in-law: "We
+have had a very pleasant visitor. One evening a card was handed in
+with 'Henry James' upon it. He spent that evening, asked to come again
+the next night, arriving almost before we had got done with dinner,
+and staying as late as he thought he might, and asking to come the
+next evening, which is to-night. I call that very flattering. I had
+always been told that he was the type of an Englishman, but, except
+that he looks like the Prince of Wales, I call him the type of an
+American. He is gentle, amiable, and soothing."
+
+A wedding anniversary came around, and it was resolved to celebrate it
+by a dinner. Henry James was the only guest, and he took a naive
+delight in the American dishes which his hostess had prepared to
+remind him of his native land. She writes: "Our dinner was most
+successful, our guest continually asking for double helpings and
+breaking out into heartfelt praises of the food. It was a sort of
+lady's and literary man's dinner; everything was just as good as could
+be, and under each napkin was a paper with verses for each person
+written by Louis."
+
+Long afterwards, when Mr. James was in America for his first visit in
+many years, he went to see Mrs. Stevenson in her San Francisco house.
+He had come up from the southern part of the State, and was so
+enchanted with the sights along the way--the flowery hill-slopes and
+green ferny canyons--that for the first time he was almost persuaded
+to abandon his adopted home and come to live among the orange-groves
+of California. "When I come to dinner," said he, "please have a large
+dish of California oranges on the table if you have nothing else."
+Despite a certain stiffness of manner and speech, he was a man of
+kindly heart and simple, unworldly nature. After the first ice was
+broken, the most unintellectual person might prattle away to him at
+ease, for his sympathies were of the broadest. Both Mr. and Mrs.
+Stevenson had a deep affection for him, and "no matter who else was
+there, the evenings seemed empty without him."
+
+In the meantime Mr. Stevenson's health went but badly, and his wife
+gave up practically all her time and strength to his care.
+
+In May, 1887, the elder Stevenson died, breaking the last tie that
+held them to England, and three months later Louis Stevenson, with his
+mother, wife, and stepson, set sail for America.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+AWAY TO SUNNIER LANDS.
+
+
+After boarding the _Ludgate Hill_, the tramp steamship on which they
+had taken passage for New York, chiefly on account of her unusually
+spacious cabins, they discovered, somewhat to their discomfiture, that
+the cargo, listed by the agent as "notions," really consisted largely
+of live stock--horses to be taken on at Havre, and a consignment of
+monkeys. All their party were of the sort, however, who have a "heart
+for any fate," so they agreed to regard this as only an added
+adventure. As it turned out, they were not disappointed, for, as the
+elder Mrs. Stevenson writes, "It was very amusing and like a circus to
+see the horses come on board," while Jocko, a large ape, which soon
+struck up a warm friendship with Mr. Stevenson, furnished them with a
+vast amount of entertainment. The exceptional freedom which they
+enjoyed on board, too, more than counterbalanced any lack of elegance.
+In a vein of exuberant joy at this escape from the narrow confines of
+the sick-room, Louis writes to his Cousin Bob:
+
+"I was so happy on board that ship I could not have believed it
+possible. We had the beastliest weather and many discomforts; but the
+mere fact of its being a tramp ship gave us many comforts; we could
+cut about with the men and officers, stay in the wheel-house, discuss
+all manner of things, and really be a little at sea. And truly there
+is nothing else. I had literally forgotten what happiness was, and the
+full mind--full of external and physical things, not full of cares and
+labors and rot about a fellow's behavior. My heart literally sang; I
+truly care for nothing so much as that."
+
+The two ladies took up knitting to while away the long hours at sea,
+and so the days slipped peacefully by, with the invalid steadily
+gaining in health until they struck a heavy fog on the Newfoundland
+banks, where he caught a cold.
+
+They reached New York on September 7, 1887, at the time when
+Stevenson's fame was in its flood-tide. _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_ had
+just made a tremendous impression on the reading public; the idea of
+dual personality was being discussed on all sides; ministers preached
+sermons about it. Stevenson was amazed and bewildered, though
+immensely pleased, at the sudden turn of fortune's wheel. Here,
+indeed, was success at last in full measure.
+
+Their original plan had been to try the climate of Colorado, but the
+long overland journey seemed too great an ordeal in his condition,
+and, hearing of Saranac in the Adirondacks, then just coming into
+prominence as a resort for consumptives, they decided to make a trial
+of it. While Louis and his mother paid a visit to the Fairchilds at
+Newport, his wife and stepson went on to the mountain place to make
+arrangements.
+
+This sanatorium was established by Doctor Edward Livingstone Trudeau,
+a New York physician who had nursed his brother through tuberculosis
+and later developed the disease himself. He had tried going South and
+taking daily exercise, but as these attempts at a cure only made
+matters worse, in a sort of desperation he went to the Adirondacks,
+not so much for health as for love of the great forest and the wild
+life. It was then a rough, inaccessible region, visited only by
+hunters and fishermen, and was considered to have a most inclement and
+trying climate. Trudeau was carried to the place of Paul Smith, a
+guide and hotel-keeper, on a mattress, but it was not long before he
+was able to move about and to get some enjoyment out of life. When he
+first spent a winter there it was thought to mean his death-warrant,
+but, to his own surprise, he soon began to eat and sleep, and lost his
+fever. In 1876 he moved his family to Saranac and lived there always
+after that. Physicians in New York, hearing of the case of Trudeau,
+began to send patients now and then to try the climate at Saranac, and
+in that small way the health resort, now so extensive, had its
+beginning. Stevenson went there in the early days of the sanatorium,
+when the place was a mere little logging village, where logs were cut
+and floated down the river.
+
+There were two churches in the place, called by the appropriate names
+of St. Luke the Beloved Physician and St. John in the Wilderness, the
+latter a picturesque structure of logs. These churches, both of the
+Episcopal denomination, were built and furnished as a testimonial of
+gratitude by persons who had recovered health or had friends under
+treatment there.
+
+As soon as Mrs. Stevenson had her people settled at Saranac she left
+them and went to Indiana to visit her mother and sister, stopping on
+the way for a few days with the Bellamy Storers at Cincinnati. "The
+Storers live in a sort of enchanted palace," she writes, "and are very
+simple and gentle and kind, and altogether lovely. Mrs. Storer has a
+pottery, where poor ladies with artistic tastes get work and
+encouragement. She also has a large hospital for children, and a
+little girl of her own with a genius for drawing. Mr. Storer is six
+feet three and a half inches in height and has a Greek profile and
+soft large brown eyes."
+
+The Stevensons reached Saranac when the woods were all aflame with
+autumn glory, and to Mr. Stevenson's mother it all seemed unreal and
+"more like a painted scene in a theatre" than actuality.
+
+The house in which they lived, a white frame cottage with green
+shutters and a veranda around it, belonged to a guide named Andrew
+Baker, who took parties into the woods for hunting and fishing
+excursions. Baker was a typical frontiersman--brave, obstinate,
+independent, and fearless--who might have stepped out of _Leather
+Stocking_, and he had a kind, sweet wife. The cottage stood on high
+ground, so that its occupants could look down on the river, and the
+view, except for the brilliant hues of the frost-tinted leaves, was
+enough like the Highlands to make Louis and his mother feel quite at
+home.
+
+Life in the cottage was frontier-like in its simplicity, and the
+Scotch lady, for whom this was the first experience in "roughing it,"
+asked for many things that caused great surprise to the village
+storekeeper, including such unheard-of luxuries as coffee-pots,
+teapots, and egg-cups. Writing to her friend Miss Boodle, the
+"gamekeeper" of Skerryvore, Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson describes
+their life at Saranac:
+
+"We are high up in the Adirondack Mountains, living in a guide's
+cottage in the most primitive fashion. The maid does the cooking (we
+have little beyond venison and bread to cook) and the boy comes every
+morning to carry water from a distant spring for drinking purposes. It
+is already very cold, but we have calked the doors and windows as one
+calks a boat, and have laid in a store of extraordinary garments made
+by the Canadian Indians. I went to Montreal to buy these and came back
+laden with buffalo skins, snow shoes, and fur caps. Louis wants to
+have his photograph taken in his, hoping to pass for a mighty hunter
+or sly trapper. He is now more like the hardy mountaineer, taking long
+walks on hill-tops in all seasons and weathers. It is something like
+Davos here, all the invalids looking stronger and ruddier than we who
+are supposed to be in good health.... Every afternoon a vehicle called
+a 'buckboard' is brought to our door, sometimes with one large horse
+attached, and sometimes we have a pair of lovely spirited ponies. The
+buckboard is so light that when we meet a stage-coach on the narrow
+road we simply drive our horse up the hillside and lift the buckboard
+out of the way. Very soon, however, we shall exchange it for a
+sleigh."
+
+It was a long, bitter winter spent amid the ice and snow, the
+thermometer at one time showing 48 degrees below zero. By November 19
+it was fiercely cold, and water and ink froze in the rooms with fires
+going all day and night. When the kitchen floor was washed with warm
+water, even with a hot fire burning in the room, the floor became a
+sheet of ice. All food had to be thawed out before it could be eaten,
+and the thawing-out process sometimes presented great difficulties, a
+haunch of venison remaining full of ice after being in a hot oven for
+an hour. Sometimes a lump of ice was left unmelted in the centre of
+the soup-pot even when the water boiled all around it. The cold was
+most intense at night, when the rivets could be heard starting from
+the boards like pistol-shots, but during the day the temperature was
+often quite mild. The snow was so deep that it reached the
+second-story windows, and paths had to be shovelled out and kept clear
+around the house. In the streets a snow-plough was used. By March the
+Hunter's Home was nearly buried in the drifts, and in spite of a huge
+open fireplace, in which great log fires were kept constantly burning,
+and a stove in every room, it was impossible to do much more than
+barely keep from freezing to death. When they went out, muffled up to
+the ears in furs, they carried little slabs of hot soapstone in their
+pockets, for it was a great comfort to thrust a frozen hand into a
+toasting-hot pocket.
+
+Added to the bitterness of the cold was the depression of grey,
+sunless days, only too like their memories of Scotland, and while they
+sat and shivered around their immense fireplace their thoughts turned
+insistently towards sunnier lands. Many years before, when Mr.
+Stevenson was a mere lad, it had been suggested that the South Seas
+was the very place for him, and the plan for a voyage there some time
+in the future had always lain dormant in his thoughts, waiting for the
+opportunity. This old dream now came to mind again, and every glance
+from their frost-covered windows at the bleak dreariness without made
+their vision of tropical forests and coral strands seem the more
+alluring. The project now began to take on definite shape, and days
+were spent in poring over Findlay's directories of the Mediterranean,
+the Indian Ocean, and the South Seas.
+
+In the meantime much work was accomplished, the most important being a
+series of twelve articles written by Mr. Stevenson for _Scribner's
+Magazine_, including some of his best-known essays--_The Lantern
+Bearers_, _A Chapter on Dreams_, etc. In the short hours of daylight
+and the long, dark evenings he worked with his stepson on the novel
+called _The Wrong Box_. It was here, too, that the story of the two
+brothers, _The Master of Ballantrae_, was thought out, and _The Black
+Arrow_, a book which failed to meet with Mrs. Stevenson's approval,
+was revised. In the dedication to this last he says:
+
+"No one but myself knows what I have suffered, nor what my books have
+gained, by your unsleeping watchfulness and admirable pertinacity. And
+now here is a volume that goes into the world and lacks your
+_imprimatur_; a strange thing in our joint lives; and the reason of it
+stranger still! I have watched with interest, with pain, and at length
+with amusement, your unavailing attempts to peruse _The Black Arrow_;
+I think I should lack humor indeed if I let the occasion slip and did
+not place your name in the fly-leaf of the only book of mine that you
+have never read--and never will read."
+
+By the time spring had melted the deep snow around their mountain home
+they had come to the definite decision to undertake the cruise in the
+event that a suitable vessel could be secured for the purpose. Leaving
+the other members of the family about to start for Manasquan in New
+Jersey, Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson went to San Francisco, where she
+found and chartered the yacht _Casco_, belonging to Doctor Merritt of
+Oakland, for a six months' cruise.
+
+While in California she came to visit me at Monterey, where years
+before we had all been so happy together. During the week she spent
+there we did the things that she liked best--spending long delightful
+days gathering shells on the beach at Point Cypress, where the great
+seas roared in from across the wide Pacific and broke thunderously at
+our feet. When noon came, bringing us appetites sharpened by the
+sparkling air, we built a fire under the old twisted trees and
+barbecued the meat we had brought with us. She seemed to be welling
+over with happiness--partly because of her great pride and joy in her
+husband's success, and partly because, after years spent in Alpine
+snows, Scotch mists, London fogs, and fierce Adirondack cold, she had
+come again into the sunlight of her beloved California.
+
+While there she had a pleasant meeting with Louis's old friend Jules
+Simoneau, of which she writes to her husband:
+
+"At last your dear old Simoneau came to see me. He was laden with
+flowers, and was dressed in a flannel shirt thrown open at the neck
+and his trousers thrust in his boots. I saw him from the window and
+ran out and kissed him. He was greatly pleased and talked a long time
+about you. I told him you were going to send him the books, and he
+almost cried at that. The following day he and his wife spent the
+whole time in the woods searching for roots and leaves that are,
+according to the Indians, a certain cure for lung disease where there
+is hemorrhage. I have a great packet of them; one dose is divided off,
+and I am to divide the rest in the same way. A dose means enough to
+make a gallon of tea, of which you are to drink when so inclined.
+Simoneau said: 'I thought you might be ashamed of a rough old
+eccentric fellow like me.' I expressed my feeling in regard to him, to
+which he replied: 'And yet I am rough and eccentric; you say I was
+kind; I fear that to be kind is to be eccentric.'"
+
+Having secured the _Casco_, she telegraphed to her anxiously waiting
+husband for a positive decision, to which he sent back an instant and
+joyous "Yes."
+
+It is now thirty years since Robert Louis Stevenson passed that winter
+in the snows of the Adirondacks, and the little logging-camp, as he
+knew it, has grown into a great sanatorium, but his spirit still seems
+to hover over the place, and those who seek the healing of its crystal
+air have set up a shrine and made of him a sort of patron saint. The
+Baker Cottage has been converted by the Stevenson Society into a
+memorial museum, where many objects commemorative of him have been
+collected. Among these are the woodcuts with which he amused himself
+at Davos, and which were given to them by Lloyd Osbourne. Here Mr. and
+Mrs. Baker, whose hair has been whitened by the snows of many winters
+since the Stevenson days, receive the visitors who come to reverently
+examine the relics left by the man who fought so bravely and so
+successfully against the same insidious enemy with whom they
+themselves are struggling. On the veranda, where, in that time so long
+past, his slender figure might often have been seen walking up and
+down, a beautiful bas-relief by Gutzon Borglum, representing him in
+the fur cap and coat and the boots that he was so boyishly proud of,
+has been set up. Just as the mantle of Stevenson fell upon Cummy[26]
+and Simoneau, so now it has fallen upon this most amiable and
+delightful old couple, the Bakers, making them in a way celebrities;
+and to the patients his memory is like that of a dear departed elder
+brother, to whom they are linked by the strong bond of a common
+suffering and a common hope.
+
+              [Footnote 26: Alison Cunningham, Stevenson's old nurse.]
+
+As soon as they could make ready the family set out, and by June 7
+their train was rolling down the western slope of the Sierras into
+California. At Sacramento they were met by their "advance agent," who,
+as her mother-in-law remarks, "was looking so pretty in a new hat that
+we were grieved to hear that it belonged to her daughter."
+
+Immediately on reaching San Francisco they were plunged into a bustle
+of preparation for the long cruise. While he rested from the fatigue
+of the long overland trip Mrs. Stevenson went on with the work,
+including, among other things, vaccination for all hands except the
+sick man. Lymph was taken with them so that his wife could vaccinate
+him if it should become necessary. The burden of these preparations,
+including the winning over of Doctor Merritt, who was not inclined to
+rent his yacht at first, fell upon the shoulders of Mrs. Stevenson.
+Sending the others here and there on errands, getting the burgee to
+fly at the masthead, purchasing all the multitudinous list of supplies
+necessary for the long voyage, making sure that nothing that might be
+needed by the invalid should be forgotten, with flying runs between
+times to report to him at the hotel--these were busy days for her.
+
+While they were in San Francisco Mrs. Stevenson had a strange and
+dramatic meeting with Samuel Osbourne's second wife, a quiet, gentle
+little woman whom he married soon after his divorce from Fanny Van de
+Grift. Within a year or two after the marriage Osbourne mysteriously
+disappeared, never to be heard of again, and his wife dragged out a
+pitiful existence at their vineyard at Glen Ellen, in Sonoma County,
+hoping against hope for his return. Finally her faith failed, and when
+she met Mrs. Stevenson in San Francisco she fell on her knees before
+her and burst into bitter weeping, saying: "You were right about that
+man and I was wrong!" She was then taken in to see Louis, and the two
+women sat hand in hand by his bedside and talked of the trouble that
+had darkened both their lives. Both Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson felt great
+compassion for the unhappy woman and did what they could to relieve
+her financial needs.
+
+The _Casco_ was a beautiful racing yacht, with cabin fittings of silk
+and velvet, and was kept so shiningly clean by her crew that in the
+islands she came to be known as the Silver Ship. At last all was
+ready, and, with a cabin packed with flowers and fruit sent by
+admiring friends, early in the morning of June 28, 1888, as the first
+rays of the sun glinted back from the dancing water, the _Casco_ was
+towed across the bay, amid salutes from the ferry-boats and the trains
+on shore, and out through the narrow passage of the Golden Gate. Then
+the Silver Ship, shaking out her snowy sails, turned her prow across
+the glittering expanse straight towards the enchanted isles of which
+Louis Stevenson had dreamed since he was a boy of twenty.
+
+The women had already provided themselves with their old solace of
+knitting for the slow-passing days at sea, and all settled down for
+the long voyage. All through the story of their three years of
+wandering among the islands of the South Seas runs the thread of the
+wife's devotion; of how she took upon herself the fatiguing details of
+preparations for the voyages, searching for ships and arranging for
+supplies; of how she walked across an island to get horses and wagon
+to move the sick man to a more comfortable place; of how she saved his
+trunk of manuscripts from destruction by fire on shipboard, of how she
+cheerfully endured a thousand discomforts, hardships, and even dangers
+for the sake of the slight increase of health and happiness the life
+brought to the loved one. She was not a good sailor and suffered much
+from seasickness on these voyages. Some of the trials of life on the
+ocean wave under rough conditions are described in a letter to her
+friend Mrs. Sitwell:
+
+"As for me, I hate the sea and am afraid of it (though no one will
+believe that because in time of danger I do not make an outcry), but I
+love the tropic weather and the wild people, and to see my two boys so
+happy.... To keep house on a yacht is no easy matter. When I was
+deathly sick the question was put to me by the cook: 'What shall we
+have for the cabin dinner, what for to-morrow's breakfast, what for
+lunch, and what about the sailors' food? And please come and look at
+the biscuits, for the weevils have got into them, and show me how to
+make yeast that will rise of itself, and smell the pork, which seems
+pretty high, and give me directions about making a pudding with
+molasses, etc.' In the midst of heavy dangerous weather, when I was
+lying on the floor in utter misery, down comes the mate with a cracked
+head, and I must needs cut off the blood-clotted hair, wash and dress
+the wound, and administer restoratives. I do not like being the 'lady
+of the yacht,' but ashore--oh, then I feel I am repaid for all!"
+
+Even Louis himself, lover of the sea though he was, was forced to
+acknowledge that under some circumstances his capricious mistress had
+her unpleasant moods. "The sea," he writes to Sidney Colvin, "is a
+terrible place, stupefying to the mind and poisonous to the
+temper--the motion, the lack of space, the cruel publicity, the
+villainous tinned foods, the sailors, the passengers." Again he
+remarks concerning the food: "Our diet had been from the pickle tub or
+out of tins; I had learned to welcome shark's flesh for a variety; and
+an onion, an Irish potato, or a beefsteak had been long lost to sense
+and dear to aspiration."
+
+But the glamour of romance and the joy of seeing her husband gaining
+strength hour by hour made all these annoyances seem things of small
+account, and, just as the time spent at Hyeres was the happiest in
+Louis's life, so these South Sea days were the best of all for her.
+
+It had been decided that their first landfall should be at the
+Marquesas, a group which lay quite out of the beaten track of travel,
+three thousand miles from the American coast. Peacefully the days
+slipped by, with no event to record, until, on July 28, 1888, their
+first tropic island rose out of the sea and sent them in greeting a
+breeze laden with the perfume of a thousand strange flowers. They
+first dropped anchor in Anaho Bay, Nukahiva Island, which, except for
+one white trader, was occupied solely by natives, but lately converted
+from cannibalism. As both Stevenson and his wife were citizens of the
+world in their sympathies, it was not long before they were on terms
+of perfect friendliness with the inhabitants. Soon after landing, Mrs.
+Stevenson's housekeeping instincts came to the front, and she set to
+work to learn something about the native cookery. Her mother-in-law
+writes:
+
+"Fanny was determined to get lessons in the proper making of 'kaku,'
+so went ashore armed with a bowl and beater. Kaku is baked breadfruit,
+with a sauce of cocoanut cream, which is made by beating up the soft
+pulp of the green nut with the juice, and is delicious."[27]
+
+              [Footnote 27: _The Letters of Mrs. M. I. Stevenson,
+              Saranac to Marquesas._]
+
+Although the _Casco_ had been originally built solely for coast
+sailing, and was scarcely fit for battling with wind and wave on the
+open sea, it was decided to take the risk and lay their course for
+Tahiti through the Dangerous Archipelago. After taking on a mate who
+was thoroughly acquainted with those waters, and a Chinese named Ah Fu
+to serve them as cook, they sailed away from the Marquesas. Ah Fu had
+been brought to the islands when a child, a forlorn little slave among
+a band of labourers sent by a contractor to work on the plantations,
+although, as the contract called for grown men, it was fraudulent to
+send a child. On the islands the boy grew up tall and robust,
+abandoned the queue, and no longer looked in the least like a Chinese.
+He became one of the most important members of the Stevenson family,
+remaining with them for two years. He was intensely attached to Mrs.
+Stevenson, carrying his devotion so far that once during a storm, when
+the ship was apparently about to go to the bottom, he appropriated the
+signal halyards, for which she had expressed an admiration, to give
+her as a present, explaining that "if the ship went down they wouldn't
+want them, and if it were saved they would all be too grateful to miss
+them." When the time came for him to leave the Stevensons and return
+to his family in China, it nearly broke his heart to go. Mrs.
+Stevenson writes of him:
+
+"Ah Fu had as strong a sense of romance as Louis himself. He returned
+to China with a belt of gold around his waist, a ninety dollar breech
+loader given him by Louis, and a boxful of belongings. His intention
+was to leave these great riches with a member of his family who lived
+outside the village, dress himself in beggar's rags, and then go to
+his mother's house to solicit alms. He would draw from her the account
+of the son who had been lost when he was a little child, and, at the
+psychological moment, when the poor lady was weeping, Ah Fu would cry
+out: 'Behold your son returned to you, not a beggar, as I appear, but
+a man of wealth!"
+
+On September 8 they ran into the lagoon of Fakarava, a typical low
+island forming a great ring some eighty miles in circumference by only
+a couple of hundred yards in width, and lying not more than twenty
+feet above the sea. Their experiences during a fortnight's stay on
+this bird's roost in the Pacific are thus described by Mrs. Stevenson:
+
+"Leaving the yacht _Casco_ in the lagoon, we hired a cottage on the
+beach where we lived for several weeks. Fakarava is an atoll of the
+usual horseshoe shape, so narrow that one can walk across it in ten
+minutes, but of great circumference; it lay so little above the sea
+level that one had a sense of insecurity, justified by the terrible
+disasters following the last hurricane in the group. Not far from
+where we lived the waves had recently swept over the narrow strip of
+coral during a storm. Our life passed in a gentle monotony of peace.
+At sunrise we walked from our front door into the warm, shallow waters
+of the lagoon for our bath; we cooked our breakfast on the remains of
+an old American cooking stove I discovered on the beach, and spent the
+rest of the morning sorting over the shells we had found the previous
+day. After lunch and a siesta we crossed the island to the windward
+side and gathered more shells. Sometimes we would find the strangest
+fish stranded in pools between the rocks by the outgoing tide, many of
+them curiously shaped and brilliantly colored. Some of the most
+gorgeous were poisonous to eat, and capable of inflicting very
+unpleasant wounds with their fins. The captain suffered for a long
+time with a sort of paralysis in a finger he had scratched when
+handling a fish with a beak like a parrot....
+
+"The close of the placid day marked the beginning of the most
+agreeable part of the twenty-four hours; it was the time of the moon,
+and the shadows that fell from the cocoanut leaves were so sharply
+defined that one involuntarily stepped over them. After a simple
+dinner and a dip in the soft sea, we awaited our invariable visitor,
+M. Donat Rimareau, the half-caste vice-president. As it was not the
+season for pearl fishing, there were no white men on the island,
+though now and again a schooner with a French captain would appear and
+disappear like a phantom ship. The days were almost intolerably hot,
+but with the setting of the sun a gentle breeze sprang up. We spent
+the evenings in the moonlight, sitting on mattresses spread on the
+veranda, our only chair being reserved for our guest. The conversation
+with M. Rimareau, who was half Tahitian, was delightful. Night after
+night we sat entranced at his feet, thrilled by stories of Tahiti and
+the Paumotus, always of a supernatural character. There was a strange
+sect in Fakarava called the 'Whistlers,' resembling the spiritualists
+of our country, but greater adepts. When M. Rimareau spoke of these
+people and their superstitions his voice sank almost to a whisper, and
+he cast fearful glances over his shoulder at the black shadows of the
+palms. I remember one of the stories was of the return of the soul of
+a dead child, the soul being wrapped in a leaf and dropped in at the
+door of the sorrowing parents. I am sure that when my husband came to
+write _The Isle of Voices_ he had our evenings in Fakarava and the
+stories of M. Rimareau in mind. I know that I never read _The Isle of
+Voices_ without a mental picture rising before me of the lagoon and
+the cocoa palms and the wonderful moonlight of Fakarava."[28]
+
+              [Footnote 28: Preface by Mrs. Stevenson to _Island
+              Nights Entertainments_.]
+
+It was the Fakaravans who gave the name of _Pahi Muni_, the shining or
+silver ship, to the _Casco_.
+
+Here the two ladies of the Stevenson party took lessons from the niece
+of a chief in plaiting hats of bamboo shavings and pandanus, and Mrs.
+Louis learned how to make them beautifully. This hat-making is the
+constant "fancy-work" of all Tahitian women, and serves in lieu of the
+tatting and embroidery of civilized lands. The best hats are made of
+the stalks of the arrowroot plant.
+
+In the last week of September, bidding a regretful farewell to M.
+Rimareau and his delightful moonlight talks, they set sail for
+Papeete, the capital and port of entry of the Society Group--most
+beautiful of all the islands of the Pacific. But, though they were
+entranced with the grandeur and charm of its scenery--its towering
+cliffs, leaping cascades, and green, palm-fringed flat land of the
+coast--Papeete did not treat them well, and their old enemy, which had
+forgotten them for some happy months, again found them out there and
+Louis had a severe relapse, with a return of the hemorrhages. It was
+clear that Papeete did not agree with him, and it was decided to
+remove him to a more suitable place. After a perilous trip around the
+island in the _Casco_, during which the ship was twice nearly lost on
+the reefs, they reached Taravao, but found it hot and full of
+mosquitoes. Mr. Stevenson was now very ill, and it was imperatively
+necessary, not only to find a more salubrious spot, but also some
+means of transporting him to it. His wife, equal to the occasion, as
+always, set out on foot across the island, following a trail until she
+reached the shanty of a Chinese who had a wagon and a pair of horses.
+"These she hired to take them to Tautira, the nearest village of any
+size, a distance of sixteen miles over a road crossed by
+one-and-twenty streams. Stevenson was placed in the cart, and,
+sustained by small doses of coca, managed, with the help of his wife
+and their servant, to reach his destination before he collapsed
+altogether."[29]
+
+              [Footnote 29: _The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson_, by
+              Graham Balfour.]
+
+They found a house and made him as comfortable as possible. It was not
+long before Princess Moe, ex-queen of Raiatea, and a most charming
+person, heard of their arrival and came to see them. "I feel," writes
+Mrs. Stevenson, "that she saved Louis's life. He was lying in a deep
+stupor when she first saw him, suffering from congestion of the lungs
+and a burning fever. She made him a dish of raw fish salad, the first
+thing he had eaten for days; he liked it and began to pick up from
+that day. As soon as he was well enough she invited us to live with
+her in the house of Ori, the sub-chief of the village, and we gladly
+accepted her invitation." There they lived as "in fairyland, the
+guests of a beautiful brown princess."
+
+When the _Casco_ had been brought around to Tautira it was discovered
+in a peculiar way that their danger in the recent trip from Papeete
+had been greater than they had realized. The elder Mrs. Stevenson gave
+a feast on board to a number of native women, and during its progress
+one of the women offered a prayer for their deliverance from the
+perils of the sea, praying especially that if anything were wrong with
+the ship it might be discovered in time. The elder Mrs. Stevenson had
+tried in vain to persuade Captain Otis to go to church at the places
+where they stopped. This time the church came to him and he couldn't
+escape, but stood leaning disgustedly against the mast while the
+prayer was said. After the visitors left he made some impatient
+exclamation against "psalm-singing natives," and struck the mast a
+hard blow with his fist. It went through into decayed wood, and the
+captain was aghast. Mrs. Stevenson, on her part, was triumphant, and
+she always loved to tell that story and dwell on the expression of
+the scoffing captain's face as he saw a prayer answered. Both masts
+were found to be almost entirely eaten out with dry-rot, and if either
+had gone by the board off the reefs of any of the islands nothing
+could have saved the _Casco_ from going to the bottom. The ship was at
+once sent to Papeete for repairs, but as it was impossible to obtain
+new masts of a proper size there, they were obliged to be content with
+patching up the old ones. This let the party in for a long stay at
+Tautira, at which none repined, for the scenery and climate were
+delightful, and their new friends hospitable and interesting.
+
+Following island custom, Mrs. Louis Stevenson and the Princess Moe
+exchanged names--each taking the name of the other's mother--that of
+Mrs. Stevenson being Terii-Tauma-Terai, part of which meant heaven and
+part gave her a claim to some land in the neighbourhood.
+
+Chief Ori a Ori (Ori of Ori, a clan name) was a magnificent figure of
+a man, standing six feet three and broad and strong in proportion. "He
+looked like nothing so much as a Roman emperor in bronze," says Mrs.
+Stevenson, and when he appeared at a feast with a wreath of golden
+yellow leaves on his head, all the company cried out in admiration. As
+he spoke very good French, communication with him was easy, and many a
+pleasant evening was spent in his house at Tautira, exchanging strange
+tales of old, wild, bloody days in the Scottish Highlands and in the
+Southern Seas. Both the Stevensons conceived a warm friendship for
+Ori, which endured as long as they lived.
+
+As they used to do in Barbizon, in the old French days, Mrs. Louis
+Stevenson set herself to making silhouettes of the different members
+of the strangely assorted company, gathered from the four quarters of
+the globe. First she did the portrait of Ori by throwing the shadow of
+his head on the wall with the help of a lamp, then drawing the outline
+and filling it in with India ink. It turned out so good that Ori
+demanded likenesses of all the rest, and soon the house was turned
+into a veritable picture-gallery.
+
+A feast was given by the chief for the captain of the _Casco_, and,
+says the elder Mrs. Stevenson, "Ori had such respect for Fanny's
+cooking powers that he insisted she should prepare the feast; so she
+stuffed and cooked a pair of fowls, two roast pigs, and made a
+pudding."
+
+These days of pleasant intimacy with the Stevensons were doubtless the
+brightest in the whole life of the island chief, and he kept them
+always in affectionate remembrance. Years afterwards, when Mrs.
+Stevenson was living in San Francisco after the death of her husband,
+two of her friends, Doctor and Mrs. Russell Cool, went to Tahiti, and
+were commissioned by her to visit Chief Ori a Ori. The Cools took with
+them a phonograph and themselves made records of a speech by Ori to
+Mrs. Stevenson, which, with its translation, was afterwards reproduced
+for her in San Francisco. But let us hear Mrs. Cool's own story of
+this visit:
+
+"Ori had never seen a phonograph in his life, but his interest was
+that of a clever and civilized person--with none of the ignorance and
+terror and superstition of a savage. He was more than interested in
+everything relating to Louis and Tamaitai,[30] asking all sorts of
+questions, intelligent ones, too, about their life in Samoa; then in
+San Francisco; about Tamaitai's personal appearance--if her hair was
+gray; whether she had a town house and country house, and whether they
+were near the ocean and the mountains. He had a perfect picture when
+we had answered them all, and he was so pleased and grateful to
+us--bearers of interesting news. All this time we sat out on the
+veranda of his cottage, on a moonlight night almost too heavenly to be
+real--a tropical night filled with beauty and romance. Then there was
+a lull in the conversation, and Ori said: 'And now tell me about John
+L. Sullivan!' We fell down from romantic heights with a thud! Then we
+reflected that as Louis was the greatest man intellectually that Ori
+had ever met, so John L. Sullivan, the famous fighter, was the
+greatest man in that line of his time. The islanders, in common with
+other primitive peoples, admire physical perfection tremendously, and
+feats of strength are celebrated in fable, song, and story. To Ori
+there was nothing incongruous in placing John L. Sullivan, the famous
+prizefighter, and Robert Louis Stevenson, the noted writer--two great
+men--side by side.
+
+              [Footnote 30: Tamaitai was the Samoan name of Mrs.
+              Stevenson.]
+
+"We stayed all night out at Ori's place, and as a mark of honor my
+husband was given Louis's bed and I was given Tamaitai's. Ori's wife,
+a little dear, kissed our hands all round because we came from
+Tamaitai. Their love and admiration for her was so sincere and
+touching--it is the sweetest memory I have of Tahiti. We went to see
+Ori especially for Tamaitai, for she wished to know the condition of
+his eyes, and whether he needed glasses. His eyes were all right then,
+but later on developed some trouble, but he was so very old at that
+time that he was not willing to make the trip around the island for
+examination."
+
+In 1906 the Society Islands were devastated by a terrific hurricane,
+and, hearing that Ori had suffered great loss, Mrs. Stevenson sent him
+a sum of money to help tide him over the crisis. He was very grateful
+for this assistance and wrote her a letter of heartfelt thanks, saying
+the money would be used to build a new house for himself and family to
+take the place of the houses that had been swept away.
+
+Two dream-like months were spent on this lovely island of Tautira,
+while day after day, like shipwrecked mariners, they scanned the sea
+in vain for some signs of the long-delayed _Casco_. At last provisions
+fell so low that there seemed no prospect ahead of them but to live on
+the charity of their kind friend Ori. Thinking of this one day Mrs.
+Stevenson could not restrain her tears, and the chief, divining the
+cause of her distress, said to Louis: "You are my brother; all that I
+have is yours. I know that your food is done, but I can give you
+plenty of fish and taro. We like you and wish to have you here. Stay
+where you are till the _Casco_ comes. Be happy--_et ne pleurez pas!_"
+They were deeply moved by this generous offer from a man to whose
+island they had come as utter strangers, and to celebrate the occasion
+Louis opened a bottle of champagne, which, curiously enough, was all
+that was left in their provision-chest. From this time they lived
+almost entirely on native food--raw fish with sauce made of cocoanut
+milk mixed with sea-water and lime-juice, bananas roasted in a little
+pit in the ground, with cocoanut cream to eat with them, etc. All this
+sounds luxurious, but after some time on this diet the white man
+begins to feel a consuming longing for beefsteak and bread and coffee.
+
+At last the repaired _Casco_ hove in sight, and, after a
+heart-breaking farewell from their now beloved friend, Ori a Ori, and
+his family, they set sail for Honolulu. The voyage of thirty days was
+a wild and stormy one, and they were obliged to beat about the
+Hawaiian Islands for some days before they could enter, eating up the
+last of their food twenty-four hours before arrival, but finally the
+Silver Ship, flying like a bird before a spanking trade-wind, ran into
+port around the bold point of Diamond Head. The deep translucent blue
+of the water was broken by ruffles of dazzling foam where treacherous
+reefs lay hidden, and on the horizon lay piles of those fat
+feather-bed clouds that are never seen so intensely white in any other
+place. Their arrival was the cause of great rejoicing to Mrs.
+Stevenson's daughter, who was then living in Honolulu, for the
+_Casco_, long overdue, had been given up as lost.
+
+They found Honolulu very beautiful. Taking a house at Waikiki, a short
+distance from town, they settled down to finish _The Master of
+Ballantrae_. In these surroundings, which seemed to them
+ultra-civilized after their experiences in the Marquesas and the
+Societies, they were able to enjoy a little family life. Under a great
+_hau_-tree that stood in the garden a birthday-party was given to
+Austin Strong, the little son of Mrs. Stevenson's daughter. Just as
+though it had been prearranged, in the midst of the party who should
+come along but an Italian with a performing bear, the first that any
+of the children had ever seen! The silent witness to these festivities
+of years ago, the great _hau_-tree, still stands.
+
+It was at this time that Stevenson began work on the scheme of his
+book on the South Seas. This was one of the rare occasions when he and
+his wife reached a deadlock in their opinions, and, unfortunately for
+the success of the book, he refused to accept her advice. Writing to
+Sir Sidney Colvin, she says:
+
+"I am very much exercised by one thing. Louis has the most enchanting
+material that any one ever had in the whole world for his book, and I
+am afraid he is going to spoil it all. He has taken into his
+Scotch-Stevenson head that a stern duty lies before him, and that his
+book must be a sort of scientific and historical, impersonal thing,
+comparing the different languages (of which he knows nothing really)
+and the different peoples, the object being to settle the question as
+to whether they are of common Malay origin or not.... Think of a small
+treatise on the Polynesian races being offered to people who are dying
+to hear about Ori a Ori, the 'making of brothers' with cannibals, the
+strange stories they told, and the extraordinary adventures that
+befell us! Louis says it is a stern sense of duty that is at the
+bottom of it, which is more alarming than anything else ... What a
+thing it is to have a man of genius to deal with! It is like managing
+an over-bred horse!"
+
+"This letter," justly comments Sir Sidney, "shows the writer in her
+character of wise and anxious critic of her husband's work. The
+result, in the judgment of most of his friends, went far to justify
+her misgivings."
+
+It had been their intention to return to England by way of America in
+the following summer, but the state of Mr. Stevenson's health was
+still not good enough to warrant this venture, and, besides, the short
+cruise among the islands in the _Casco_ had but whetted their
+appetites for more. It was finally decided that while the elder Mrs.
+Stevenson went on a visit to Scotland the rest of the party should
+sail again for the South Seas, and they began at once to make
+preparations. The charter of the _Casco_ having come to an end, it was
+necessary to find another vessel. All these details were taken in hand
+by Mrs. Stevenson and her son, while Louis went to Molokai to visit
+the leper colony, in which he had become intensely interested after
+discovering that every island visited in the _Casco_ was afflicted
+with the curse of leprosy. They saw many distressing cases, and their
+admiration for Father Damien and his unexampled heroism rose higher
+and higher. It was while they were in Honolulu that Mr. Stevenson read
+the letter written by the Reverend Mr. Hyde, and printed in a
+missionary paper, which inspired his eloquent defence of Father
+Damien, afterwards written and published in Sydney, Australia.
+
+In the meantime Mrs. Stevenson made arrangements to charter the
+_Equator_, a trading schooner of only sixty-four tons register, but
+stanchly built and seaworthy, and having the added advantage of being
+commanded by a skilful mariner, Captain Denny Reid. On June 24, 1889,
+taking the faithful Ah Fu as cook, and this time accompanied by Mrs.
+Stevenson's son-in-law, Joseph Strong, they sailed away for the
+Gilbert Islands. During their stay in Honolulu they had struck up a
+great friendship with the interesting and genial King Kalakaua, and on
+the day of their departure he appeared at the wharf with the royal
+band of musicians to see them off in proper style.
+
+As Mrs. Strong, Mrs. Stevenson's daughter, did not wish to leave her
+son Austin and the voyage was considered too hazardous for so young a
+child, she went to Sydney to await the arrival of the _Equator_.
+
+Through lovely days and glorious nights they sailed along, the little
+schooner lying so low in the water that they were brought close to the
+sea, "with a sort of intimacy that those on large ships, especially
+steamers, can never know."
+
+Captain Reid is described by Mrs. Stevenson as "a small fiery
+Scotch-Irishman, full of amusing eccentricities, and always a most gay
+and charming companion." Beneath this jolly sea-dog exterior, however,
+some eccentricities lay hidden that the crew did not always find
+amusing. Hearing a noise of splashing in the water by the ship's side,
+Mrs. Stevenson found on inquiry that it was the captain taking his
+regular morning bath while surrounded by a circle of sailors to keep
+off the sharks. When she asked him if he did not think it selfish to
+expose the sailors to the danger in order to protect himself, he
+answered: "No, for if the captain should be lost think how much worse
+it would be for all on board than if it were a mere sailor!"
+
+Their first stop in the Gilberts was at the port of Butaritari in the
+island of Great Makin, their arrival being unfortunately timed to
+strike the town just when the taboo against strong drink had been
+temporarily lifted by the king, and the whole population was engaged
+in a wild carouse. For a few days their situation seemed precarious,
+but the king at length restored the taboo, and after that peace
+settled again over the island.
+
+After a stay of about a month at Butaritari they moved to Apemama,
+ruled over by the strong and despotic king Tembinoka, who, although
+usually unfavourable to whites, admitted the Stevensons to his closest
+friendship. He said he was able to judge all people by their eyes and
+mouths, and, they having passed his examination successfully, he
+proceeded at once to do all in his power to make them comfortable.
+They were provided with four houses, "charming little basket-work
+affairs, something like bird-cages, standing on stilts about four feet
+above the ground, with hanging lids for doors and windows," and a
+retinue of several more or less useless servants, who spent most of
+their time in frolicking.
+
+When they chartered the _Equator_ it had been in the agreement that
+the ship should be permitted to engage in her legitimate occupation of
+trading in the islands when opportunity offered. She now went off on a
+cruise for copra, while the Stevensons stayed on shore at Apemama,
+where they spent six peaceful weeks. As they were again marooned
+longer than they expected, provisions began to run short, and it
+became necessary to live on the products of the island. Wild chickens
+were plentiful, and the handy Ah Fu found no difficulty in shooting
+them with a gun borrowed from the king, but a constant diet of these
+birds finally palled on them, and they were overjoyed when some of the
+king's fishermen caught several large turtles. "Never," says Mrs.
+Stevenson, "was anything more welcome than these turtle steaks!" The
+long deprivation of green vegetables caused a great desire for them,
+and Louis said: "I think I could shed tears over a dish of turnips!"
+As Mrs. Stevenson always carried garden-seeds with her, she took
+advantage of their extended stay here to plant onions and radishes,
+which soon came up and were received with intense appreciation.
+
+The shrewd Tembinoka, judge and critic of his fellow men, whom they
+found to be the most interesting of all their South Sea acquaintances,
+did not fail to perceive unusual qualities in the wife of his guest.
+He remarked: "She good; look pretty; plenty chench (sense)."
+
+The king desired a new design for a flag, and all set to work to
+produce a suitable one. Mrs. Stevenson's drawing, which consisted of
+three vertical stripes of green, red, and yellow, with a horizontal
+shark of black showing white teeth and a white eye, pleased him best
+and was adopted. The design was afterwards sent to Sydney and
+Tembinoka's flag manufactured from it. The shark was a neat reference
+to the king's supposed descent, of which he was very proud, from a
+fish of that species.
+
+Finding that the whole island was rapidly falling away from
+Christianity, the king the worst of all, the Stevensons felt it to be
+their duty to go to church every Sunday, to set an example, although
+they understood nothing of the services, which were conducted in the
+native language. During the latter part of their stay they gave an
+exhibition of magic-lantern pictures--wretched daubs, it is true--of
+the life of Christ. That their efforts to do good were not all in vain
+was proved by the gratifying news received some time afterwards that
+all the natives, including the despot king, were returning to their
+Christian duties and the big church was full again.
+
+The absence of the _Equator_ was so prolonged that they were in great
+alarm lest she might be lost, but at last she hove in sight.
+
+After much discussion during the long days aboard ship and ashore,
+their plans had been definitely formed to make Apia, Samoa, their next
+port of call, and bidding farewell, with many regrets, to the island
+king, the little schooner once more raised her sails to the breeze.
+Stern old savage as Tembinoka was, he could not restrain his tears
+when he saw these delightful visitors from across the seas sail away
+forever, leaving him to the dull society of his many wives, whom he
+described as "good woman, but not very smart." Later, while living in
+Samoa, they were pained to hear of the death of their dear old friend
+Tembinoka, king of the island where they had spent so many happy days.
+It seemed that he had an abscess on his leg, and one of the native
+doctors lanced it with an unclean fish-bone, which caused
+blood-poisoning and the death of the king in great agony. For the
+better protection of his heir he left directions that his body should
+be buried in the centre of the royal residence, no doubt with the idea
+of frightening away evil-doers through their superstitious fears.
+
+This time they took with them a passenger, a German trader named
+Hoeflich, of whom Lloyd Osbourne writes:
+
+"When Paul Hoeflich, then trading in Butaritari, learned that Louis had
+chartered the _Equator_ for Samoa, he packed up his merchandise and
+with this and twenty tons of copra engaged passage for the neighboring
+island of Maraki, distant about sixty miles. For this passage he paid
+sixty dollars. In spite of all efforts, however, the _Equator_ failed
+to reach Maraki, being foiled by light airs and violent currents; so
+there was nothing left to do but to carry Paul on with us to Samoa,
+and though the captain tried to make him pay an increased passage he
+smilingly but firmly refused. We always thought that the twenty tons
+of copra saved our lives, for it stiffened the ship in the dreadful
+little hurricane that almost capsized us."
+
+I shall let Paul Hoeflich tell his own story of the days when he
+cruised with the Stevensons, in the letters he was kind enough to
+write me:
+
+"My dear Mrs. Sanchez:
+
+"In reply to your letter to pen any little happenings concerning Mr.
+R. L. Stevenson while I was with the Stevenson party on board the old
+_Equator_, I may say that I am very pleased to do so, but I am afraid
+the results will be meagre, for the length of time I had the pleasure
+of being with them did not exceed ten weeks. Besides, it is now just
+twenty-seven years ago. I boarded the _Equator_ while she was among
+the islands cruising for copra, and in due time we reached Apemama and
+dropped anchor in the lagoon near the king's boat fleet. Going on
+shore we found the party hale and much pleased with the ship's
+arrival. In the evening the king, a fat and clever native, paid a
+visit and entertained us by telling about his ancestors. On the
+mother's side they came from a shark, and the father resigned in his
+favor, as he was not so high a chief as his son, the descendant of the
+shark.
+
+"Mrs. Stevenson told us she had a garden planted with all kinds of
+things, but the soil was stubborn and would not yield anything good
+but cocoanuts; in fact, all the plants seemed to be growing into
+cocoanut trees. She also told us about her first experience as a
+medicine man. One day a man came along, sat down, and complained of a
+severe headache, asking for 'binika,' by which he meant painkiller.
+The lady thought he meant vinegar, and told him it was useless against
+a headache, but he persisted. So a generous portion was poured out and
+handed to him, to be used externally. He received it, smelled it, and
+suspicion was visible on his countenance, but, being too polite to
+return it, he swallowed the whole and returned the glass, profusely
+thanking Mrs. Stevenson. He then rose and left, more sick than when he
+came.
+
+"The king offered Mrs. Stevenson a sewing-machine, saying he had a
+houseful of them, and as his arsenal was short of boat anchors he used
+the sewing-machines as such for his fleet.
+
+"In a few days everything was snug, and we left the moorings to beat
+through the passage, and from there pointed her head for Maraki. A
+nice breeze favored us, but gradually it moderated, and as the weary
+days dragged on a rumor started that there was a Jonah on board. At
+first we eyed each other with distrust, then it was whispered and at
+last openly declared that I must be the Jonah. I mildly protested,
+saying that Mrs. Stevenson was most likely to blame. I told them all
+sorts of stories to prove that sailors believed that a woman on board
+would bring bad luck to a ship, but all to no avail. Their idea that
+the passenger for Maraki was a Jonah had taken firm hold. Worse still,
+I began to believe it myself, and made up my mind to jump the ship as
+soon as I had a chance.
+
+"In the meantime we were creeping slowly along until one morning, lo
+and behold, my island hove in sight. As the sun rose the breeze
+freshened and I got hilarious. We were drawing nearer our anchorage in
+good style and could see my station now plainly, and the natives
+gathering on the beach. I pictured myself already landing amidst their
+shouts of welcome, when, to my horror--I shudder even now as I pen
+these lines--the wind died out. I whistled for wind until my lips
+blistered, but all in vain, for the breeze kept straight up and down.
+Jonah was at work again. I demanded loudly of the captain to be put
+on shore, but he only shrugged his shoulders. The argument brought up
+Mr. Stevenson, who said 'What about that for a boat?' nodding at a
+certain small deck house. 'It resembles a skiff, and I dare say the
+trade-room will spare a pair of paddles.' 'The very thing,' said I,
+and began sharpening my sheath knife to cut the lashings. While I got
+busy Mrs. Stevenson came to me and I told her what way I was going on
+shore. 'Why,' she said, 'if you make your appearance in a miserable
+craft of that kind your reputation on Maraki will be gone forever.
+Besides they might take you for a Jonah fresh from a whale and turn
+you right back to sea again. It would be safer to stay on board and
+make another attempt to reach Maraki, this time via Samoa.' I did not
+think I was getting quite a square deal, but I stayed. The current had
+taken us out of sight of land when a strong and fair breeze sprang up
+and carried us by noon next day to our anchorage in Butaritari lagoon.
+
+"Here the party went ashore, biding the vessel getting ready for sea.
+In a week we lifted anchor and made for the passage, but the _Equator_
+was unwilling to leave. She hung on to a reef, and not until she had
+parted with her false keel would she push on and gain the open. During
+the first few weeks we had to beat to the eastward, which brought much
+calm and rainy weather. Mrs. Stevenson soon found that her berth was
+not the driest place in the ship. The tropical sun had warped the
+decks so that the rain found its way into the cabins. So Mrs.
+Stevenson would emigrate to the galley-way with her couch, and, with
+the help of an umbrella ingeniously handled, manage to do fairly well
+for a night's rest.
+
+"One calm morning she called to tell us that sharks were around, and
+that one of them was wearing the glasses Mr. Osbourne had lost out of
+a boat at Maraki. Sure enough there were lots of them, and we soon had
+shark and chain hooks over the side, pulling them in and despatching
+them quickly and painlessly, but we never caught the one with the
+glasses on. Mrs. Stevenson said he could probably see a little better
+than the others. Now it seems that all these sharks stirred the
+appetite of Mr. Stevenson for shark steak--at least he advocated
+making a meal of them. Mrs. Stevenson mildly remonstrated, pointing
+out that it would be gruesome to eat the ancestors of Tembinoka, the
+man who had sheltered them for weeks. Mr. Stevenson could not see so
+far back, so the shark steak came on the table, but his wife managed
+to evade it. At last a breeze sprang up and the sharks took their
+leave.
+
+"One night it blew stiff and we shortened sail, but with little
+advantage. The ship capered about till she had her topmast overboard
+with the jib attached to it. This episode occasioned the composition
+of the song 'On board the old _Equator_,' by Mrs. Stevenson and Mr.
+Osbourne, I believe for Mr. Stevenson's birthday. I sang it on that
+occasion for the first time, and later at Apia at a dinner given for
+the ship. This was before Mr. Stevenson had given away his
+birthday,[31] so he was allowed to enjoy it, as did we all. Speeches
+were made and we drank his health, severally and all together. We felt
+as happy as any crew on board of a 20,000 tonner."
+
+              [Footnote 31: See _The Letters of Robert Louis
+              Stevenson_, page 279.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Of this jolly party, gathered together by the _camaraderie_ of the
+sea, Lloyd Osbourne writes:
+
+"The rousing chorus was sung in unison: 'Captain darling, where has
+your topmast gone, I pray? Captain darling, where has your topmast
+gone?' Such things sound foolish years afterwards, but at the time are
+gay and funny. Now, looking back, it seems as though the incongruity
+of the party was the funniest thing about it--Louis, my mother,
+myself, the boyish young Scotch captain, the big Norwegian mate, the
+Finnish second mate, Rick, a Russian ex-sea-captain, Paul Hoeflich, Joe
+Strong the artist, all the very best of friends, who had lived a month
+together crowded to suffocation, and yet were better friends than ever
+when they left the ship."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To continue the story of Paul Hoeflich:
+
+"On the twenty-sixth morning out Mrs. Stevenson called from the deck:
+'Come up and see Samoa!' Proudly the vessel cut her way towards the
+mountainous island covered with dark green forest from peak to beach.
+We were all struck with its beauty and elated with expectations as to
+its hidden shadowy secrets. Inside of an hour we dropped anchor in the
+port of Apia, and a friend came off and took the party on shore. The
+vessel's stay was five days, and then we up sails and pointed her head
+for Maraki, to get rid of the last passenger, the Jonah of the
+voyage. Before our departure Mr. Stevenson gave a dinner, where we
+gathered for the last time around the hospitable board. Needless to
+say, I was in love with the island and acquired a piece of land to
+bring me back for sure.[32]
+
+              [Footnote 32: Mr. Hoeflich returned to Samoa a year or
+              two later to remain, and was always a valued friend of
+              the Stevensons.]
+
+"As I look back now I cannot help admiring Mrs. Stevenson for her
+bravery and endurance in her resolution to remain with her husband.
+For us men this life was right enough, but for a refined woman it
+meant great hardship. When Mr. Stevenson, in his birthday speech on
+board, said with moist eyes that he had never enjoyed a voyage and
+company so well as ours, Mrs. Stevenson deserved the largest share of
+that praise. I remember how she took care of him. A doctor in Tahiti,
+who apprehended his early end, gave his wife a vial of medicine, which
+she carried sewn in her dress for three years to have it handy. I have
+a much-prized photograph of her on which she wrote 'Dear Paul. This is
+to remind you of the days when we were so happy on board of the old
+_Equator_.' This gives me a sad pleasure in recalling the old times
+when the South Seas seemed to us so much brighter than now.
+Civilization is coming to the natives at the rate of geometrical
+progression, and soon their good qualities will be swept away by greed
+and false education.
+
+"I have the honor to remain,
+
+                  Yours faithfully,
+
+                                        P. Hoeflich."
+
+
+That the voyage was a rough one is clear from Mr. Stevenson's
+description in a letter to Sir Sidney Colvin:
+
+"On board the _Equator_, 190 miles off Samoa. We are just nearing the
+end of our long cruise. Rain, calms, squalls, bang--there's the
+fore-topmast gone; rain, calms, squalls--away with the staysail; more
+rain, more calms, more squalls; a prodigious heavy sea all the time,
+and the _Equator_ staggering and hovering like a swallow in a storm;
+and the cabin, a great square, crowded with wet human beings, and the
+rain avalanching on the deck, and the leaks dripping everywhere;
+Fanny, in the midst of fifteen males, bearing up wonderfully." She
+rejoiced, nevertheless, that her mother-in-law had not accompanied
+them on this voyage, with its extreme discomfort and hardship, but
+adds, "and yet I would do it all over again."
+
+In the early part of December, 1889, they arrived at the Navigator
+Islands--so called by Bougainville because of the skill with which the
+natives managed their canoes and sailed them far out to sea--and, as
+related above by Paul Hoeflich, dropped anchor in the harbour of Apia.
+They were not especially attracted to this place at first, the scenery
+being of a softer and less striking character than that of Tahiti, but
+as time passed the charm of the place grew upon them more and more,
+and finally they decided to make it their permanent headquarters
+between cruises. To this end they bought four hundred acres in the
+"bush," as the great tropical forests are called, and after making
+arrangements for the erection of a temporary cabin during their
+absence, they sailed on the steamer _Lubeck_ for Sydney, with the
+intention of going on from there for a visit to England.
+
+It was during this stay in Sydney that Mr. Stevenson wrote his famous
+defense of Father Damien. When he realized that its publication might
+result in a suit for libel and the loss of all he had in the world, he
+thought it only right to ask for a vote of the family, for without
+their concurrence he would not take such a step. The vote was
+unanimously in favour of the publication. When the pamphlets were
+ready, his wife, with her son and daughter, set to work addressing
+them and sending them far and wide. It was certain that he would not
+appeal in vain in such a matter to his wife, for in their sympathies
+with the unfortunate and unjustly used they were as one.
+
+Their hopes of going to England, based on the long respite of eighteen
+months during which Mr. Stevenson had been free from his old trouble,
+were dashed to the ground by a severe cold caught in Sydney and a
+return of the hemorrhages. His only chance seemed to lie on the
+sea--in fact, the doctor said nothing would save him but the South
+Seas--but when his wife went to the water-front to secure passage she
+found that, owing to a sailors' strike, only one ship, the _Janet
+Nichol_, an iron-screw steamer of about six hundred tons, was going
+out. She went to the owners and asked to be taken, but they refused,
+on the ground that they didn't want women on board. Nevertheless she
+went right on, with pitiful persistence, with her preparations, and
+finally had the sick man carried down to the landing-place and rowed
+out to the ship. She had won out, but they received her very
+reluctantly. And such a ship! It must have looked fine, however, to
+Mrs. Stevenson, after the _Equator_, for she writes: "Think of two
+bathrooms and only one other passenger besides ourselves, a nice long
+wide deck to walk on, steam to run away from squalls with, and no
+flopping about in calms." But when her daughter went on board to see
+them off she was horrified at the sight of it--black with coal dust,
+manned by Solomon Island "black boys," and just as they stepped on
+deck Tin Jack (Jack Buckland[33]) came up the gangway drunk and fell
+off into the water. It was pandemonium, but very exciting, and in the
+midst of it Mrs. Stevenson was calmly looking after her husband and
+keeping up a smiling, courageous face.
+
+              [Footnote 33: Tin is the equivalent in the islands for
+              Mr. Jack Buckland was the living original of Tommy
+              Haddon in _The Wrecker_.]
+
+As soon as they were at sea Louis recovered, and after stopping off at
+Apia for a look at their new property, they went the rounds of the
+"low islands," visiting thirty-three in all. Although they confessed
+to a certain monotony in these islands, their adventures, of which
+Mrs. Stevenson kept a regular diary, were many and exciting. These
+notes were written for her husband's benefit, but as it happened that
+he made but slight use of them, she prepared them for publication
+herself in a volume called _The Cruise of the Janet Nichol_. "This
+diary," she says in her preface, "was written under the most adverse
+conditions--sometimes on the damp up-turned bottom of a canoe or
+whale-boat, sometimes when lying face downward on the burning sands of
+the tropic beach, often in copra sheds in the midst of a pandemonium
+of noise and confusion, but oftener on board the rolling _Janet_,
+whose pet name was the _Jumping Jenny_, but never in comfortable
+surroundings."
+
+It was on this voyage, during which they were well tossed about by the
+frisky _Janet_, that the ship was set on fire by the spontaneous
+combustion of some fireworks in one of the cabins. In the midst of the
+excitement some native sailors were seen by Mrs. Stevenson about to
+toss overboard a blazing trunk. She stopped them in time and was
+thankful to discover that she had saved all her husband's manuscripts.
+
+At the end of the cruise, from which his health did not benefit as
+much as had been hoped, they returned to Sydney, meeting there a
+reception which, while irritating enough at the time, afterwards
+afforded them much amusement. They went directly from the ship to the
+most fashionable hotel, but, not being known there, their queer
+appearance, with their Tokalu buckets, mats, shells, straw hats, etc.,
+brought upon them a severe snubbing. Then they went to the Oxford, a
+little old inn on George Street, where they were courteously received
+and given the whole first floor, without being asked to show their
+credentials. The next morning every paper in Sydney had their names on
+the front page, and all the clubs, societies, churches, and schools
+sent cards to the fine hotel, whose proprietor had to send a messenger
+three times a day to the Oxford with a basketful of letters for the
+Stevensons. The proprietor, now aware of what he had done, came in
+great chagrin to beg them to come back, and offered them the rooms
+for half price--for nothing--but they refused; and, besides, they were
+too comfortable at the Oxford to be willing to leave. After that,
+whenever Mrs. Stevenson went to Sydney she always stayed at the
+Oxford, for she was always loyal to those who showed her
+consideration.
+
+During their stay in Sydney at this time Mr. Stevenson was so ill that
+he was compelled to keep his room, and all thought of a return to
+England was now definitely abandoned. Plans were set on foot for
+establishing a permanent residence in Samoa, and while Lloyd Osbourne
+went to England to bring the furniture from Skerryvore, the Stevensons
+returned to Apia and camped in a gate lodge on their place until the
+new house should be built.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE HAPPY YEARS IN SAMOA.
+
+
+It was in Samoa that the word "home" first began to have a real
+meaning for these gypsy wanderers, lured on as they had been half
+round the world in their quest of the will-o'-the-wisp, health. Having
+bought the land, which lay on rising ground about three miles from the
+town of Apia, it was then necessary to find the money to build a house
+on it. After some thought, Mrs. Stevenson suggested that they might
+sell Skerryvore in England, and thus turn the one house directly into
+the other. As Skerryvore had been a gift to her from her
+father-in-law, Louis said, "But this money is yours," and he then said
+he would make it all right by leaving her the Samoan place in his
+will, which he did, "with all that it contained."
+
+The next thing was to choose a name, and they finally decided upon the
+native word Vailima,[34] meaning "five waters," in reference to a
+stream fed by four tributaries that ran through the place.
+
+              [Footnote 34: Pronounced Vyleema.]
+
+Without more ado they plunged eagerly into the business of clearing
+the forest and building their house--a task for which Fanny Stevenson,
+by taste and early training, was supremely fitted. She wrote at once
+to her mother-in-law in Scotland, saying: "Come when you like. Even
+if we make a temporary shelter you need not be so very uncomfortable.
+The only question is the food problem, and if in six months I cannot
+have a garden producing and fowls and pigs and cows it will be strange
+to me." In all this she took a high delight, for, like a true pioneer,
+she found more pleasure in the _doing_ of a task than in the thing
+finished. When the house or garden or what-not was done, and there was
+nothing left but to admire, a great part of the interest in it was
+gone for her. At Vailima she had almost a virgin field for her
+gardening activities, and her "Dutch blood" rejoiced within her. In
+the old California days her husband, in his humorous way, had called
+her "the forty-niner," but now, as he watched her, flitting in her
+blue dress, like a witch, in all parts of the plantation, directing,
+expostulating, and working with her hands when words failed, he called
+her "my little blue bogie planter." Writing to Miss Taylor, he says:
+"Ill or well, rain or shine, a little blue indefatigable figure is to
+be observed howking about certain patches of garden. She comes in
+heated and bemired up to the eyebrows, late for every meal...."
+
+The place they had bought was not precisely in the "bush," as the
+unbroken forest is called in those lands, for it had once been partly
+under cultivation; but it needs only a short season of neglect for the
+devouring jungle to sweep over and obliterate all traces of the
+handiwork of man. To all intents they began anew to clear out a place
+for their house and garden, in the midst of the great silent forest,
+"where one might hear the babbling of a burn close by, and the
+birds, and the sea breaking on the coast three miles away and six
+hundred feet below." The days were "fine like heaven; such a blue of
+the sea, such green of the trees, and such crimson of the hibiscus
+flowers were never dreamed of; and the air as mild and gentle as a
+baby's breath--and yet not hot."
+
+"The scenery," writes Mrs. Stevenson to Miss Boodle, "is simply
+enchanting; here a cliff, there a dashing little river, yonder a
+waterfall, here a great gorge slashed through the hillside, and
+everywhere a vegetation that baffles description. Our only workmen are
+cannibals from other islands and so-called savages--though I have
+never yet met one man whom that word described accurately. I have with
+me [on the steamer _Lubeck_, on the way from Sydney to Samoa] a
+cageful of beautiful yellow fowls, a big black mother sow is to
+follow, and soon I mean to have some pretty Jersey cows and some
+gentle horses. I have packages of garden seeds to experiment with, and
+it is odd indeed if I am not able soon to provision a garrison. One of
+the first things I shall plunge into is an ice-house run by cascade
+power."
+
+At first they lived in a two-room cottage, designed to serve later as
+a gate lodge, where comfort was at a minimum. The road to Apia was
+scarcely more than a footpath, and it was difficult to bring up
+supplies in any quantity. At times provisions ran low, and the story
+of the occasion when they were reduced to dining on a single
+avocado[35] pear was told so often, in print and otherwise, that
+during all the following time of plenty they had to keep explaining
+that they really had enough to eat. Of course the famine was more
+apparent than real, for there was enough food at the town only three
+miles away, and the occasional dearth in those first days was merely a
+matter of the inconvenience of bringing it up.
+
+              [Footnote 35: Commonly called "alligator" pear.]
+
+It was in the hurricane season, too, and there were days when they sat
+in momentary fear lest their frail dwelling should be carried away by
+the fury of the storm or crushed beneath some falling giant of the
+forest.
+
+From the day of their arrival at Vailima, in September, 1890, Mrs.
+Stevenson began to keep a diary--a record which has proved to be one
+of the most valuable sources of material in writing her biography, and
+which itself has a curious history. When, after her husband's death,
+she finally left Vailima, the diary was inadvertently left behind,
+eventually making its way to London and falling into the hands of an
+English lady, Miss Gladys Peacock, who, thinking it might be of some
+use to the family, sent it to Lloyd Osbourne, with a note saying that
+"of course she had not read it." It is to the courtesy of this
+Englishwoman that I am indebted for the extracts from the diary, of
+which I shall make free use.
+
+In their temporary lodge in the wilderness, where they were encamped
+while the big house was building, furniture and other comforts of
+civilization were decidedly lacking, but they had brought beds with
+them, and Mrs. Stevenson at once set the carpenter to putting them up.
+For help about the house and premises they had to depend on Paul
+Einfuerer, the German pantryman from the _Lubeck_, who had come up and
+asked for work. He was good-natured but clumsy, and spoke so little
+English that it was difficult to communicate with him. The natives
+employed in clearing and planting knew only Samoan, and Mrs. Stevenson
+often found it necessary to instruct them by doing the work with her
+own hands. Writing humorously of her troubles to Sir Sidney Colvin,
+her husband says: "Fanny was to have rested; blessed Paul began making
+a duck house; she let him be; the duck house fell down, and she had to
+set her hand to it. He was then to make a drinking place for the pigs;
+she let be again, and he made a stair by which the pigs will probably
+escape this evening, and she was near weeping.... Then she had to cook
+the dinner; then, of course, like a fool and a woman, must wait dinner
+for me and make a flurry of herself. Her day so far." Again he writes:
+"The guid wife had bread to bake, and she baked it in a pan, O! But
+between whiles she was down with me weeding sensitive[36] in the
+paddock. Our dinner--the lowest we have ever been--consisted of an
+avocado pear between Fanny and me, a ship's biscuit for the guid man,
+white bread for the missis, and red wine for the twa; no salt horse,
+even, in all Vailima!"
+
+              [Footnote 36: They had a terrible time with the
+              sensitive plant, which had become a pest there and grew
+              almost faster than they could weed it out.]
+
+On the last trip from Sydney Mrs. Stevenson had brought all sorts of
+seeds with her--tomatoes, beans, alfalfa, melons, and a dozen
+others--and she went about the place dropping them in wherever she
+thought they would grow. Some difficulties peculiar to the tropics had
+to be met and conquered. For instance, rats ate out the inside of the
+melons as soon as they were ripe, and it became necessary to put out
+poison. A beginning had been made in the way of live stock, of which
+she says: "We have three pigs--one fine imported boar and two
+slab-sided sows. They dwell in a large circular enclosure, which, with
+its stone walls, looks like an ancient fortification."
+
+These same swine became the torment of their lives, for some of the
+devils said to haunt Vailima seemed to have entered into them, and no
+sty could be made strong enough to restrain them.
+
+In clearing away the dense growth on the site of their projected house
+they were careful to preserve the best of the native plants. "The
+trees that have been left standing in the clearing," says the diary,
+"are of immense size, really majestic, with creepers winding about
+their trunks and orchids growing in the forks of their branches. These
+great trees are alive with birds, which chatter at certain hours of
+the night and morning with rich, throaty voices. Though they do not
+exactly sing, the sound they make is very musical and pretty.
+Yesterday Ben [the man of all work] took his gun and went into the
+bush to shoot. He returned with some small birds like parrots, which
+were almost bursting with fat. I felt some compunction about eating
+birds that suggested cages and swings and stands, but as we had
+nothing else to eat was fain to cook them, and a very excellent dish
+they made. I have read somewhere that the dodo and a relative of his
+called the 'tooth-billed pigeon' are still to be found on this
+island. It would be delightful to possess a pet dodo."[37]
+
+              [Footnote 37: "The one surviving species of dodo, the
+              manume'a, a bird about the size of a small moor-hen,
+              exists in Samoa. It has only recovered its present
+              feeble powers of flight since cats were introduced in
+              the island. Its dark flesh is extremely
+              delicious."--From Balfour's _Life of Robert Louis
+              Stevenson_.]
+
+Although their stay in the little lodge was to be but temporary, it
+was like her to set to work to make it a pleasant abode even for the
+short time that they were to be there. "What we most dislike about our
+house," she says, "is the chilly, death-like aspect of the colors in
+which it is painted--black and white and lead-color. So we unearthed
+from our boxes some pieces of _tapa_[38] in rich shades of brown and
+nailed them on the walls, using pieces of another pattern for
+bordering, and at once the whole appearance of the room was changed.
+Over the door connecting the two rooms we fastened a large flat piece
+of pink coral, a present given me by Captain Reid when we were on the
+_Equator_. We have had the carpenter put up shelves in one corner of
+the room and on two sides of one of the windows. I also had him nail
+some boards together in the form of a couch, upon which I have laid a
+mattress covered by a shawl. On the table an old pink cloth is spread,
+and when we light the lamp and set the little Japanese burner to
+smoking buhach--for, alas, there are mosquitoes--we feel quite snug
+and homelike.
+
+              [Footnote 38: Tapa is a cloth made of vegetable fibre
+              and stained in various striking patterns. It is used by
+              the natives for clothing, curtains, beds, and many other
+              purposes.]
+
+"The pig house, a most unsightly thing, is finished, and a creeper or
+two will soon disguise its ugliness. There seem to be a great number
+of mummy apples[39] springing up through the clearing, of which I am
+glad for the sake of the prospective cow. Paul and I have planted out
+a lot of kidney potatoes, which is an experiment only, as they are not
+supposed to grow in Samoa. We have sowed tomato seeds, also artichokes
+and eggplants, in boxes. A few days ago Mr. Caruthers sent us half a
+dozen very fine pineapples, and as fast as we eat them we plant the
+tops.
+
+              [Footnote 39: The papaw.]
+
+"_October 6._ I have been too busy to write before. Much has been
+accomplished. A good lot of sweet corn is planted, besides peas,
+onions, lettuce, and radishes. Lima beans are coming up, and some of
+the cantaloupes. Mr. Caruthers has brought a root of mint and some
+cuttings of granadilla,[40] which have been set out along the arbor.
+It seems absolutely impossible to get anything sent up to us from
+Apia. Lists and notes go flying, but, except from Krause the butcher,
+with no results. It seems an odd thing that there should not be a
+spade or a rake for sale in a town where there would be no difficulty
+in finding the best quality of champagne, to say nothing of all the
+materials for mixed drinks. We have almost starved for want of
+provisions until yesterday, when Ben killed a couple of fowls, a large
+piece of meat came from town, Paul shot two pigeons, and Mr. Blacklock
+came with fresh tomatoes. Afterwards Ben came with palusami,[41] and
+now to-day comes a young native girl from Mrs. Blacklock with enormous
+bananas, long green beans, a dozen eggs, and a bunch of flowers, and
+Ben has come in with eight little parrots. It seems either a feast or
+a famine with us.
+
+              [Footnote 40: A tropical fruit.]
+
+              [Footnote 41: A native dish of taro tops and cocoanut.]
+
+"_October 7._ Last night it rained heavily, which was good for my
+plants, but, as our kitchen is some six or eight yards from the house,
+cooking became a series of adventures. I had set a sponge for bread
+last night, and was most anxious to bake the dough early in the day. A
+black boy was sent to the carpenter for a moulding board, and, placing
+it on a chair on the back veranda, I knelt on the floor with a shawl
+over my head to keep the rain off and made up the loaves. In making
+the dough I was successful, but the attempt to bake it almost sent me
+into hysterics. With an umbrella over my head I ran to the kitchen,
+but found, to my dismay, that all the wood was soaked, and the wind
+drove the smoke back into the stove, which thereupon belched forth
+acrid clouds from every opening. Paul ran down to where the carpenter
+had been working, and returned with a boxful of chips which we dried
+on top of the stove, swallowing volumes of smoke as we did so. Then I
+called Ben and showed him how to nail up the half of a tin kerosene
+can over the opening of the pipe to screen it from the wind. That
+helped a little, but the rain beat in on the stove, and, though we
+consumed immense quantities of chips, it still remained cold. Finally
+I made a barrier of boxes around the stove, and that brought a measure
+of success, so that in about a couple of hours I was able to half
+bake, half dry a fowl for luncheon. By that time the bread was done
+for, and I very nearly so. Paul and I held a council of war, and
+decided to send the boys down to the pavilion to live, while we took
+their room for a kitchen and dining-room, one end serving for the one
+and the other end for the other, somewhat after the fashion of Mr. and
+Mrs. Boffin's room in _Our Mutual Friend_.
+
+"There were two mango trees among the plants sent up by Mr. Caruthers,
+and I was surprised to see among them also a shrub that is the pest of
+Tahiti and will become so here if it is planted. In the afternoon, the
+rain being then only a high mist, Simile and I began to set out the
+things. While busy at this I saw three or four beautiful young men,
+followed by a troop of dogs, pass along our road towards the bush. I
+have seldom seen more graceful, elegant creatures than these fellows.
+They carried large knives and axes, wore hats of fresh green banana
+leaves, and also carried large banana leaves as umbrellas to keep off
+the rain. With a friendly _tofa_ [farewell] on either side, they went
+their way. After we had planted all the roots and taken a little rest,
+Simile and I took a hoe and pickaxe and finished the afternoon sowing
+Indian corn. I asked Simile while we were planting which was the best
+season for such work, meaning the wet, dry, or intermediate time. 'We
+Samoans,' he answered, 'always go by the moon. Unless we plant in the
+time of the big round moon we expect no fruit.'
+
+"I thought one of my yellow hens wanted to sit, and that it would be
+the proper thing to provide her with eggs. To identify the eggs from
+fresh ones I made a black pencil mark around each one. After all was
+finished I retired from the henhouse and peeped through the palings.
+Madam hen clucked up to the nest, as I had always seen hens do, but at
+the sight of the marked eggs she started back in a sort of surprise
+and alarm. 'What's the matter?' cried the two cocks, stretching wide
+legs as they hastened to the spot. They, too, started back, just as
+the hen had done, held a hurried consultation and finally ventured to
+touch the eggs with their beaks. By this time all the five yellow hens
+had gathered round the nest, and pretty soon all the others were
+craning their necks to gaze at the marvel. After the cocks had poked
+the eggs about a little with their beaks the hens went nearer and
+tried to peck off the black marks. All the time there was a great
+hubbub of anxious conversation. The next morning more than half the
+eggs had been destroyed, and to save those that were left I had to
+remove them."
+
+Exploring their new estate was one of their most exciting and at the
+same time laborious occupations, for most of the land was so densely
+overgrown that it was necessary to carry a bush knife with which to
+cut a path as they went, and, moreover, unexpected dangers lurked in
+the beautiful ferny depths. "Louis and I went up to see the banana
+patch," says the diary, "Louis carrying a knife to clear the road. For
+a little way we followed a fairly open path that had previously been
+cleared by Louis, but by and by it began to close up and become
+treacherously boggy underfoot. Several times we were ankle-deep in mud
+and water, and Louis had to slash down the tall vegetation that
+obstructed our way. Before long he cried out: 'Behold your banana
+patch!' And there it was, sure enough--a great number of sturdy,
+thickset young plants, many with bunches of fruit hanging above the
+strange purple flower of the plant, choked with a rank undergrowth and
+set with the roots in sluggishly running water. Here and there the
+gigantic leaves of the great _taro_[42] spread out--a dark, shining
+green. It was too much for Louis, who fell to clearing on the spot,
+while I went on to the end of the plantation. Once or twice I was
+nearly stuck in the bog, but managed to drag myself from the ooze by
+clinging to a strong plant. After a while Louis called out to me as
+though in answer, and I hurried back to him. When I came up he said he
+had mistaken the cry of a bird for my voice and supposed I had lost
+the path. I helped him a little while pulling up the smaller weeds,
+but was in mortal terror of touching a poisonous creeper whose
+acquaintance I had already made and whose marks I still bear. It went
+to my heart to dig up and destroy the most lovely specimens of ferns I
+have ever seen, but I did it bravely, though I determined to return
+some day and make a collection of them. Some of the more delicate
+climbing ferns were magnificent. Occasionally as I drew out a plant
+the air around me was filled with the perfume of its bruised leaves.
+It was entrancing work, though we were soaked with mud and water, but
+before very long my head began to swim, and I proposed to go back to
+the house and see about some sort of food. I just managed to get a
+meal prepared and then gave out utterly, for my beautiful banana swamp
+had given me a fever with a most alarming promptitude. I could not
+sleep all night, but kept waking with a start, my heart and pulses
+bounding, and my head aching miserably. This morning Louis gave me a
+dose of quinine, which soon helped me.
+
+              [Footnote 42: A tropical plant with an edible root.]
+
+"The pigs had to be watered when we came back from the perfidious
+swamp, but how to manage it I could not see. Paul was ill, Simile was
+gone, and I feared it might be dangerous for Louis to lift pails of
+water. I walked round and round the stone wall of their fortification,
+but it seemed unclimbable and impenetrable. I might have got over
+myself, but could not manage the pailful, also. Finally I thought of a
+boy, the son of a neighbor, who had come to visit Paul, and persuaded
+him to undertake the task of watering the pigs. The next day I
+discovered that he had simply poured the water over the wall upon the
+ground, and my poor pigs had gone thirsty all night. I cannot think
+that is the sort of son to help a pioneer.
+
+"In the midst of all this Louis wished to go down to Apia. It took all
+six of the boys to catch the pony, and in the meantime Louis was
+having a desperate struggle to find his clothes and dress. I was in a
+dazed state with fever and quinine and could not help him at all. At
+last he got away, in what sort of garb I tremble to think, and he was
+hardly out of sight before I discovered all the things he had been in
+search of--in their right places, naturally."
+
+Eternal vigilance was the price of any progress made in her gardening,
+for the moment her eyes were taken off the workmen they committed some
+provoking blunder that often undid the work of weeks. "As all the men
+were off with the cart," she writes, "I thought I might as well let
+Ben plant corn, which he assured me he understood perfectly, for had
+he not planted all the first lot which had failed through the
+depredations of the rats? At about three Simile and I went down to put
+in some pumpkin seeds among the corn, and, to my disgust, I saw why
+the first lot of corn had failed. Ben's idea of planting was to scrape
+a couple of inches off the ground, drop in a handful of corn, and then
+kick a few leaves over the grains. It is really wonderful that any at
+all should have germinated.
+
+"While we were working Sitioni[43] came up with some pineapple plants.
+He said the people were fighting in Tutuila, but he did not think it
+would come to war here. He showed me a large pistol fastened round his
+waist by a cartridge belt, and tried to shoot a flying bat with it,
+but failed. Simile told me that the vampire bat, or flying fox, as
+they call it here, is good to eat, but I do not think I could eat bat.
+My lady pig from Sydney is at Apia, but as she only cost thirty-seven
+shillings I feel doubts as to her quality. Still, in Samoa a pig's a
+pig.
+
+              [Footnote 43: Sitioni was a chief, later known as
+              Amatua, a name of higher rank. We shall hear of Amatua
+              again at the very end of the story.]
+
+"_Next day._ The pig is a very small, very common pig, but
+nevertheless I had the boys make a special sty for her. The old cock
+is really too bad. Every time an egg is laid he strikes his bill into
+it, and, throwing it on the ground, calls his harem to a cannibal
+feast. Something, either the rats or a wild hen, has destroyed all our
+corn."
+
+Perhaps no other part of their life in Samoa was so full of happiness
+for them as these first days--just those two alone, for the presence
+of their childlike native helpers counted as naught--with all the
+surroundings yet in a primitive state and little to remind them of the
+sophisticated world from which they had been glad to escape. Both were
+natural-born children of the wild. In the brief tropical twilight they
+often walked together and talked of the beautiful future they thought
+they saw stretching out before them.
+
+"Last night," so runs the diary, "Louis and I walked up and down the
+path behind the house. The air was soft and warm, but not too warm,
+and filled with the most delicious fragrance. These perfumes of the
+tropic forest are wonderful. When I am pulling weeds it often happens
+that a puff of the sweetest scent blows back to me as I cast away a
+handful of wild plants. I believe I have discovered the ylang-ylang
+tree, about which there has been so much mystery. Simile tells me that
+one of the priests distils perfume from the same tree. It does not
+grow very large and has a delicate leaf of a tender shade of green,
+with the flowers, of a greenish white, in racemes. The natives often
+use these flowers to mix in their wreaths."
+
+Every paradise has its drawbacks, and though ferocious wild beasts and
+poisonous snakes are absent from that fortunate island, yet there were
+many small creatures dwelling in the neighbouring jungle that
+sometimes made their presence known in disconcerting ways. Of one of
+these she writes: "We were driven out of the house by a tree frog of
+stentorian voice, which was hidden in a tree near the front veranda
+and made a noise like a saw being filed, only fifty times louder. It
+actually shook the drums of my ears.... I had to stop just here to
+show Paul how to tie a knot that would not slip. The last time Mr.
+Caruthers was here he found his horse at the point of strangulation
+from a slip noose round its neck as Paul had tethered it out in the
+grass.... To return to the tree frog. When we settled ourselves at the
+table for the evening what was our horror to hear a second tree frog
+piping up just over our heads in the eaves of the house. We poked at
+him for some time with sticks and brooms, and I had a guilty feeling
+that I had done him a mortal injury; but when, after we were in bed
+and half asleep, he started saw-filing again, I wished I had."
+
+The hurricane season now came on, and wild tropic storms, of a
+violence of which they had never before dreamed, beat on the little
+house in the clearing with terrifying fury. "We had a very heavy
+rainstorm," the diary records, "with thunder and lightning. At night
+the rain fell so noisily that we could not hear each other speak, and
+it seemed as though the house must be crushed in by the weight of
+water falling on it. In the middle of the night Louis arose, made a
+light, and fell to writing verses. I was troubled about the taller
+corn--lest it be broken down and spoiled. Yet all went well, for the
+verses turned out not badly and the corn stood as straight as I could
+have wished it to do.
+
+"The banana patch is pretty well cleared, but it is difficult to keep
+men at work there. 'Too many devils, me 'fraid,' explained Lafaele
+when he came back sooner than I had anticipated. There are devils
+everywhere in the bush, it is said; creatures that take on the
+semblance of man and kill those with whom they converse, but our
+banana patch seems to be exceptionally cursed with the presence of
+these demons."
+
+Indeed, to be alone in the jungle is a solemn thing, even for people
+of stronger mentality than the superstitious natives. The vegetation
+is so dense that there are no shadows, and, the location of the sun
+being an unsolvable mystery, one becomes affected by a strange lost
+feeling. The loneliness, the silence, the impossibility of seeing far
+into the surrounding wall of foliage, all oppress the soul, and
+strange alarms attack the most hardy. Then at night, when there is no
+moon and the darkness is thick, a phosphorescent light, due to
+decaying wood, shines fearsomely all about on the ground, so that it
+seems, as Louis said, "like picking one's way over the mouth of hell."
+"We ourselves," writes Mrs. Stevenson, "have become infected with the
+native fear of the spirits. Louis has been cutting a path in the bush,
+and he confesses that the sight of anything like a human figure would
+send him flying like the wind with his heart in his mouth. One night
+the world seemed full of strange supernatural noises. When Louis
+whispered 'Listen! What's that?' I felt as though cold water had been
+poured down my back, but it was only the hissing of a fire in the
+clearing. The same night we were waked by sounds of terror in the
+henhouse. Paul, Louis, and I ran out with one accord, but could see
+nothing. In the morning we found the body of a pullet with its heart
+torn out. Simile says that the murderer is a certain small and
+beautiful bird, but we were quite in the mood to believe it an
+_aitu_."
+
+Notwithstanding the slow progress caused by inefficient help and the
+difficulty of getting materials up the steep road to their plantation,
+they could see their home gradually growing around them. Mr.
+Stevenson's health was better than it had been since their marriage,
+and a deep content settled gently upon their long-harassed spirits.
+Something of this is reflected in an entry made in her diary on a
+certain beautiful, still evening: "It is now half-past eight and very
+dark, for the moon is not yet up and the sky is overcast. The air is
+fresh and sweetly damp and redolent of many scented leaves and
+flowers. I can hear the sea on Apia beach; the sound of it is regular,
+like hoarse breathing, or even more like the rhythmic purring of a
+gigantic cat. Crickets and tree frogs and innumerable other insects
+and small beasts are chirping and pecking with various noises that
+mingle harmoniously. Occasionally a bird calls with a startling
+cry--perhaps the very bird that murdered my poor pullet. When I stood
+in the doorway and looked in, the room seemed to be glowing with
+color, glowing and melting, and yet there is nothing to go upon but
+the _tapa_ on the walls, the coral, the pink and maroon window
+curtains of the coarsest cotton print, a ragged old ink-spotted
+table-cover, a few print-covered pillows, and the pandanus mats on the
+floor. Louis's books, with their bindings of blue and green, to say
+nothing of gold lettering, help greatly on the six shelves, and the
+two _kava_ bowls that I have worked as hard to color as a young man
+with his first meerschaum have taken on a fine opalescent coating."
+This, of course, was when they were living in the temporary quarters
+while the main house was being built.
+
+The entry of November 15 gives us an amusing tale of the horses: "The
+cart horses, a couple of large, mild-eyed, gentle, dappled grays, have
+arrived from Auckland. It was pleasant to see them fall upon the grass
+after their tedious sea voyage. Just as we were thinking about going
+to bed, an alarming noise was heard from the direction of the stable.
+It had been raining hard all day and was still drizzling. The weeds on
+the way to the stable were up to my waist and dripping with water. The
+prospect was not inviting, but we nobly marched out with the lantern
+and an umbrella. As we entered the enclosure where the stable stands,
+or rather stood, we became aware of two large white objects showing
+indistinctly through the darkness. A little nearer and our two horses
+were looking us in the face. They had eaten the sides and ends of
+their house quite away. They must have thought it odd to be housed in
+an edible stable.[44] When we entered they received us with every sign
+of welcome, but we were dismayed to find them tangled with each other
+and the wreck of the partition. Louis crawled in under the big hairy
+feet, and, after much labor, got one wet knot untangled, the horses
+meanwhile smelling and nosing about the top of his head. He said he
+expected at every moment to have it bitten off, for, he argued, if the
+horses found a stable edible, in these outlandish parts, they might
+easily conceive the idea of sampling the hostler.... I am interrupted
+at this moment by Simile at the door to ask a question. I wish I could
+take a photograph as he stands at the door, with the steady eyes of a
+capable man of affairs, but the dress of a houri; about his loins he
+has twisted a piece of white cotton; a broad garland of drooping ferns
+passes over his forehead, crosses at the back of his head, and coming
+forward round his neck is fastened in a knot of greenery on his
+breast. He is rather a plain young man, but he looks really lovely
+just now, and the incongruous expression of his eyes heightens the
+effect.
+
+              [Footnote 44: The stable was probably made of pandanus
+              leaves, like the native houses.]
+
+"Yesterday we had a terrific storm, quite alarming to people living in
+such a vulnerable abode. Even when the weather is fair the house
+shakes as though it would fall if any one comes upstairs rapidly, and
+the slight iron roof is entirely open at the eaves to catch any wind
+that blows. We could not keep a lamp burning, and the lantern kept for
+such emergencies having been broken by Paul, we were in semi-darkness.
+Late in the afternoon a cloud enveloped us so that we could see no
+farther than in a London fog. From that time the gale increased,
+lashing the branches of the trees together, and sometimes twisting
+their trunks and throwing them to the ground. We could see the rain
+through the windows driving in layers, one sheet above another.
+Occasionally there was an ominous thrashing on the iron roof as
+though the great hardwood tree alongside of the house meant to do us
+an injury. Water poured in under our ill-fitting doors, the matches
+were too damp to light, and the general discomfort and sloppiness gave
+one quite the feeling of being at sea. I wished we might reef in some
+of our green tree sails, which reminded me of Ah Fu's terror of the
+land and longing to be at sea in bad weather. Simile and his boys are
+building or, rather, excavating, a hurricane refuge. I went to see it
+yesterday and found it a big mudhole with immense boulders heaving up
+from the bottom. I advised the instant digging of a ditch unless they
+wished to use it for a bathing pool. The hole must be pretty well
+filled up by to-day, for last night the rain came down in awful
+torrents. For the last two days the evening light has been very
+strange and disquieting--a whitish glare in the sky, the trees and
+bare ground a burnt-sienna red, and the vegetation a strong crude
+green with a delicate white bloom. The rain is still pouring and the
+whole world is damp and uncomfortable."
+
+The hurricanes were varied now and then by earthquakes, of which they
+felt two distinct shocks on January 13. To add to these discomforts,
+tiny visitors from the jungle gave them many pin-pricks of annoyance.
+"It is strange," says the diary, "that each night has its separate
+plague of insects. The mosquitoes, of course, are always with us, and
+Simile's hurricane cellar has become a fine breeding place for them.
+But on one night moths are our torment, while perhaps the very next
+night it will be myriads of small black beetles. At another time the
+creatures may be of a large cockshafer sort, or a dreadful
+square-tailed thing that is especially ominous. To-night I have had
+for the first time two sets of tormentors, the first being small
+burnished beetles of the most lovely colors imaginable. A
+pinkish-bronze fellow lies on my paper as I write; he kept standing on
+his head until he died in a fit. It seems a color night, for I now
+have small silver moths, all of a size but with different beautiful
+markings. There are also large salmon-colored moths that Louis cannot
+bear the sight of because they are marked like a skeleton. Perhaps
+they are a variety of the death's head moth. They are almost as large
+as a humming-bird, and have beautiful eyes that glow in the dark like
+fire."
+
+Enough order had now come out of the first chaos to encourage them to
+write for the elder Mrs. Stevenson. Her son went to Sydney to meet
+her, but was there taken very ill and returned in that condition with
+his mother as nurse. During his absence his wife remained in sole
+charge, and, judging by the entries in her diary, she had her hands
+full every moment of the time. Everybody--white, brown, or black--went
+to her with apparently full confidence that she was able to cure any
+wound or disease. "One day," she says, "I heard a loud weeping as of
+some one in great pain; a man had just had two fingers dreadfully
+crushed. I really didn't know what to do except to go to a doctor, but
+as the wound was bleeding a good deal I mixed up some crystals of iron
+in water and washed his hand in that. To my surprise his cries
+instantly ceased, and he declares he has had no pain since. It was
+only for the effect on his mind that I gave the iron, which so far as
+I know is a styptic only; I always think it best to give
+something--perhaps on the principle of the doctors when they give
+bread pills. I have cured both Paul and the carpenter of violent
+lumbago, but there I had a little knowledge to go upon. To-day a man
+came to us with the sole of his foot very much inflamed from having
+run a nail into it the day before yesterday. I bound a bit of fat
+bacon on the foot--an old Negro remedy which was the only one I could
+think of. It is even more difficult when they bring me their domestic
+troubles to settle, in which they seem to think I am as great an
+expert as in curing their physical ills."
+
+In the effort to keep things from being lost or improperly used she
+fell into the habit of storing them in her bedroom, so that in time it
+became a veritable junk-shop. "Among my dresses," she writes, "hang
+bridle straps and horse robes. On the camphor-wood trunk which serves
+as my dressing-table, beside my comb and toothbrush, a collection of
+tools--chisels, pincers, and the like--is spread out. Leather straps
+and parts of harness hang from the walls, as well as a long carved
+spear, a pistol, strings of teeth--of fish, beasts, and human
+beings--necklaces of shells, and several hats. Fine mats and _tapas_
+are piled up in heaps. My little cot bed seems to have got into its
+place by mistake. Besides the above mentioned articles there are an
+easel and two cameras stowed in one corner. A strange lady's chamber
+indeed."
+
+On March 28 there was a stiff blow, during which the little cottage
+rocked and groaned in the most alarming way, and with one gust of wind
+it swung over so far that its terrified occupants thought it was gone.
+All, including Mrs. Stevenson, then took refuge in the stable, which
+was rather more solidly constructed. The hurricane, the most violent
+they had yet experienced, lasted several days, during which they
+remained in the stable, sleeping in the stalls in wet beds, having to
+sweep out the water without ceasing and suffering severely from clouds
+of mosquitoes. When at last the storm abated and they could return to
+the house, they found everything wet and mildewed and the cottage
+leaning with a decided cant to one side. Worst of all, one of the
+horses had become entangled in the barbed-wire fence that had been
+blown down by the wind, and was dreadfully injured. Thus they
+discovered that life in the tropics has its drawbacks as well as its
+delights.
+
+These were the primitive conditions that greeted the elder Mrs.
+Stevenson on her arrival, and the poor lady's surprise and
+consternation were increased by the appearance of the good-hearted
+Paul while waiting on table--a plump little German with a bald head,
+clothed in a flannel shirt open at the neck, a pair of ragged
+trousers, particularly dilapidated in the seat and held up by a
+leather strap round the waist, a sheath-knife stuck in the belt,
+barefoot, and most likely offering the information that "the meat is
+tough, by God." Having no pioneer ancestry to sustain her she was
+unable to endure the discomforts of the place and only remained over
+the stay of the _Lubeck_, after which she fled to Sydney, there to
+await the time when civilization should have been established on the
+plantation.
+
+By the end of April the new house was ready for them to move in, and
+by July the whole family, including the Strongs,[45] were established
+on the place.
+
+              [Footnote 45: Mrs. Stevenson's daughter, Isobel Strong,
+              with her husband and son.]
+
+The conditions of their lives were now vastly more comfortable. Mrs.
+Stevenson no longer had to share the evening lamp with death's-head
+moths and piping tree-frogs, for gauze doors and windows had been put
+in to keep out the flying things. Nor did she have to take refuge in
+the stable when the hurricane season came around, for the new house
+was staunchly built and stout storm-shutters stood against the fury of
+the wind and rain.
+
+Of Vailima in its finished aspect I need not speak in detail, since it
+has been fully and elaborately described by Graham Balfour in his
+_Life of Robert Louis Stevenson_. With its band of "house boys" and
+"out boys"--a fine-looking lot of fellows of whom their master was
+very proud--the household grew to be almost like that of a feudal
+chief, or Scotch laird of the old days, and Mrs. Stevenson took her
+place as its mistress as though "to the manner born." The place became
+the centre of social life in the island and was the scene of frequent
+balls and parties, dinners with twenty-five or thirty guests,
+Christmas parties with the guests staying for three days, and tennis
+nearly every day with officers from the men-of-war in the harbour and
+ladies from the mission. Over these entertainments Mrs. Stevenson
+presided--a gracious and beautiful hostess. Once when her grandson,
+Austin Strong, came home for a holiday from school, she gave a ball in
+his honour. There were torches all along the road to light the way up,
+boys in uniform to receive and take care of the guests and their
+horses, and a band to play for dancing. For weeks beforehand the
+dressmakers of Apia had to work overtime. But it is not to be supposed
+that this comfortable state was brought about without great efforts on
+the part of the whole family. Mrs. Strong took over the housekeeping,
+management of supplies and training of servants, leaving her mother
+free to devote her energies to the outdoor work she loved best.
+Writing to Miss Jane Balfour, Mrs. Stevenson says: "Never were people
+so full of affairs. We have to start a plantation in the solid bush,
+manage all our complicated business, receive furniture and guests--and
+all the while trying madly to get the house in order and feed our
+family. We must have horses to ride or we can go nowhere. The land
+must be cleared and grass to feed horses and cows must be planted. Men
+have to be taught, also, how to take care of the animals and must be
+watched every moment. I am glad to say that the gossip among the
+natives is that I have eyes all around my head and am in fifty places
+at once, and that I am a person to be feared and obeyed."
+
+The fertile soil and kindly climate of the island encouraged her to
+experiment, not only with the plants native to the place, but also
+with exotics brought from other lands. In importing these foreign
+plants she exercised the greatest care not to introduce any pest, for
+she knew that when the lantana was taken to Hawaii and the sweetbrier
+to New Zealand these foreigners showed such a destructive fondness for
+their adopted homes that they came near choking out everything else.
+Before introducing any plant she consulted the heads of the botanical
+gardens at Kew and Colombo and the grass expert at Washington, D. C.
+She even had the soil that came around her plants burned, for fear it
+might bring in insects or disease. The lawn was an accomplishment in
+itself, for after she had had the soil sifted to a depth of eighteen
+inches to clear it of roots and stones, she levelled it herself by the
+simple means of a spirit-level and a string.
+
+It is not to be supposed that all these things grew without immense
+difficulty. As an instance, after she had carefully instructed
+Lafaele, her gardener, how to plant a patch of vanilla, she was
+disgusted to find that he had planted them all upside down. After
+giving him a thorough scolding, she dismissed him and replanted them
+all herself, right side up. What were her feelings to find the next
+day that Lafaele, chagrined by his stupidity, had risen in the night
+and planted them all upside down again! This Lafaele was a huge
+mutton-headed Hercules, an out-islander, who spoke no English, and as
+Mrs. Stevenson never learned Samoan, the two had perforce to invent a
+sort of pidgin dialect of their own, in which they jabbered away
+successfully but which no one else could understand. She later found
+an intelligent Samoan named Leuelu who understood her pidgin Samoan
+perfectly and learned to carry out all her orders. He was small and
+not strong, but with the help of the dull but faithful Lafaele he
+soon had a wonderful garden.
+
+One week her special task was to superintend the boys in putting a
+culvert into the new road to carry off the rain in the wet season. She
+also devised and carried out a scheme of water-works for the place
+which was a great boon and comfort to all the family, and enabled them
+to sprinkle their lawn in civilized fashion. A large cemented
+reservoir was built at a spring on the mountain and the water carried
+down from it in pipes and distributed through the house and grounds.
+
+One of her few failures was trying to make beer out of bananas. The
+stuff, after being bottled, blew up with a great noise and a
+dissemination of the astonishingly offensive odour of the fermented
+fruit that seemed to spread for acres about. On the other hand, her
+attempt at making perfume from the moso'oi flower (said to be the real
+ylang-ylang) was a distinct success. She had to get permission from
+the government to import the small still she set up in a corner of the
+garden. The flowers were boiled and distilled, and as the oil rose to
+the top of the water it was removed with a medicine-dropper. It was a
+charming sight to see her working in her little distillery, while
+processions of pretty Samoan girls came with their huge baskets of
+flowers and scattered them in piles around her. Long afterwards when
+she was in New York she took a sample of the perfume to Colgates, who
+pronounced it the best they had ever seen.
+
+[Illustration: The house at Vailima with the additions made to the
+first structure.]
+
+In the midst of all these labours there were a thousand other troubles
+to be met and conquered--servants' quarrels in the kitchen, for
+Samoans are not a whit different in such respects from domestics all
+the world over, jealousy between the house boys and the out boys,
+constant alarms about devils and bewitchments, and, above all,
+sickness of all sorts to be sympathized with and cured. For help in
+all these derangements every one went to the mistress, for all had a
+simple faith in her ability to relieve them of all their sorrows. At
+one time she and her daughter nursed twenty-two men through the
+measles--a very serious disease among the islanders. At another time
+the large hall at Vailima was entirely filled with the beds of
+influenza patients, Mr. Stevenson being isolated upstairs. In the
+performance of the plantation work accidents sometimes happened to the
+men, and she was often called upon to bind up dreadful wounds that
+would have made many women faint. From her earliest youth she had
+always been the kind of person to whom every one instinctively turns
+in an emergency. When Mr. Stevenson was ill she understood what he
+wanted by the merest gesture, and was always calm, reassuring, and
+self-reliant, never breaking down until after the crisis was past. She
+was a most delightful nurse otherwise, too, for when her children were
+sick in bed she entertained them with cheerful stories to divert their
+minds, and when they were convalescent made tempting dishes for them
+to eat. One of my own dear memories is of a time when, as a little
+child, I lay dangerously and painfully ill, unable to move even a
+hand, and she lightened my sufferings immeasurably by buying a Noah's
+ark and arranging the animals on a little table by my bedside where
+I could look at them. When her husband was having one of his
+speechless illnesses at Vailima she allowed only one at a time to go
+in to him, under orders to be entertaining and to recount amusing
+little adventures of the household. She herself was an adept at this,
+though when she came out she left her smile at the bedroom door. For
+his amusement she would sit by his bedside and play her famous game of
+solitaire, learned so long ago from Prince Kropotkin, the Russian
+revolutionist. He would make signs when she went wrong and point at
+cards for her to take up. Sometimes she read trashy novels to him, for
+they both liked such reading when it was bad enough to be funny.
+
+With the childlike Samoans she found sympathy to be as necessary as
+medical treatment for their ails. An interesting example of this was
+the case of Eliga, who was afflicted with an unsightly tumour on his
+back. This, in a land where any sort of deformity is looked upon with
+horror, caused the unfortunate man great unhappiness, besides
+depriving him of his titles and estates. His kind master and mistress
+had him examined by the surgeon of an English man-of-war that was in
+the harbour, and the opinion was given that an operation was quite
+feasible. Poor Eliga, however, was stricken with terror at the thought
+and carefully explained that there were strings in the wen that were
+tied about his heart, and if they were severed he would die. Besides,
+he said, as his skin was different from the white man's, his insides
+were probably different also. In the end, more to please them than
+through any faith in it, he consented to the operation, although so
+certain was he of a fatal ending that he had his house swept and
+garnished, ready for the funeral. To comfort and cheer him through the
+ordeal, both Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson went to his house and remained
+with him until all was done. The result was most happy, and the
+grateful man, now proudly holding up his head among his fellows,
+composed in honour of the event "The Song of the Wen":
+
+"O Tusitala, when you first came here I was ugly and poor and
+deformed. I was jeered at and scorned by the unthinking. I ate grass;
+a bunch of leaves was my sole garment, and I had nothing to hide my
+ugliness. But now, O Tusitala, now I am beautiful; my body is sound
+and handsome; I bear a great name; I am rich and powerful and
+unashamed, and I owe it all to you, Tusitala. I have come to tell your
+highness that I will not forget. Tusitala, I will work for you all my
+life, and my family shall work for your family, and there shall be no
+question of wage between us, only loving-kindness. My life is yours,
+and I will be your servant till I die."[46]
+
+              [Footnote 46: The complete story of Eliga, most
+              agreeably told, may be found in _Vailima Memories_, by
+              Lloyd Osbourne and Isobel Strong.]
+
+It was in Samoa that Mrs. Stevenson acquired the name of Tamaitai,[47]
+by which she was known thenceforth to her family and intimate friends
+until the day of her death. English words do not come easily from the
+tongues of the natives, and so they obviate the difficulty by
+bestowing names of their own upon strangers who come to dwell among
+them. It was as Tusitala, the writer of tales, that Louis was best
+known, his wife was called Aolele,[48] flying cloud, and her daughter,
+because of her kindness in giving ribbons and other little trinkets to
+the girls, was named Teuila, the decorator. Tamaitai is a general
+title, meaning "Madam," and is used in reference to the lady of the
+house. Mr. Stevenson himself started the custom by calling his wife
+Tamaitai, and it was finally adopted by everybody and grew to be her
+name--the complete title being Tamaitai Aolele (Madam Aolele). These
+Samoan names were adopted partly as a convenience, to escape the
+embarrassment that sometimes arose from the habit among the natives of
+calling the different members of the family by their first names. It
+was felt to be rather undignified, for instance, that the mistress of
+the house should be called "Fanny" by her servants.
+
+              [Footnote 47: Pronounced Tahmyty, with the accent on the
+              "my."]
+
+              [Footnote 48: Translated in an old missionary notebook
+              as "beautiful as a flying cloud."]
+
+Mrs. Stevenson, as I have said before, was a famous cook, and had
+learned how to make at least some of the characteristic dishes of each
+of the many countries where she had sojourned awhile in her long
+wanderings. From her mother she had inherited many an old Dutch
+receipt--peppery pot, noodle soup, etc.; in France she acquired the
+secret of preparing a _bouillabaise_,[49] sole _a la marguery_, and
+many others; from Abdul, an East Indian cook she brought from Fiji,
+she learned how to make a wonderful mutton curry which contained more
+ingredients than perhaps any other dish on earth; in the South Seas
+she picked up the art of making raw-fish salad; and now at Vailima
+she lost no time in adding Samoan receipts to her list. She soon knew
+how to prepare to perfection a pig roasted underground and eaten with
+Miti sauce,[50] besides dozens of other dishes, including _ava_ for
+drinking.
+
+              [Footnote 49: A Provencal fish-chowder.]
+
+              [Footnote 50: Miti sauce is made of grated kukui nuts
+              mixed with lime-juice and sea-water.]
+
+It was not the least of her duties to play the hostess to a remarkable
+assortment of guests--the Chief Justice, officers from the men-of-war
+that frequently came into the harbour, Protestant, Catholic, and
+Mormon missionaries, all kinds of visitors to the islands, including
+an English duchess, and native kings and chiefs. Once a high chief,
+one of the highest, bearing the somewhat lengthy name of
+Tuimalealiifono, came on a visit to Vailima. He was quite unacquainted
+with white ways of living, and, when shown to his bedroom, looked
+askance at the neat, comfortable bed that had been prepared for him.
+In the morning it was found that he had scorned the bed, and, retiring
+to the piazza, had rolled himself up in his mat and lain down to
+pleasant dreams. At table, although he had never before seen knives
+and forks, he picked up their use instantly by quietly observing the
+manners of the others.
+
+A curious episode, which might have turned out to be dangerous,
+happened during the war troubles, when King Malietoa went up to
+Vailima secretly to have a talk with Tusitala. After the talk Louis
+offered him a present, asking what he preferred. Malietoa said he
+would like a revolver, and Louis took one from the safe and handed it
+to his wife, who happened to be sitting next the king. She emptied the
+chambers, as she thought, and then, not noticing that the thing was
+pointing straight at the king's heart, she clicked it five times. By a
+lucky chance, before clicking it the sixth time she looked in, and
+behold, there was the last cartridge! If she had given the last click
+she certainly would have killed the king, and one can imagine the
+complications that would have resulted in those uneasy times. Of
+course the episode, with all the dramatic possibilities attached to
+it, appealed to the romantic imaginations of the two Stevensons, and,
+after the king's departure, they spent the evening in making up a
+harrowing tale about what would have happened if she had killed him.
+
+Among the notable visitors to Vailima was the Italian artist Pieri
+Nerli, who came to paint Mr. Stevenson's portrait--the one that now
+hangs in Swanson Cottage in Scotland. This portrait pleased his wife
+as little as did the Sargent picture, and, in a letter to Lord Guthrie
+of Edinburgh, she makes what Lord Guthrie calls "an acute criticism of
+this overdramatized likeness." She says: "It would have been all right
+if Nerli had only been content to paint just Louis, and had not
+insisted on representing instead the author of _Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
+Hyde_."
+
+It was not all work at Vailima by any means. "Socially," she writes,
+"Samoa was not dull. There were many entertainments given by diplomats
+and officials in Apia. Besides native feasts there were afternoon
+teas, evening receptions, dinner parties, private and public balls,
+paper chases on horseback, polo, tennis parties, and picnics.
+Sometimes a party of flower-wreathed natives might come dancing over
+the lawn at Vailima, or a band of sailors from a man-of-war would be
+seen gathered in an embarrassed knot at the front gate." She herself
+cared little for these entertainments, and usually busied herself in
+helping others with the preparations for them. Her mother-in-law
+writes: "A fancy dress ball has been held in honor of the birthday of
+the Prince of Wales. Fanny designed a costume for Mrs. Gurr (a pretty
+Samoan girl) as Zenobia, Empress of the East. She wore a Greek dress,
+made in part of cotton stuff with a gold pattern stamped on it; over
+this a crimson chuddah was correctly draped, with a gold belt, many
+beads, and an elaborate gold crown."
+
+From the busy round of her many-sided activities she took time now and
+then to do a little writing, though in truth she had little liking for
+it nor any high regard for her own literary style, in which she
+complained of a certain "dry nippedness" that she detested but could
+not get rid of. It was only when she wanted some extra money for her
+water-works at Vailima that she "took her pen in hand" and wrote a
+story for Scribners.
+
+All this sounds hurried and breathless, but in reality these
+activities were spread out over far more time than appears in the
+telling of them, and there were peaceful intervals of rest and
+happiness in seeing Louis well and able for the first time to bear his
+share in hospitality.
+
+Always, high above every other purpose, was her unfailing devotion to
+her husband and his work, and no other task ever interfered with her
+careful watch over his health and her keen interest in his writing. He
+appreciated her aid from the bottom of his heart, and in the
+dedication to his last unfinished novel, _Weir of Hermiston_, he
+endeavours to express in some degree his profound sense of obligation:
+
+     "I saw the rain falling and the rainbow drawn
+      On Lammermuir. Hearkening, I heard again
+      In my precipitous city beaten bells
+      Winnow the keen sea wind. And here afar,
+      Intent on my own race and place I wrote.
+      Take thou the writing; thine it is. For who
+      Burnished the sword, blew on the drowsy coal,
+      Held still the target higher; chary of praise
+      And prodigal of counsel--who but thou?
+      So now in the end; if this the least be good,
+      If any deed be done, if any fire
+      Burn in the imperfect page, the praise be thine."
+
+This was to the critic; to the wife he wrote:
+
+     "Trusty, dusky, vivid, true,
+      With eyes of gold and bramble-dew,
+      Steel true and blade straight
+      The great Artificer made my mate.
+
+      Honor, anger, valor, fire,
+      A love that life could never tire,
+      Death quench, or evil stir,
+      The mighty Master gave to her.
+
+      Teacher, tender comrade, wife,
+      A fellow-farer true through life,
+      Heart whole and soul free,
+      The August Father gave to me."
+
+As the years passed, their comradeship grew closer, and, indeed, their
+relationship can perhaps be expressed in no better way than to call
+them "comrades," with all that the word implies. In writing to her he
+usually called her "My dear fellow," and in speaking often addressed
+her in the same way. His attachment and admiration for her steadily
+increased in proportion to his longer acquaintance with her. Once at
+Vailima they were all playing a game called "Truth," in which each
+person writes a list of the qualities--courage, humour, beauty,
+etc.--supposed to be possessed by the others, with the corresponding
+ratio in numbers, ten being the maximum. Louis put his wife down as
+ten for beauty. She argued with him that he must be perfectly honest
+and not complimentary; he looked at her in amazement and said: "I am
+honest; I think you are the most beautiful woman in the world."
+
+Once when her birthday, the 10th of March, came around, she found on
+waking these verses pinned to the netting of her bed:
+
+          "To the Stormy Petrel
+
+                          "Ever perilous
+      And precious, like an ember from the fire
+      Or gem from a volcano, we to-day
+      When drums of war reverberate in the land
+      And every face is for the battle blacked--
+      No less the sky, that over sodden woods
+      Menaces now in the disconsolate calm
+      The hurly-burly of the hurricane--
+      Do now most fitly celebrate your day.
+      Yet amid turmoil, keep for me, my dear,
+      The kind domestic fagot. Let the hearth
+      Shine ever as (I praise my honest gods)
+      In peace and tempest it has ever shone."
+
+She said these verses were the best of all her birthday presents. He
+called her the "stormy petrel" in reference to her birth in the wild
+month of March, and because she was such a fiery little person. When
+she took sides in an argument he would say, in mild irony: "The shouts
+of the women in the opposite camp were heard demanding the heads of
+the prisoners."
+
+All through the daily entries in her diary, mingled with the incidents
+of the household, runs the talk of impending war:
+
+"War news continues exciting, and there are threats of a massacre of
+all the whites. Although nothing of the kind is really anticipated, I
+think it would be better to look up our cartridges. Lafaele has
+blacked his face in the fashion of a warrior, saying he must be
+prepared to protect the place. He has a very sore toe, which he thinks
+is bewitched. He sent for the Samoan doctor, a grave middle-aged man,
+who announced that a devil, instigated by some enemy, has entered the
+toe and is now on the point of travelling up the leg, and unless it is
+checked in time will soon have possession of Lafaele's entire body.
+
+"_March 22._ This entry is written in Suva, Fiji. For a long time I
+had not been well, and so I was sent off in the steamer to this place,
+though I went with a heavy heart, for I thought Louis did not look
+well. I have been to the botanical gardens, which are in charge of a
+pleasant young man from Kew, and have secured four boxes of plants for
+Vailima. The young man told me, as a trade secret, that if
+cauliflowers get an occasional watering of sea water they will head up
+in any climate. I have also secured an East Indian cook named Abdul.
+
+"_September 23._ At home again. I find that Lloyd and the Strongs have
+been teaching a native boy named Talolo to cook, with the best
+results, so my fine Indian cook is a fifth wheel. However, Mr. Haggard
+has agreed to take him--though he seems very reluctant to leave
+Vailima.
+
+"_October 28._ Paul left us some time ago to be overseer on a German
+plantation. Before he left, in his blundering desire to do all he
+could for me, he transplanted a lot of my plants, all wrong, and in
+fact did all the damage he well could in so short a time. I felt sorry
+to see the last of him, for with all his mistakes his heart was in the
+right place. Much more distressing is it that our dear Simile is gone.
+He wept very much in leaving, saying that 'his poor old family' needed
+him. I was told afterwards that he had in reality eloped with a young
+lady, which may be the truth of the matter. Talolo, our new cook,
+amuses me very much. He was greatly shocked at hearing of the scalping
+of victims by American Indians, but thought the taking of heads in the
+Samoan fashion perfectly right, as the victim was then dead and felt
+nothing.
+
+"_November 2._ Talolo's mother, a very respectable woman indeed, came
+to see us, bringing with her a relative who is almost blind from
+cataract. They were shown over the house and could be heard at every
+moment crying out in Samoan 'How extremely beautiful!' Even when shown
+into the cellar, where it was quite dark, they were heard to make the
+same remark.... Last Saturday Lloyd marshalled up all the men before
+they left for their Sunday at home and administered to each a blue
+pill. One fellow was caught hiding his in his cheek and was made to
+swallow it amid shouts of laughter. I feared they would never come
+back, but all returned on Monday morning declaring they were much
+improved in health.
+
+"We are all blazing with cacao-planting zeal, and we already have over
+six hundred plants set out. The method of planting them is very
+laborious, for the seeds must first be set in baskets made of plaited
+cocoanut leaves, and when the sprouts come up they are put in the
+earth, basket and all; in this way the roots are not disturbed and in
+time the basket decays in the damp soil and drops off. The whole
+family has been infected with the planting fever, and even Mrs.
+Stevenson works away at it most gallantly. To-day is Sunday, but we
+must all, the family and the house boys, plant the seeds that are
+left.
+
+"_November 30._ Simile has come back in a sad condition from a wound
+with a spear or club in the back of his head, and much distressed over
+the state of his 'poor old family'.... We have now set out 1,200 cacao
+plants. All yesterday Joe[51] and I were superintending the building
+of a bridge over the river. We had two trees cut down for the purpose;
+one of them was of the most lovely pinkish wood, with salmon pink
+bark, and emitted a perfume like a mixture of sassafras and
+wintergreen.... Last night we were somewhat alarmed by earthquake
+shocks and rifle shots. Yesterday three of the chairs made by the
+carpenter out of our own wood, mahogany, and designed from an antique
+model, came up. They are very satisfactory--a beautiful shape and
+comfortable to sit in."
+
+              [Footnote 51: Her son-in law, Mr. Strong.]
+
+So the weeks rolled swiftly by, filled with an infinitude of duties
+and much happiness, until the bright tropic sun broke on Christmas
+morning, 1893. The day was always celebrated at Vailima with much
+ceremony, and a gigantic tree, covered with carefully chosen presents
+for everybody, from the head of the family down to the humblest Samoan
+retainer, was set up in the large hall. Months before Mr. Stevenson
+had sent to the army and navy stores in London and had a large boxful
+of presents for the tree sent out. The diary gives us some account of
+this, the last Christmas spent on earth by Robert Louis Stevenson:
+
+"Our washerwomen," so it runs, "came with presents--_tapa_ and fans,
+and Simile brought baskets and _tapa_. Our people were wild with
+delight over their presents. Christmas we spent with friends in Apia,
+where we had a most delightful evening. Each gave some performance to
+add to the gaiety. Louis and Lloyd played, very badly indeed, on their
+pipes. Teuila recited one of Louis's poems, and Austin poured out with
+much dramatic fire _Lochinvar_. There was some very pretty Samoan
+dancing by Mrs. Gurr and Mrs. Willis, who gave a sitting dance and
+one with clubs. The next day we rode home, dashing at full speed
+through mud and water, and reached there drenched to the skin by a
+sudden shower. I was alarmed about Louis, but it did him no harm
+whatever. We were happy to be at pleasant Vailima again.
+
+"_January 3._ There has been a terrific storm, lasting three days, but
+the hurricane shutters were put up, and proved a great protection,
+though the house was dark and airless. Trees went crashing all around
+us. There was a curious exhilaration in the air, and the natives
+shouted with glee whenever anything came down. The road was filled
+with debris from the storm, which had to be cleared away before any
+one could pass. In the evening I was told that both the Fiji man and
+Simi had been spitting blood. The Fiji man seems to have a touch of
+pneumonia. Much to Simi's alarm we put the cupping glass on him, and
+the whole party of house servants escorted him to bed, shouting and
+laughing and dancing as they went.
+
+"_January 7._ Lloyd sailed to-day for San Francisco, intending to make
+the round trip only, for a change of air. In the afternoon Joe and I
+jumped on one horse and galloped as fast as we could down to the
+landing, only to find that all the boats were out. Just then the
+American consul's boat returned to the landing. We sprang into it, and
+with the American flag flying over us, went speeding over the water,
+in spite of the fact that the German man-of-war was having target
+practice (a most dangerous proceeding) right across the harbor. As we
+drew near the ship we suddenly realized that they were holding it in
+the supposition that we were bringing a consular message. We saw Lloyd
+running on deck to see us, but, alarmed at the situation, we took a
+hasty departure. In the evening we heard very sweet and mournful
+singing in the servants' quarters, and on asking what it was were told
+by Talolo that it was a farewell to Loia (Lloyd). It was explained
+that the song was told to go to France, to Tonga, and other places to
+look for Lloyd, and, in case of not finding him there, to search all
+over the world for him and carry pleasant dreams to him.
+
+"_January 11._ To-day the Fiji man appeared in war paint--his nose
+blackened and black stripes under his eyes. Lafaele says the war is
+soon going to begin, adding 'Please, Tamaitai, you look out; when
+Samoa man fight he all same devil.' While we were talking low, dull
+thunder was rolling around the horizon, sounding, as we thought, very
+like the noise of battle. Strange to say there was not a cloud in the
+sky nor a flash of lightning to be seen.
+
+"All the Samoan women married to white men wish to express their
+gratitude to me for making it possible for them to return to their
+native dress or, rather, the dress introduced among them by the
+missionaries. Before we came, all such women were expected to dress in
+European fashion, for otherwise they were not considered respectable,
+and they were delighted and surprised when I and all the other women
+at Vailima appeared in the missionary dress. This dress, called the
+_holaku_, is nothing more than the old-fashioned sacque (known in
+America as the 'Mother Hubbard'), which fortunately happened to be
+the mode in England when the missionaries first came to the South
+Seas. It was loose, cool, modest, and graceful, and so well suited to
+the natives and the hot climate of the islands that it became the
+regulation garment of the South Pacific. The climax seemed to be my
+going to a party in a very handsome black silk _holaku_ with
+embroidered yoke and sleeves. The husbands have removed the taboo and
+several of the native ladies are to have fine silk gowns made in their
+own pretty, graceful fashion. Corsets must be agony to the poor
+creatures, and most of them are only the more clumsy and awkward for
+these European barbarities. I am very glad I have inadvertently done
+so much good."
+
+The political pot was now boiling fiercely, but as the trouble in
+Samoa has been discussed in detail in other books, it is not my
+purpose to touch upon it here except in so far as any phase of it
+directly concerned Mrs. Stevenson herself. It is enough to say that
+the family espoused the cause of Mataafa, and in the diary Mrs.
+Stevenson describes a visit made by them to that monarch for the
+purpose of attempting to reconcile the two parties.
+
+"On the second of May," she writes, "Louis, Teuila[52] and I, taking
+Talolo with us, went in a boat to Malie to visit King Mataafa. I took
+a dark red silk _holaku_, trimmed with Persian embroidery, and Teuila
+took a green silk one, in which to appear before royalty. Long before
+we got to the village we could see the middle part of an immense
+native house rising up like a church spire. Mataafa's own house was
+the largest and finest I had ever seen, and there were others as
+large. Louis tried in vain to get an interpreter, but was fain to put
+up with Talolo, who nearly expired with fright and misery, for he
+could not speak the high chief language and felt that every word he
+uttered was an insult to Mataafa. We have been in the habit of
+referring to the king as 'Charley over the water,' and toasting him by
+waving our glasses over the water bottle. Talolo had some vague notion
+of what this meant and now thought it a good time to do the same. To
+our great amusement, he took his glass, waved it in the air, and cried
+'Charley in the water!' which we felt to be a rather ominous toast.
+His translations of 'Charley's' words came to little more than
+'Mataafa very much surprised (pleased),' but Louis knew enough Samoan
+to make a little guess at what was going on. The _kava_ bowl was in
+the centre of the group, with the king's talking men beside it. _Kava_
+was first given to the king and Louis simultaneously--a great honor
+for Louis--then to Teuila and me. The king evidently supposed us both
+to be wives of Louis, and was much puzzled as to which was the
+superior in station, a dilemma which was finally neatly solved by
+serving us both at the same moment. I had seen that it was chewed
+_kava_,[53] but in my weariness after the long journey I forgot that
+fact before it came my turn to drink. Before the bowl was offered to
+the king a libation was poured out and fresh water from a cocoanut
+shell was sprinkled first to the right and then to the left. The
+talking man and the others made polite orations, one of them likening
+Louis to Jesus Christ, at which Talolo manifested sighs of acute
+embarrassment. We were then offered a little refreshment before
+dinner. The king, who was a Catholic, crossed himself and said grace.
+A folded leaf containing a quantity of arrowroot cooked in cocoanut
+milk by dropping in hot stones was placed before each of us, and each
+had the milk of a fresh young nut to drink. The arrowroot was grateful
+but difficult to manage, on account of the stickiness, and a little
+gritty with sand from the stones. We were then invited to take a
+siesta behind an immense curtain of _tapa_ that had been hung across
+one end of the room. There mats and pillows were laid for Teuila and
+me, and in a few seconds we were fast asleep. In an hour and a half we
+waked simultaneously and found dinner waiting for us. Louis then
+offered his present--a hundred-pound keg of beef--and the talking man
+went outside and informed the populace, in stentorian tones, of the
+nature and amount of the present received. We ate of pig, fowl, and
+_taro_, in civilized fashion, sitting on chairs and using plates,
+tumblers, spoons, knives, and forks. After a walk about the village we
+all sat on mats under the eaves and conversed. A distant sound of
+singing was heard, and soon a procession of young men in wreaths,
+walking two by two, came up to us and each deposited a root of _taro_,
+to which the king added a couple of young fowls, and an immense root
+of fresh _kava_. Speeches were made, after which mats were spread out
+for the dancers, who had been called by the sound of a bugle. There
+were two long rows of them, with two comic men and a hunchback,
+apparently the king's jester. They first sang a song of welcome to us,
+and then sang, danced, and acted several pieces--all well done and
+some very droll indeed. The hunchback excelled particularly in an
+imitation of a circus that was here not long since. Louis could not
+speak successfully through Talolo, as he had more to say than 'much
+surprised,' so we then took our departure. We returned by moonlight,
+all ardent admirers of Mataafa. About a week later Louis went again,
+this time with an interpreter named Charley Taylor, and had a more
+satisfactory interview. In the early morning, at about four, he was
+awakened by the sound of some sort of pipe playing a curious air. When
+he inquired about this Mataafa told him that he always had this
+performance at the time of the singing of the early birds, as it
+conduced to pleasant dreams. His father, he added, would never allow a
+bird or animal to be injured, and, in consequence, was called the
+'king of the birds.'"
+
+              [Footnote 52: It will be remembered that Teuila was the
+              native name of Mrs. Stevenson's daughter.]
+
+              [Footnote 53: In the old times _kava_, or _ava_, as it
+              is sometimes spelled, was prepared by being chewed by
+              young girls especially chosen for the purpose, and then
+              made into a brew.]
+
+As the war-cloud grew blacker, the superstitious fears of Lafaele
+increased, and every day some new portent was reported. "On May 16,"
+says the diary, "Lafaele and Araki reported that while walking on the
+road they met Louis riding on my horse Musu. What was their surprise
+and terror when they reached home to find that he had not left the
+house all day. Great anxiety and alarm are felt all over the place,
+for it is supposed that Louis sent his other self to see what Lafaele
+and Araki were about." Araki was a runaway "black boy," or Solomon
+Islander, from the German plantations, who became a member of the
+Vailima household in a rather dramatic way. One day a strange figure
+was seen flitting about the lawn behind the trees. The servants ran
+out and dragged in a thin, terrified black boy, who fell on his face
+before the master and begged for protection. Such a plea could not be
+refused, and Mr. Stevenson went down to the German firm and made
+arrangements to keep him. He soon began to fill out, and grew to be a
+saucy, lively fellow. Although the natives of Samoa look upon the
+Solomon Islanders as cannibals and savages, at Vailima they made a pet
+of Araki and dyed his bushy hair red and hung wreaths round his neck.
+
+"_May 19._ This is the twelfth anniversary of our marriage. It seems
+impossible. Also impossible that two years ago (or a little more) we
+came up to live in the bush. Everything looks settled and as though we
+had lived here for many years.
+
+"_May 22._ Saturday the captain of the _Upolu_ came up and had
+luncheon with us. We had nothing but vegetables, curried and cooked in
+various ways, but no meat. Sunday there came a German vegetarian when
+there were no vegetables and nothing but meat.... We are having a
+great deal of trouble with the servants, as Tomasi, the Fiji man, says
+his wife, Elena, is too good to associate with the other women, and
+Lafaele's little girl is terribly afraid of Araki, the black boy,
+although he speaks of her most tenderly as 'that little girlie.' When
+the last litter of pigs was born, each family on the place was given a
+pig. Elena chose a spotted boar, which she named Sale Taylor, and
+Lafaele took what he calls a 'mare pig,' that is, a little sow. Both
+pigs have been tamed and trot around after Elena and Fanua like pug
+dogs. They go to bed with their mistresses every night like babies,
+and must also be fed once in the night with milk like babies. Both
+pigs came to prayers this morning.... Talolo's brother, a beautiful
+young boy, has elephantiasis.[54] He has had it for a long time--about
+a year--but was afraid to tell. Worse than that has happened; one of
+our boys had a fit of insanity, during which it required the exertions
+of the entire household to restrain him from running off into the bush
+and losing himself. It became necessary to tie him down to the bed
+with strips of sheeting and ropes. The strangest thing about this
+occurrence is that Lafaele restored him to his senses in a short time
+by chewing up certain leaves that he brought from the bush and then
+putting them into the sick boy's ears and nostrils. I had a talk with
+Lafaele about his remedy. He told me that in case of lockjaw, if these
+chewed leaves are forced up the nostrils, first the jaw, then the
+muscles, will soon relax and the cure is accomplished. For some reason
+he seems unwilling to point out the tree to me.... Talolo affords us
+much amusement with his naive ideas. I said to him, 'It seems to me
+that you Samoans do not feel badly about anything very long.' 'Yes, we
+do,' said Talolo, seeming much hurt by the accusation. 'When a man's
+wife runs away he feels badly for two or three days.'
+
+              [Footnote 54: A disease of the tropics, said to be
+              transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes, which causes
+              enormous enlargement of the parts affected. Mrs.
+              Stevenson cured this boy, Mitaele, of elephantiasis by
+              Dr. Funk's remedy of rubbing the diseased vein with blue
+              ointment and giving him a certain prescribed drug.]
+
+"_July 3, 1893._ Nothing is talked of or thought of but the impending
+war. One of our former men came up yesterday to draw out his wages. I
+asked him if he meant to act like a coward and take heads of wounded
+men. He said he meant to take all the heads he could get. I reasoned
+with him, as did Lloyd, but he stood respectfully firm, saying that
+each people had its own customs. I am afraid the government has not
+thought to forbid this abomination, or has not dared.
+
+"_July 8._ News comes that the fighting has begun, and that eleven
+heads have been taken to Mulinuu,[55] and, worst of all, that one of
+the heads is that of a village maid, a thing before unheard-of among
+Samoans.
+
+              [Footnote 55: Mulinuu was the seat of government. King
+              Malietoa lived there.]
+
+"_July 10._ Mataafa is routed, and, after burning Malie, has fled to
+Manono. His son was killed with a hatchet and his head taken. In all
+we hear of three heads of women being brought in to Mulinuu. When
+Mataafa was the man before whom all trembled we offered him our
+friendship and broke bread with him. If I gave him loyalty then, fifty
+thousand times more do I give it now."
+
+At last the smoke and thunder of war rolled away, and peace and
+security came once more to dwell at Vailima. Entertainments and
+gaieties again made the place lively. Mrs. Strong[56] describes one of
+these affairs in a letter to Mr. Stevenson's mother:
+
+              [Footnote 56: Now Mrs. Salisbury Field.]
+
+"I suppose Louis will write and tell you of the grand day we had here
+when the sailors of the _Katoomba_ were invited up here to play. We
+had twenty-four people on the place--natives, house boys, outside
+boys, and contractors--and the house was gorgeously decorated with
+ferns and moso'oi flowers. One large table was piled high with
+cocoanuts, oranges, lemons, passion fruit, pineapples, mangoes, and
+even a large pumpkin and some ripe tomatoes, besides three huge bowls
+of lemonade. The other table had seven baked chickens, ham sandwiches,
+cakes and coffee--lots of all. At half-past twelve we saw the white
+caps bobbing at the gate, and sent Simile down to meet them. He was
+dressed in a dark coat and _lavalava_ and white shirt, and looked very
+swagger indeed. The sailors all saluted Simile as he appeared, and in
+another moment--boom, bang, and the band burst out with the big drum
+in full swing, with the men, fourteen of them, all marching in time.
+The faces of our Samoans were stricken with amazement as the jackies
+marched up to the lawn in the blazing sun and finished the piece. The
+veranda was crowded with our people, all in wreaths of flowers, and a
+number of guests were there to witness the festivities. Well, we fed
+our sailors, who were all very red and hot and smiling, and the way
+they dipped into the lemonade was a caution. Then, to a guitar
+accompaniment, one of them sang a song with a melodramatic story
+running through it about a poor fellow going to a house and sitting on
+the door-step wan and weary, and seeing on the doorplate the name of
+Jasper. Soon Jasper comes out, and though the poverty-stricken one
+pleads for a bit of bread he's told to go to the workhouse. 'I pays my
+taxes,' says the heartless Jasper, 'and to the workhouse you must go.'
+'And who would have thought it,' goes the chorus, 'for we were
+schoolmytes, schoolmytes!'"
+
+A devastating epidemic of measles, much aggravated by the improper
+treatment given to patients by the natives, now broke out. Even
+Vailima did not escape its ravages, and Mrs. Strong writes of it on
+October 8:
+
+"Everybody is well of the measles by now and all are crawling out into
+the sunshine. There have been a hundred and fifty deaths on this
+island alone. Our Sosimo was taken ill down in the town. Tamaitai and
+I went down to see him, and, finding him in a wretched state, had him
+brought home in a native sling on a pole, the way they carry wounded
+soldiers. None of our people died, for they willingly accepted our
+rules for their care."
+
+After the war was over, it was found that the stress and excitement of
+it all had told on Mr. Stevenson's health, and in the early part of
+September he went to Honolulu for a change. The trip was a
+disappointment, for he was taken quite seriously ill there, and his
+wife had to take steamer and go after him, arriving in a state of
+great anxiety. Under her tender care he soon recovered and they
+returned to Vailima.
+
+In Samoa, Tusitala was not the only "teller of tales," for all sorts
+of strange stories--some amusing, some scurrilous and malicious--were
+invented about the family at Vailima and ran current in the gossip "on
+the beach." One of the most fantastic of these inventions was that Mr.
+Stevenson had been married before to a native woman, and that Mrs.
+Strong[57] was his half-caste daughter by this marriage. The one
+advantage about this peculiar story was the hilarious fun he was able
+to get out of it. He made up all kinds of wonderful romances about the
+supposititious first wife, who he said was a native of Morocco,
+"black, but a damned fine woman." When Mrs. Stevenson scolded him for
+not wearing his cloak in the rain he pretended to weep and said:
+"Moroccy never spoke to me like that!" One evening Mrs. Strong heard
+gay laughter in her mother's room, and, going in to see what it was
+about, found her mother sitting up in bed laughing, while Louis walked
+up and down the room gesticulating and telling her the "true story" of
+his affair with Moroccy.
+
+              [Footnote 57: Mrs. Strong will be remembered as the
+              little Isobel Osbourne of the early pages of this book.]
+
+So passed all too swiftly three full years--years crowded with work
+and play and many rare experiences--and less darkly shadowed by the
+spectre that had stalked beside them ever since their marriage. For
+this short space he knew what it was to live like a man, not like a
+"pallid weevil in a biscuit," and she, though her vigilance was never
+relaxed for a moment, breathed somewhat more freely. The days sped
+happily by, until Thanksgiving, November 29, 1894, which was
+celebrated with an elaborate dinner at Vailima. Mrs. Stevenson was
+anxious to have this a truly American feast, from the turkey to the
+last detail, but cranberries were not to be had, so she produced a
+satisfactory substitute from a native berry, and under her careful
+supervision her native servants succeeded in setting out a dinner that
+would have satisfied even an old Plymouth Rock Puritan. At the dinner,
+the last entertainment taken part in by Mr. Stevenson, in enumerating
+his reasons for thankfulness, he spoke of his wife, who had been all
+in all to him when the days were very dark, and rejoiced in their
+undiminished affection.
+
+A day or two afterwards she was seized with a presentiment of
+impending evil--a formless shadow that seemed to settle down upon her
+spirit, and that no argument could relieve. Her mother-in-law writes:
+"I must tell you a very strange thing that happened just before his
+death. For a day or two Fanny had been telling us that she knew--that
+she felt--something dreadful was going to happen to some one we cared
+for; as she put it, to one of our friends. On Monday she was very low
+and upset about it and dear Lou tried to cheer her. Strangely enough,
+both of them had agreed that it could not be to either of _them_ that
+the dreadful thing was to happen."
+
+On the afternoon of December 3, 1894, according to their custom he
+took his morning's work for her criticism. She quickly perceived that
+in this, which neither dreamed was to be the last work of his pen, his
+genius had risen to its highest level, and she poured out her praise
+in a way that was unusual with her. It was almost with her words of
+commendation still ringing in his ears that he passed to the great
+beyond. In a letter addressed to his friends shortly afterwards,
+Lloyd Osbourne gives us the details of these last moments:
+
+"At sunset he came downstairs, rallied his wife about the forebodings
+she could not shake off; talked of a lecturing tour to America that he
+was eager to make, 'as he was now so well,' and played a game of cards
+with her to drive away her melancholy. He said he was hungry; begged
+her assistance to help him make a salad for the evening meal; and to
+enhance the little feast he brought up a bottle of old Burgundy from
+the cellar. He was helping his wife on the veranda, and gaily talking,
+when suddenly he put both hands to his head and cried out: 'What's
+that?' Then he asked quickly: 'Do I look strange?' Even as he did so,
+he fell on his knees beside her." Just as he had leaned upon her for
+help, comfort, and advice for so many years of his life, so it was at
+her feet that he sank in death when the last swift summons came. He
+was helped into the great hall between his wife and his body servant,
+Sosimo, and at ten minutes past eight the same evening, Monday,
+December 3, 1894, he passed away.
+
+Her great task was finished, and she sat with folded hands in the
+quiet house from which the soul had fled; but, although the lightning
+suddenness of the blow made it almost a crushing one, the bitterness
+of her grief was greatly softened by her firm belief in a life beyond
+the grave and the certainty of a reunion with him there.
+
+She bore this supreme sorrow with the same silent fortitude with which
+she had always met trouble, but a subtle change came over her. While
+it could not be said that she looked exactly old, yet the youthfulness
+for which she had been so remarkable seemed suddenly to vanish, and
+her hair grew rapidly grey. A little child--Frank Norris's
+daughter--said, with an acuteness beyond her years: "Tamaitai smiles
+with her lips, but not with her eyes."
+
+Among the hundreds of letters of condolence which she received from
+all over the world, none, perhaps, came more directly from the heart
+than that written by her old friend, Henry James from which I have
+taken the following extracts:
+
+"My dear Fanny Stevenson:
+
+"What can I say to you that will not seem cruelly irrelevant or vain?
+We have been sitting in darkness for nearly a fortnight, but what is
+_our_ darkness to the extinction of your magnificent light? You will
+probably know in some degree what has happened to us--how the hideous
+news first came to us via Auckland, etc., and then how, in the
+newspapers, a doubt was raised about its authenticity--just enough to
+give one a flicker of hope; until your telegram to me via San
+Francisco--repeated also from other sources--converted my pessimistic
+convictions into the wretched knowledge. All this time my thoughts
+have hovered round you all, around _you_ in particular, with a
+tenderness of which I could have wished you might have, afar-off, the
+divination. You are such a visible picture of desolation that I need
+to remind myself that courage, and patience, and fortitude are also
+abundantly with you. The devotion that Louis inspired--and of which
+all the air about you must be full--must also be much to you. Yet as I
+write the word, indeed, I am almost ashamed of it--as if anything
+could be 'much' in the presence of such an abysmal void. To have lived
+in the light of that splendid life, that beautiful, bountiful
+being--only to see it, from one moment to the other, converted into a
+fable as strange and romantic as one of his own, a thing that has been
+and has ended, is an anguish into which no one can enter with you
+fully and of which no one can drain the cup for you. You are nearest
+to the pain, because you were nearest the joy and the pride. But if it
+is anything to you to know that no woman was ever more felt _with_ and
+that your personal grief is the intensely personal grief of
+innumerable hearts--know it well, my dear Fanny Stevenson, for during
+all these days there has been friendship for you in the very air. For
+myself, how shall I tell you how much poorer and shabbier the whole
+world seems, and how one of the closest and strongest reasons for
+going on, for trying and doing, for planning and dreaming of the
+future, has dropped in an instant out of life. I was haunted indeed
+with a sense that I should never again see him--but it was one of the
+best things in life that he was _there_, or that one had him--at any
+rate one heard him, and felt him and awaited him and counted him into
+everything one most loved and lived for. He lighted up one whole side
+of the globe, and was in himself a whole province of one's
+imagination. We are smaller fry and meaner people without him. I feel
+as if there were a certain indelicacy in saying it to you, save that I
+know that there is nothing narrow or selfish in your sense of
+loss--for himself, however, for his happy name and his great visible
+good fortune, it strikes one as another matter. I mean that I feel him
+to have been as happy in his death (struck down that way, as by the
+gods, in a clear, glorious hour) as he had been in his fame. And, with
+all the sad allowances in his rich full life, he had the best of
+it--the thick of the fray, the loudest of the music, the freshest and
+finest of himself. It isn't as if there had been no full achievement
+and no supreme thing. It was all intense, all gallant, all exquisite
+from the first, and the experience, the fruition, had something
+dramatically complete in them. He has gone in time not to be old,
+early enough to be so generously young and late enough to have drunk
+deep of the cup. There have been--I think--for men of letters few
+deaths more romantically right. Forgive me, I beg you, what may sound
+cold-blooded in such words--or as if I imagined there could be
+anything for you 'right' in the rupture of such an affection and the
+loss of such a presence. I have in my mind in that view only the
+rounded career and the consecrated work. When I think of your own
+situation I fall into a mere confusion of pity and wonder, with the
+sole sense of your being as brave a spirit as he was (all of whose
+bravery you shared) to hold on by. Of what solutions or decisions you
+see before you we shall hear in time; meanwhile please believe that I
+am most affectionately with you.... More than I can say, I hope your
+first prostration and bewilderment are over, and that you are feeling
+your way in feeling all sorts of encompassing arms--all sorts of
+outstretched hands of friendship. Don't, my dear Fanny Stevenson, be
+unconscious of _mine_, and believe me more than ever faithfully yours,
+
+                                        "Henry James."[58]
+
+
+              [Footnote 58: Quoted by courtesy of Henry James of New
+              York, nephew of the novelist.]
+
+With this and the many other letters came one written in pencil on a
+scrap of paper, unsigned:
+
+"Mrs. Stevenson.
+
+"Dear Madam:--All over the world people will be sorry for the death of
+Robert Louis Stevenson, but none will mourn him more than the blind
+white leper at Molokai."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE LONELY DAYS OF WIDOWHOOD.
+
+
+As the slow, empty days passed, the weight of her sorrow bore more and
+more heavily upon her and she grew steadily weaker. Finally, the
+doctors said the only thing was change, so, in April, 1895, she set
+sail with her family for San Francisco.
+
+On the way a stop was made in Honolulu, where Mrs. Stevenson was
+deeply distressed to find the provisional government in control and
+her old friend, Queen Liliuokalani, imprisoned. The deposed queen was
+kept in Iolani Palace under close guard, and ostensibly debarred from
+all visitors, but one must presume the guard not to have been so
+strict as it seemed, for Mrs. Stevenson was able to gain entrance and
+secure an audience with the royal prisoner through the not very
+dignified avenue of the kitchen-door of the palace. When she gave
+expression to her profound sympathy and indignation at the turn
+affairs had taken, Liliuokalani replied that she wished she had had
+Louis to advise her in her dark hours.
+
+A summer without special incident was spent in California--a grey
+summer for her, for her son and daughter tried in vain to interest her
+in things there. Her health improved, but she cared for nothing
+outside of Samoa and only yearned to go back and be near the grave on
+Mount Vaea, so in the autumn they again turned their faces toward the
+Pacific Isles.
+
+When they left San Francisco they had added another member to their
+party--a small donkey named Dicky, given to Mrs. Stevenson by one of
+the Golden Gate Park commissioners, which she intended to use in
+driving about the plantation to a little Studebaker cart she had had
+made especially for the purpose. A little stable was put up on deck
+for Dicky and a bale of hay provided for him, but it was not long
+before the little fellow had become such a pet with the carpenter and
+his mates that he was taken into the forecastle to live with them and
+share their mess, eating his meals out of a tin plate. The men taught
+him many amusing tricks, and it got to be quite the thing for the
+cabin passengers to make trips down to the forecastle to see him do
+them and to feed him chocolate creams. At Waikiki Beach, where they
+lived in a cottage attached to the Sans Souci Hotel during their stay
+of several months in Hawaii, Mrs. Stevenson often drove about the park
+in the little cart which was just fitted to Dicky. She was surprised
+at first to find that he would only make short trips and then come to
+a dead stop, from which it was impossible to budge him. Nothing would
+make him go on until his mistress got out and in again, and then he
+would pick up his little feet and trot on for another five minutes,
+when the same performance would have to be repeated. At last they
+realized that he had been trained to make five-cent trips at Golden
+Gate Park, and that nothing would ever break him of it. When they left
+Honolulu for Samoa they had difficulty in getting him on board the
+steamer, for although there was a belt and tackle to hoist him up,
+they could not drag him to it. One man--then two--then finally six men
+were hauling at him, while the ship waited, with all passengers on
+board and surveying the scene with intense amusement. The captain
+suddenly shouted through a megaphone: "Pull him the other way!" They
+did so and he immediately backed right up to the tackle and was hauled
+on deck amid the plaudits of the multitude. At Samoa he was a great
+pet; the native girls loved him and took him with them when they went
+to cut alfalfa for the cows. They made a pretty picture coming through
+the forest--the girls in leaves and flowers and Dicky a walking
+mountain of green, with only his long ears sticking out and his bright
+eyes gleaming through the foliage.
+
+Honolulu brought back to Mrs. Stevenson many poignant memories of
+other days, of which she wrote to her mother-in-law in these words:
+
+"As you suppose, this has been a sad season with me. People say that
+one gets used to things with time, but I do not believe it. Every day
+seems harder for me to bear. I say to myself many comforting things,
+but even though I believe them they do not comfort me. Everything here
+reminds me of Louis, and I do not think there is one moment that I am
+not thinking of him. People say: 'What a comfort his great name must
+be to you!' It is a pride to me, but not a comfort; I would rather
+have my Louis here with me, poor and unknown. And I do not like to
+have my friends offer me their sympathy--only you and one or two who
+loved him for what he was and not for what he did.... As to his
+Christianity his life and work show what he was. I _know_ that
+whether or not he always succeeded in living up to his intentions, he
+was a true follower of Christ, a real Christian, and not many have
+come as close as he; and I believe that not many have tried as
+honestly and earnestly. In this place everything reminds me of him,
+and I feel that I must see him. I cannot believe that all these months
+have passed since he left us. Perhaps the whole time will not seem so
+long until we meet again. It gives me a sharp shock when I hear him
+spoken of as dead. He is not dead to me--I cannot think it nor feel
+it. He is only waiting, I seem to feel, somewhere near at hand."
+
+After a winter spent in Hawaii, during which the marriage of her son
+took place, Mrs. Stevenson and her daughter sailed, in May, 1896, for
+Samoa. In these various trips between San Francisco and the islands
+she usually sailed on the _Mariposa_, and because she had so much
+baggage Captain Morse and the other officers took to calling the ship
+"Mrs. Stevenson's lighter."
+
+Their home-coming, being unexpected, was rather forlorn. They reached
+Vailima in the evening and went to bed rather drearily in the empty
+house, Mrs. Strong having determined to get breakfast as best she
+could the next morning and then send out word to their former Samoan
+helpers. After their long journey she slept late, and, springing from
+her bed somewhat guiltily, ran to the window. What was her
+astonishment to see smoke coming out of the cookhouse chimney, Talolo
+at the door, and Iopu, the yard man, coming up with a pail of
+water--all the business of the place, in fact, going on like
+clockwork, just as though they had never been absent for a day!
+Running into her mother's room, she found her sitting up in bed just
+finishing her breakfast, which had been brought up on a tray by
+Sosimo. The news had gone forth the night before that they had
+returned, and every man of the Vailima force was at his post at break
+of day.
+
+Once more the lonely widow took up the routine of her life, and,
+though its main incentive had gone, in time there came to her a sort
+of melancholy satisfaction in living among the scenes made dear by
+memories of the loved one. The scale on which the household had been
+conducted was now cut down very much, and she and her daughter,
+retaining but a few of the former great retinue of servants, led a
+calm and peaceful life among their tropic flowers. "Vailima is so
+lovely now," writes Mrs. Strong to the elder Mrs. Stevenson. "The
+trees are all so big, and the hibiscus hedge is over ten feet high and
+blazing with flowers. The lawn is like velvet and everywhere the grass
+is knee-high. If it is true that Louis can see us from another world
+he would be pleased with this day. This is the day when we decorate
+the grave, and all the afternoon people kept coming with flowers and
+strange Samoan ornaments. You should have seen Leuelu's sisters in
+silk bodices trimmed with gold braid, and green velvet _lavalavas_
+bordered with plush furniture fringe! And they looked very fine, too.
+Once arrived on the mountain top we stood looking at the magnificent
+view of the sea, and the coral reef, and the distant mountains. We
+banked the grave with flowers and the wreath of heather that you
+sent. Chief Justice Ide and his two beautiful daughters were there."
+
+Mother and daughter spent pleasant days in the garden--digging up kava
+roots, stringing them on twine and hanging them up in the hall to dry,
+and in many another homely task. In the evening they played chess,
+and, as neither knew the game, they were well matched, and spent
+engrossing evenings over it. Sometimes they would light a lantern and
+walk over to see Mr. Caruthers, the lawyer, who lived more than a mile
+away. When he saw the flicker of their lantern through the palm-trees
+he would wind up his little musical box and they could hear its tinkle
+of welcome. "We walked barefoot,"[59] says Mrs. Strong, "and I shall
+never forget those lovely walks at night and the feel of the soft,
+mossy grass under our feet. Mr. Caruthers was a clever, interesting
+man. His Samoan wife would sit by sewing, and his children would study
+their lessons in the other room while we sat on his veranda and had
+long talks. On the night of his farewell visit to us we stood on the
+veranda at Vailima and looked out on a glittering moonlight night, the
+lawn sloping before us, the great shadowy trees beyond, and in the
+distance the blue line of the sea--'nothing between us and the North
+Pole,' we used to say. Mr. Caruthers said, 'How can you leave this for
+any other country? This is the "cleaner, greener land,"' and he quoted
+Kipling's verses."
+
+              [Footnote 59: It is the custom in Samoa to go barefoot
+              in the wet season, in order to avoid the unpleasantness
+              of soggy wet shoes.]
+
+The two women lived in perfect security in their lonely forest home,
+never having the slightest fear of the natives who passed that way in
+their comings and goings. Once in the middle of the night Mrs. Strong
+was waked up by the sound of voices on the veranda, and, running down,
+found her mother surrounded by twenty Samoans, all with baskets. Mrs.
+Stevenson, hearing the sound of talking, had come down, to find these
+men coming heavily laden from the direction of the Vailima taro, yam,
+cocoanut, and banana plantation. "I politely asked them," says Mrs.
+Strong, "to show my mother the contents of their baskets. They agreed
+readily enough, and one after another they opened their baskets at her
+feet, disclosing nothing but edible wild roots, until we began to feel
+abashed and asked them to desist. Nothing would do, however, but that
+each of the twenty should empty out his basket, with much laughing and
+joking, and thereby prove his innocence of having plundered the
+plantation. As a peace offering, my mother directed me to give them
+some twists of tobacco and tins of salmon and biscuit. Then they
+explained that, owing to the breadfruit having been blown off the
+trees while still green, by a hurricane, there had been a famine in
+their village. Their Samoan pride made them ashamed for the other
+villages to know that they were reduced to eating wild roots, and so
+they had sneaked up in the night to the bush back of our plantation
+and filled their baskets with the roots. We apologized again and went
+back to bed. The twenty Samoans sat on our veranda for hours singing,
+but, although our servants were gone for the night and we two white
+women were entirely alone in the house, we felt no fear. Where else in
+the world could this have happened?"
+
+Secluded as Vailima was, the family could not even here escape the
+curiosity of tourists, for on "steamer days" there was always a
+procession of them going up the hill from Apia to see the home of
+Stevenson. One day its mistress was directing some workmen on the roof
+of the carriage house when a party of tourists came up and asked if
+that was Vailima and where was Mrs. Stevenson. She replied, "No spik
+English," and they went on to the house, sat on the veranda and had
+tea, never dreaming that the odd little person in the blue gown,
+directing the roofing of the carriage house, was Mrs. Stevenson
+herself.
+
+The variety of her experiences and the wide scope of her abilities may
+be shown better than in any other way, perhaps, by quotations from a
+small notebook which she had carried with her from one end of the
+world to the other. These entries show that she did not simply "do the
+best she could," but that she made a conscientious study of how to
+take care of her invalid husband, what to do in emergencies, how to
+feed him when they were on ships or desert islands, etc. In every
+place that they went to she kept her eyes open and learned new
+receipts for cooking, sickness, and all the other requirements of
+life. The entries were jotted down so hastily and often under such
+peculiar circumstances that in many cases they are written upside
+down, so that you have to keep turning the book about to follow it. I
+quote here a few of the most characteristic entries:
+
+The telephone number of a chronometer maker (Butler, Clay 416).
+
+Mr. Antone knows all about Samoan vegetation.
+
+Our marriage day was the 19th of May. [Neither she nor Mr. Stevenson
+could ever remember the date of any event, not even that of their
+marriage, so she evidently made sure of it by putting it in the
+notebook.]
+
+Name of my adopted father [in the South Seas] is Paaena. Name of Pa's
+village is Atuona.
+
+Addresses of friends in San Francisco, London, Scotland, Nebraska,
+Philadelphia, France, Italy, New York, Hawaii.
+
+Receipt for Spanish fish.
+
+Lotion for the hands.
+
+Then follow a number of prescriptions stamped and evidently written
+out by the chemist. They are for a "tickling cough," "night sweats,"
+"for light blood spitting," "for violent hemorrhages," "how to inject
+ergotine tonic for weakness after spitting blood," and "hypodermic
+injections for violent hemorrhages." Among other doctors'
+prescriptions pasted in the book there is one for cankered ear in
+dogs. It was this prescription that she used on a young English
+officer of the _Curacoa_ who was visiting Vailima, and who was
+suffering terribly from some ear trouble. Mrs. Stevenson said to him,
+"I can cure you if you will let me treat you with my dog medicine." He
+agreed, and, as a result, was well enough to attend a theatre that
+night, and before long was entirely recovered.
+
+One interesting prescription, written and signed in a hand that looks
+very French, has the heading in Mrs. Stevenson's hand, "Elixir of
+Life."
+
+How to make roof paint.
+
+How to make house paint.
+
+Dr. Funk's cure for elephantiasis. [She cured several of her Samoan
+servants of this dread disease with this simple remedy.]
+
+Dr. Russel's cure for anemia.
+
+Receipts for ginger beer, lemon pudding, icing, and candy, oranges in
+syrup, macaroni and corn, savory, pineapple cake, taro and fish rolled
+into balls and fried, Abdul Rassak's mutton curry, home mincemeat,
+rice yeast and bannocks for cooking aboard ship, Butaritari potato
+cake and pudding, Ah Fu's pig's head, Ah Fu's yeast, pork cake,
+fritters, mulled wine, and green corn cakes.
+
+A memorandum of a lock to be turned by figures.
+
+Medicine for _tona_--boils with which Samoan children are often
+afflicted.
+
+More cooking receipts--Magzar fowl, Tautira duff, raw-fish salad from
+a Tahiti receipt, strawberry shortcake, spontaneous yeast, banana
+_popoi_, Pennsylvania scrapple, miti sauce to eat with pig roasted
+underground, baked breadfruit, breadfruit pudding, onion soup, bisque
+of lobster, bouillabaise, banana beer, Russian _risotto_, Scotch
+woodcock, Russian pancake, Spanish tortillas, and blackberry cordial.
+
+Bamboo fence.
+
+To graft mangoes.
+
+Fill wet boots with oats.
+
+How to mend a hole in a boat (Captain Otis).
+
+Abdul Rassak's receipt for taking the poison out of cucumbers.
+
+Creosote in a cupboard to keep out flies and preserve meat.
+
+Furniture polish.
+
+To make a Hawaiian oven.
+
+To make Tahitian flowers and ornaments.
+
+To clean Benares ware.
+
+To destroy red ants.
+
+To preserve meats.
+
+How to keep butter cool in hot weather.
+
+To knit a baby's hood.
+
+Crochet cover for a pincushion [with a little picture showing it when
+finished].
+
+Surely, it would not be easy to duplicate this cosmopolitan list in
+any other woman's notebook.
+
+Among the villages of the island there was one, Vaiee, with which the
+Stevensons had a special friendship, dating back to the first year of
+their arrival in Samoa. At that time the villagers were building a
+church and had saved up sixty dollars with which to buy corrugated
+iron for the roof. One day a deputation of elders, headed by the
+chief, called on Mr. Stevenson to ask if he would act as their agent
+in buying the iron. Of course, he was interested at once and laid out
+the money to such good advantage that they got more corrugated iron
+than sixty dollars had ever bought before. After that they came again
+with small sums, which were kept for them in the Vailima safe, and
+whenever they wanted to buy anything for the village he helped them to
+get good value for their money. Their gratitude sometimes took
+embarrassing forms, as on one occasion when they brought a present of
+a large white bull with a wreath around its neck. At other times, they
+brought offerings of turtles, rolls of tapa, fish, and pigs; and on
+the night of Mr. Stevenson's death several of the chiefs crossed the
+island on foot and were in time to help the men who were cutting the
+road to Mount Vaea.
+
+Remembering all this, when the village of Vaiee invited Mrs. Stevenson
+and her daughter to make them a visit they naturally wanted to go.
+This sort of visiting trip--usually lasting three days, one to arrive,
+one to visit, and one to go--is called a _malaga_ (accented on second
+syllable--malan'ga), and is a very popular institution among the
+natives. The visiting party generally travels in state, taking with it
+a boat, food, and servants. The story of the _malaga_ to the village
+of Vaiee follows in Mrs. Strong's own words:
+
+"There was only a footpath over the mountain, and as we had to cross
+many torrents on no better bridge than a felled cocoanut tree, we
+could not even go on horseback. My mother was not able to make the
+trip on foot, and I conceived the brilliant idea of slinging a chair
+with ropes to two poles and having our Samoan men carry her in it. So
+all was arranged, and we made an early morning start. I walked
+barefoot and my mother sat in her 'sedan chair' like an island
+princess, with her little bare feet swinging with the swaying of the
+chair. We had four men for relays in carrying the chair, while others
+carried our presents--tins of biscuits, barrels of salt beef, rolls of
+calico, and numerous trinkets--besides our wardrobe, which contained a
+'silika' (silk) dress for each of us in which to do honor to our
+hosts.
+
+"As we swung into the Ala Loto Alofa[60]--an odd procession, for our
+boys had decorated us with wreaths and garlands--we passed a
+carriage-load of surprised 'steamer-day' tourists who had come up the
+mountainside to look at Vailima. As our little party wound into the
+forest the road grew gradually steeper, and we walked under the dense
+shade of huge trees, hung with lianas, orchids, and other parasitic
+plants. The jungle was so thick that now and then the men had to cut
+away branches with their cane knives to make a passage for us. This
+sounds like hard work, but the wild banana plants, giant ferns, lush
+grass, and fat leaves fell before one slash of the knife. It was damp
+and a little breathless in the depths of the forest, but we rested
+often on the way. The worst place was about a mile of swamp land that
+was full of leeches. They fell on us from the overhanging branches of
+the trees, and as our feet sank into the mud they stuck to our ankles.
+However, the men were constantly on the lookout for them, and when
+they saw one would sprinkle salt on it and it would immediately fall
+off. We had invited an English couple, a Captain F. and his wife, who
+were staying at the hotel, to go with us. The lady wore shoes, and as
+her feet grew more and more soppy from walking in the damp grass and
+through the swamps she suffered a good deal. I was much better off
+walking barefoot.
+
+              [Footnote 60: This was the "Road of the Loving Hearts,"
+              built by the Mataafa chiefs in return for Tusitala's
+              kindness to them when they were in prison.]
+
+"By nightfall we reached the summit of the mountain, where there was a
+house, and there we had an example of Samoan hospitality. The house
+was not large enough to hold us and its occupants, too, so they had
+built a big oven,[61] stuffed it with food, laid out fine mats for
+our beds, and then quietly decamped. We never even saw our hosts to
+thank them. It was a glorious night on the summit, for the full moon
+made the scene as bright as daylight, and in the distance we could see
+the ocean all around us. It made us feel very small and a little
+frightened to see what a tiny island it was we had been living on with
+such a feeling of security. Before us a beautiful waterfall fell away
+into the thickets of greenery.
+
+              [Footnote 61: A Samoan oven is made by digging a hole,
+              lining it with hot stones, putting on top of them pigs,
+              fish, chickens, taro, yams, etc., all wrapped in banana
+              leaves, then piling hot stones on them and covering the
+              whole with earth. In about four hours everything is
+              cooked.]
+
+"On the way up we crossed many streams, and I held my breath to see
+the two men carrying my mother's chair run lightly across the
+teetering log bridges, but she sat there smiling, not a bit afraid and
+enjoying every minute of it. Our English friends and I were carried
+over by the natives. I simply shut my eyes, clutched the thick hair of
+my carrier and held my breath till we were on the other side.
+
+"Making ourselves at home in the house so kindly left to our use, we
+set the boys to open the oven and remove its contents, and then we sat
+down and made a grand feast--roast pig, chicken, taro, yams, and
+breadfruit--all fresh and hot. Our boys had brought salt, limes, and
+bread, and on the way up we gathered fresh cocoanuts to drink with our
+dinner. Then we lay down on the soft mats and fell sound asleep in our
+borrowed house on the top of our little world.
+
+"In the morning, we began the descent of the other side, which was
+much easier and quicker. When we were within a mile of the village we
+were shown a pool; then the men retired and we women took a swim,
+after which we put on our 'silika' dresses and started on. Children
+had been stationed along the path to look out for us, and, though we
+could see no one, we heard shouts of '_Ua maliu mai tamaitai_' (the
+ladies are coming), going from one to another. At the entrance to the
+village my mother got out of her chair and we walked on. The _manaia_,
+or beauty man of the village, accompanied by two magnificent looking
+aides, came forward to meet us. They were oiled and polished till they
+shone like bronze, and on their heads they wore the great ceremonial
+headdresses. Their only garments were short kilts of _tapa_, which
+made a fine display of their lace-like tattooing. On their right arms
+they wore twists of green with boars' tusks, while their ankles were
+encircled with green wreaths and their necks with the whale-tooth
+necklaces that denote rank. It seemed strange to be received by young
+men, for in all our other trips either Louis or Lloyd was the guest of
+honor--making it a man's party--and to them the village maid, or
+_taupo_, with her girl attendants, acted as hostess. As ours was a
+woman's party, we were received by young men. The _manaia_ gave his
+hand to my mother, the other two escorted me and the English lady,
+and, with the poor husband trailing along behind, we walked with
+stately pomp across the _malae_[62] to the guest house. There was not
+a soul in sight, and, though the children must have been bursting with
+interest and curiosity, not one was to be seen. The guest house stood
+in the centre of the little village, which lay on the seashore,
+overlooking a small bay. Behind it the forest climbed the slopes of
+steep mountains, down which several streams and waterfalls rushed
+into the sea, and in front the smooth wide beach stretched its white
+length. On each side were the plantations of bananas, cocoanuts, and
+other tropic fruits, while scattered here and there among the brown
+thatched houses the breadfruit trees spread out their huge branches of
+shining green.
+
+              [Footnote 62: The _malae_ is the green lawn around which
+              all Samoan villages are built.]
+
+"The guest house had been decorated with leaves, ferns, and flowers.
+As we ducked under the eaves, our eyes a little dazzled by the
+brightness of the sunlight, we were received by the _taupo_ and her
+maidens, who were spreading fine mats for us to sit on. Oh the sweet,
+cool, clean freshness of a native house! It would not be fair to call
+it a hut, for that suggests squalor, or makeshift, whereas these
+houses are works of art. The roof rises inside like a great dome, the
+inner thatch being intricately woven in patterns, while the floor is
+made of clean pebbles, neatly laid and covered with fine mats. In the
+centre of the house the main pole stands like a tall mast, with
+several cross-bars where the furniture--rolls of mats and _tapa_,
+_kava_ bowls and cups--is kept. There is nothing else in the room,
+except, perhaps, one or two camphor-wood chests. The centre pole in
+the house at Vaiee was wound round and about with ropes of frangipani
+flowers, while bright red hibiscus bells decorated the cross bars, and
+ferns in long wreaths were looped round the edge of the room. The
+eaves come down pretty low, about four feet from the ground, so that
+one has to stoop to enter.
+
+"After receiving us with great cordiality, making us comfortable with
+fans, etc., the girls joined us as we sat stiffly in a semi-circle,
+waiting for the chief--for we knew our Samoan manners. Presently we
+saw him coming, dressed very plainly in a kilt of _tapa_ and carrying
+the high chief fly flapper.[63] He was accompanied by his talking man,
+with his tall staff of office, and several of the lesser house
+chiefs--all looking very important and impressive. After shaking hands
+with us (which is not a Samoan custom and always spoils the dignity of
+a fine entrance), they sat in a semi-circle facing us. Then the
+talking man drew a long breath and started in. Samoan talking men, or
+_tulafale_, are noted for their eloquence, but it is the wearisome
+part of a _malaga_ to have to listen to hours of high-flown discourse.
+At last, however, with a final burst of oratory, our relief came, and
+then the _taupo_ made and served the _kava_. In later years the
+Samoans learned to grate the root for brewing, but on that occasion it
+was prepared in the good old-fashioned island way. The _taupo_ and her
+girls first washed their mouths out several times with fresh water and
+then chewed the roots--nibbled them, rather, very daintily--until
+there was enough for a brew. This was put in the middle of a huge
+wooden bowl (shallow and with eight short legs, all carved out of one
+piece of wood), and water was poured over it. The _taupo_,[64] very
+self-conscious, sitting cross-legged before the bowl, dressed to the
+nines in flowers and ferns, with a piece of red hibiscus flower stuck
+on one cheek like a beauty patch, her short hair oiled and sprinkled
+with grated sandalwood, was as pretty as a picture. The cup was
+presented first to the chief,[65] who made a little speech of
+welcome--'May your visit be a happy one'--then drank off the contents
+and spun the cup along the floor. It was now presented to my mother,
+who took a sip only, and afterwards to me. I poured a libation and
+said in Samoan 'Blessed be our high chief meeting.' Then came our
+English friends and Laulii,[66] who came with us to officiate as
+'talking man' for our party. She made a charming little speech that
+made everybody laugh, and then, the ceremonies being over, we all
+gathered together for a real talk. We brought news from Apia--we asked
+news of Vaiee. When I got into deep water with my Samoan, Laulii would
+help me out, and we would both translate what was said to my mother
+and the others. The _manaia_ and his young men, who had taken a back
+seat while their elders received us, came over to join in the talk and
+tell us of the preparations for our visit.
+
+              [Footnote 63: The fly flapper is a carved stick with a
+              horse-hair tassel on the end.]
+
+              [Footnote 64: The _taupo_ is the maid of the village.
+              She is chosen for her beauty and is the official hostess
+              to receive all guests.]
+
+              [Footnote 65: Nowadays the Samoans, having learned
+              European ways, present the cup first to the ladies, but
+              then it was _faa-Samoa_, that is, in Samoan fashion.]
+
+              [Footnote 66: Laulii, the Samoan wife of Mr. Willis, was
+              a close friend of Mrs. Stevenson while she lived in the
+              islands, and after she left there came to California to
+              make her a visit at the ranch near Gilroy.]
+
+"Immediately after the ceremonies of our reception we presented our
+gifts to the chief. Laulii was the spokesman for us, and the village
+talking man stood in the door of the guest house and announced in a
+loud voice the list of our presents, while from the inside of the
+surrounding houses came the sound of clapping hands. This ceremony of
+presenting gifts was done humorously, Laulii making many jokes and
+local hits which were received with polite laughter.
+
+"We were three days in Vaiee, during which we were entertained by
+dances of the village girls, war and knife dances by the _manaia_ and
+his young men, and, besides being furnished with good food all the
+time, we were honored with one grand feast, which was attended by the
+whole village. On the morning of the second day we were sitting in the
+guest house, which, by the simple expedient of hanging up a sheet of
+tapa, had been turned into two bedrooms for the night, when some
+native girls called my attention and pointed out to sea. A number of
+canoes were to be seen coming round the point at the mouth of the
+harbor, and as they came nearer we could hear the oarsmen singing and
+could distinguish our names. They were bringing--so they sang--the
+fish to Tamaitai Aolele--they had been out all night gathering turtles
+for Tamaitai Teuila.
+
+"Later in the day there was a grand _talolo_, or ceremony of gift
+giving. My mother, as guest of honor, sat just inside the guest house,
+on a pile of mats, with the rest of us in a semi-circle around her,
+all facing the sea. There was a hum and buzz of excitement in the
+village, and we could catch glimpses of fine headdresses and old women
+scurrying about with mats and flowers. Soon the procession appeared,
+led by the _manaia_ in full costume, dancing and twirling his head
+knife, and accompanied by several young men. After them came others
+bearing gifts hung from poles. Laulii, as our 'talking man,' received
+them, and our servants, in a little group, made up a fine chorus. The
+_manaia_ and his young men came up, danced in front of us, and then,
+taking the poles from their attendants, laid three large turtles
+before us, calling out that they were a humble offering from the men
+of Vaiee to the great and glorious and beautiful lady of Vailima.
+Laulii received them, to my surprise, with jeering remarks that threw
+everybody into fits of laughter, evidently quite the correct thing to
+do. The next people brought a huge fish, nets of crabs, strings of
+brightly coloured fish, and sharks' fins.
+
+"Seeing that one of the young men had a rag tied round his thumb, I
+asked him if he had hurt his hand. He replied that when he dived for
+the turtle it caught him by the thumb, and if his friends hadn't gone
+to his aid he might have drowned. He told it as though it would have
+been a great joke on him. We were all pretty well acquainted by this
+time, and everybody threw in remarks. Then our boys removed the
+presents, chose what we would take with us--only a small portion--and
+the rest was returned to the village for the feast. On state occasions
+the men are the cooks, and there is one dish that is only to be
+prepared by the _manaia_--who has to array himself in full war paint
+to serve it--and a grand dish it is, composed of breadfruit dumplings
+stewed in cocoanut cream in a wooden bowl by means of hot stones
+dropped in. The dumplings are served in a twist of banana leaf, and
+each has a stick thrust in it to eat it by. The grand feast was held
+about four o'clock, in a long arbor built for the occasion of upright
+sticks covered with cocoanut-palm leaves. Fresh green banana leaves
+served as a table-cloth, and on it was spread every dainty known to
+Samoa--pigs baked underground, turtle, whole fish, chickens, _taro_,
+yams, roasted green bananas, broiled fresh-water prawns, crabs, a fat
+worm that we pretended to eat but didn't, heart of cocoanut-tree salad
+with dressing made of cream from the nuts, limes and sea-water, and
+all kinds of fruit. We were all so hungry that, if it hadn't been for
+Laulii's warning, we might have fallen to before the chief said grace,
+which would have been a shocking breach of good manners. The first
+ceremonious stiffness having worn off by this time, the meal was
+enlivened by much friendly gaiety.
+
+"That evening was given over to the dances, which lasted till nearly
+midnight. The _manaia_ and the _taupo_ had each written songs and
+composed music for the dances in our honor, and copies of them,
+written out neatly by the schoolmaster, were presented to us. Our
+friend, the English captain, made a great hit with the young men by
+exhibiting feats of strength, which they all copied, being highly
+delighted when they beat the Englishman, but cheering generously when
+he beat them. Then we played casino, with sticks of tobacco on our
+side and head knives, fans, etc., on theirs, for stakes. I perceived
+that the _manaia_ purposely played badly in order to let me win his
+head knife, on which he had carved my name.
+
+"We had intended returning over the mountain as we came, but the chief
+suggested that we go back by sailboat, as they had a very good one,
+and we could stop at some village every night on the way home. When we
+saw the boat we found it to be a primitive affair, with a bent tree
+for a mast and the sails tied with rotten ropes, but, knowing the
+natives to be the best boatmen in the world, we decided to take our
+chances and rely on their skill to pilot us safely home. We sent a
+number of our men back over the mountain to carry our share of the
+presents, but, as we were going to stop at villages on the way we took
+with us our part of the feast--several turtles, and, in lieu of calico
+or European things, which were not to be had at this retired place,
+some _tapa_--for gifts. Before we left I made a parcel of
+sandwiches--of tinned tongue and stale bread--in case we got hungry,
+for it is often a 'long time between feasts.'
+
+"Everybody wanted to go with us, and, though the chief did his best to
+hold them back, the little boat was so crowded that we were nearly
+level with the water. As we went around by the windward side of the
+island, it was a rough trip.
+
+"I noticed that the boatmen were narrowly watching my mother as she
+paddled in the water with her hand over the side of the boat, but did
+not understand the reason until afterwards, when we found out that, a
+little while before, a man had had his hand bitten off by a shark, and
+another who was sitting on the edge of a canoe had had a large piece
+of his thigh bitten out. The natives, being too polite to tell her to
+stop dabbling in the water, preferred to keep close watch themselves
+and be ready to strike with their oars if a shark should rise.
+
+"At the first village where we stopped for the night we had a ticklish
+job getting through the reef, for there was but one small opening, and
+if we missed it we would be smashed to pieces. The wind was blowing
+towards the shore, and the great breakers crashing against the reef
+sent white spray high into the air. The boatmen were all pulling ropes
+and shouting orders at once. It seemed as though we were driving
+straight into the reef, and I looked on terror-stricken, but my mother
+chose that moment to say cheerfully, 'I think I'll have a sandwich!'
+
+"The last day of our trip we ran inside the reef, where it was smooth
+sailing. Surely there is no mode of travelling on earth so enchanting
+as this; we went gliding over the blue water, with a sea-garden of
+coral, marine mosses, and brilliantly coloured fish below us, the
+white sails bellying before the breeze, the natives singing, the shore
+with its palms and little villages half hidden in green foliage
+slipping by, the mountains standing high against the sky, while on the
+other side of the barrier reef the surf pounded in impotent fury,
+throwing up a hedge of white, foaming spray. We seemed to be part of a
+living poem.
+
+"When at length our delightful expedition came to an end and we landed
+at Apia, we found ourselves confronted by a rather ridiculous dilemma.
+My mother had not worn any shoes going over to Vaiee, which was quite
+in keeping with native customs and more comfortable for walking on the
+soft moss and lush grass in the damp, dripping woods, but it was
+another thing to land in Apia at the hotel barefoot. She slipped in as
+unobtrusively as possible and no one saw her. We had supper in our
+rooms--or, rather, on the veranda connected with them. The next
+morning I ran out to buy her some shoes--any kind--but there were
+none small enough. At last our little carriage was sent down from
+Vailima and came around to the side entrance. My mother got in without
+being seen and took the reins, but the horse, having been overfed with
+oats by Eliga in his desire to treat it kindly, began to leap and
+plunge, and dashed around to the front, where a number of the hotel
+guests were gathered. I heard them say, 'That is Mrs. Stevenson,' and
+all ran to look. As the horse continued to plunge about they all
+called out 'Jump, Mrs. Stevenson!' but she held on. I knew why she
+didn't jump--it was because of her bare feet. She was otherwise very
+neatly dressed in black, with hat and veil and gloves. Finally one
+man, bolder than the rest, reached in and lifted her out, and her
+little bare feet were seen waving in the air!"
+
+One day, not long after this--July 17, 1896, to be exact--Mrs.
+Stevenson and her daughter were driving along the beach at Apia, when
+they were surprised to see a strange craft in the bay--a curious
+little sloop that they knew had not been seen nor heard of before in
+those waters. On inquiry they found it was the famous _Spray_, in
+which Captain Joshua Slocum, of Boston, sailed alone around the world.
+They called on the adventurous skipper at once and invited him to
+visit Vailima, which he did on the following day. Mrs. Stevenson was
+delighted with the unconventional ways and conversation of the
+captain, and, indeed, found in him much that was kindred to her own
+spirit. When he wished to buy some giant bamboo from her plantation
+for a mast for his little vessel, she, of course, made him a present
+of it, and had it cut and taken down by the natives. He told her of
+his visit to the missionary bark, the _Star of Hope_, which was then
+in port at Apia. He was shown into their chart room and looked at
+their instruments, upon which he remarked, "I am a better Christian
+than you are, for you have two chronometers and a sextant, while I
+have only my belief in God and an old clock." When asked why he didn't
+take a sheep or some chickens along with him to eat as a relief from
+his constant diet of canned goods, he said, "You can't kill a
+fellow-passenger. Out in the great stillness you get fond even of a
+chicken, and as for pigs, they are the most lovable and intelligent of
+animals."
+
+Joshua Slocum was a magnificent specimen of strength and health, and
+his manly figure was well set off by the clothing--or, rather, the
+lack of it--used in the tropics. When Mrs. Stevenson met him
+afterwards in New York she was much struck by the change caused in his
+appearance by the wearing of a conventional black suit, and regretted
+that he had to hide his real beauty--his lithe, strong figure--in ugly
+broadcloth. She had a great and sincere admiration for him, as she
+always had for physical courage in any form. In her preface to _The
+Wrong Box_ she says, "Some time after Louis's death Captain Joshua
+Slocum, on his way round the world alone in the little sloop _Spray_,
+came to the house at Vailima. Here, I thought, was a mariner after my
+husband's own heart. Who had a better right to the directories
+[studied by Stevenson at Saranac when planning for the South Sea
+cruise] than this man who was about to sail those very seas with no
+other guide than the stars and a small broken clock that served in
+place of a chronometer? Captain Slocum received the volumes with
+reverence, and used them, as he afterwards told me, to his great
+advantage."
+
+From his own book, _Sailing Alone Around the World_, I have taken the
+following account of his meeting with Mrs. Stevenson:
+
+"The next morning after my arrival, bright and early, Mrs. Robert
+Louis Stevenson came to the _Spray_ and invited me to visit Vailima
+the following day. I was of course thrilled when I found myself, after
+so many days of adventure, face to face with this bright woman, so
+lately the companion of the author whose books had delighted me on the
+voyage. The kindly eyes, that looked me through and through, sparkled
+when we compared notes of adventure. I marvelled at some of her
+experiences and escapes. She told me that along with her husband she
+had voyaged in all manner of rickety craft among the islands of the
+Pacific, reflectively adding, 'Our tastes were similar.' Following the
+subject of voyages she gave me the four beautiful volumes of sailing
+directories for the Mediterranean, writing on the fly-leaf of the
+first, 'To Captain Slocum. These volumes have been read and re-read
+many times by my husband, and I am very sure that he would be pleased
+that they should be passed on to the sort of sea-faring man that he
+liked above all others. Fanny V. de G. Stevenson.' Mrs. Stevenson also
+gave me a great directory of the Indian Ocean. It was not without a
+feeling of reverential awe that I received the books so nearly
+directly from the hand of Tusitala, 'who sleeps in the forest.'
+Aolele, the _Spray_ will cherish your gift!
+
+"On another day the family from Vailima went to visit the _Spray_. The
+sloop being in the stream, we boarded her from the beach abreast, in
+the little razeed Gloucester dory, which had been painted a smart
+green. Our combined weight loaded it gunwale to the water, and I was
+obliged to steer with great care to avoid swamping. The adventure
+pleased Mrs. Stevenson greatly, and as we paddled along she sang 'They
+went to sea in a pea-green boat.' I could understand her saying of her
+husband and herself 'Our tastes were similar.'
+
+"Calling to say good-bye to my friends at Vailima, I met Mrs.
+Stevenson, in her Panama hat, and went over the estate with her. Men
+were at work clearing the land, and to one of them she gave an order
+to cut a couple of bamboo trees for the _Spray_ from a clump she had
+planted four years before, and which had grown to a height of sixty
+feet. I used them for spare spars, and the butt of one served on the
+homeward voyage for a jib-boom.
+
+"After a farewell _ava_ ceremony in Samoan fashion at Vailima, the
+_Spray_ stood out of the harbor August 20, 1896, and continued on her
+course. A sense of loneliness seized upon me as the islands faded
+astern, and as a remedy for it I crowded on sail for lovely Australia,
+which was not a strange land to me; but for long days in my dreams
+Vailima stood before the prow."
+
+It is sad to know that this brave sailor tempted fate once too often,
+for he sailed out of New York harbor some years ago and was never
+heard of again.
+
+Even though their beloved Tusitala was with them no more, the Samoans
+did not forget his widow, and they often went to Vailima in bodies to
+do her honour. In a letter to her mother-in-law she describes one of
+these visiting parties:
+
+"A couple of months ago the Tongan village sent to ask if they might
+come and dance for us on Christmas. They were the men that considered
+they belonged particularly to Louis; do you remember my telling you
+how their village was put into mourning at the time of his death--in
+Tongan fashion--for three days? And then how they marched up here,
+every man in a new black lavalava, some forty strong, to decorate the
+grave? I did not feel much like gaieties, but could not refuse the
+Tongans. I asked Chief Justice Ide, his daughter, and a travelling
+salesman named Campbell to see the dancing. Six or eight pretty girls
+were turned up by our 'poor old family' to make the _kava_, and,
+though our own boys had been given a holiday, we had attendants in
+scores. I had had a turkey roasted and corned beef boiled, so that
+with such things laid out on the sideboard I could give my guests a
+sort of picnic meal instead of dinner. The Tongans marched up--about
+fifty of them--led by their _taupo_ dressed in a fine mat and dancing
+as she came. She was followed by the girls of the village carrying the
+usual presents on poles, and then came the fighting men with blackened
+faces and wearing the dress used in the war dances. They were all tall
+powerful young men, and looked very fierce and magnificent. They
+manoeuvred while on the lawn and then we had the usual business of
+_kava_ and orations. The dancing, for which they used an ancient war
+drum, took place in the hall, where the Chief Justice and I sat, as
+you might say, on thrones in front of the table, with the other
+spectators sitting on the floor around us. The dancing was wild and
+really splendid. When they left, just as dusk was falling, we
+presented them with a full-grown pig and two boxes of biscuit. Our
+boys thought Louis's grandfather[67] should be shown some honor for
+the occasion, so they decorated his bust with a wreath cocked over one
+eye and a big red flower over one ear. I never saw anything more
+incongruous; it was enough to make him turn over in his grave."
+
+              [Footnote 67: Robert Stevenson, lighthouse engineer.]
+
+Mrs. Stevenson's health improved after her return to Samoa, and she
+and her daughter spent quiet, pleasant months together working in the
+garden, walking in the forest, playing chess, reading, and sewing, and
+were both looking forward to the return of Mr. Osbourne when the news
+arrived of the sudden death in Edinburgh of Mrs. Thomas Stevenson. It
+was a sad shock to her daughter-in-law, who had grown to love Louis's
+mother dearly, and all the more distressing as she was summoned to go
+at once to Scotland to help settle the estate. It now became clear
+that the island home, made dear by a thousand tender associations,
+would have to be abandoned. Had Mrs. Stevenson been able to follow out
+her own desires at that time, she would have preferred to spend the
+remainder of her days there, but her son and daughter were drawn away
+perforce by the claims of their own families--the education of their
+children, etc.--and it was impossible for her to live there alone. So,
+with a tearing of heart-strings more easily imagined than described,
+she began to make preparations to leave the place for ever.
+
+The first thing was to choose from their belongings suitable gifts for
+the dear friends that were to be left behind. Two young chiefs, one
+their host at the _malaga_ to Vaiee, were taken to the tool room and
+told to choose what they wanted. One took an immense steel gouge which
+he said would be grand for making canoes. Another young chief fell
+heir to the tennis outfit (he had learned the game from Lloyd
+Osbourne), and went proudly off to set it up in his village. To old
+Seumanutafa, high chief of Apia, Mrs. Stevenson gave a four-poster
+bedstead, with mattress and pillows complete, in which one may imagine
+that he slept more imposingly but less restfully than on his own
+native mats. This chief was the man who saved so many lives at the
+time of the great hurricane, when the men-of-war were lost, that the
+United States Government sent him, in appreciation, a fine whale boat
+and a gold watch with an inscription in the case. As he had no pockets
+in his native costume, he wore a leather belt with a pouch in it for
+the watch, usually wearing it next to his bare brown body.
+
+To the friend and neighbour, Mr. Caruthers, were given some framed
+oil-paintings, and he returned the compliment by offering to take
+Jack, Mrs. Stevenson's pony, and give him the best of care as long as
+he lived, promising that no one should ever ride him. To a Danish
+baker named Hellesoe, who had always sent up a huge cake with his
+compliments on Mr. Stevenson's birthday, was given a wonderful
+armchair made entirely of beadwork put on by hand and trimmed with
+fringe and coloured flowers. Having seen the little sitting-room over
+the bakeshop, they were sure the chair would fit in beautifully there.
+
+It was a busy time when they packed up to leave Samoa. They had no
+real help, for none of the Samoans knew how to pack, though they
+helped in making boxes and lifting and carrying. The two women sorted,
+wrapped, and packed all the books of the large library, besides the
+Chippendale furniture that came from Scotland, and some antiques,
+including old carved cabinets dating back to 1642. After everything of
+value had been packed, there were still many odds and ends--glassware
+and such articles--which were left behind with the intention of
+sending for them later. Eventually the plan was changed and the things
+were given to Mr. Gurr, with whom the key of the house had been left.
+This explains why so many glass bowls, etc., were bought by tourists
+at Apia, and how every odd pen that was found was sold as Mr.
+Stevenson's own and original. It was then that Mrs. Stevenson's diary,
+to which I have already alluded, was overlooked in the packing, only
+to turn up years afterwards in London.
+
+It was a genuine grief to Mrs. Stevenson to sell Vailima, but, in
+order to retain it she would have had to keep a force of men there
+constantly at work "fighting the forest," which, if left alone for a
+short time, speedily envelops and smothers everything in its path. If
+even so much as an old tin can is thrown out on the ground tropic
+nature at once proceeds to get rid of the defacement, and in a few
+days it will be covered with creepers. So, with many a pang of regret,
+the place was finally sold--with the reservation of the summit of Vaea
+where the tomb stands--to a Russian merchant named Kunst. He lived
+there for some time and at his death his heirs sold it to the German
+Government, which purchased it as a residence for the German governor
+of Samoa. So the flag of Germany flew over Vailima until the New
+Zealand expeditionary force landed and took over the islands for Great
+Britain, when the Union Jack was run up. The natives said that England
+came to Tusitala, since he could not go to her, and when his own
+country's flag blew out in the breeze over his old home one could
+almost fancy that his spirit looked down and rejoiced. Since then it
+has been used as the British Government House, and at present the
+English administrator lives there with his wife and aides. Many
+changes and enlargements have been made in it since it was the home of
+Tusitala. The Germans cut a new road to Vailima from the highway, and
+the Road of the Loving Hearts, which originally led to the house, now
+leads to the burial place of the man for whom the grateful chiefs
+built it long ago.
+
+All was now ready for their departure, and their native friends
+gathered from far and wide to take part in what was for them an event
+of mournful significance. Tusitala's widow was not permitted to go out
+to the waiting vessel in the ordinary boat, but was taken by the high
+chief Seumanutafa in the cutter that had been given him by the United
+States Government. The awning had been put up over it and it was all
+trimmed for the occasion in ferns and flowers. Crowds of Samoan
+friends--Fanua (Mrs. Gurr), Laulii (Mrs. Willis), Tamasese, Amatua,
+Tupua, Tautala, the Vailima household, and many others, were there in
+boats, also trimmed with ferns and flowers, to see them off. All went
+on board and were taken into the cabin, where they were treated to
+bottled lemonade with ice in the glasses, at which they marvelled
+greatly. Though they realized that the woman who had done so much for
+them in the few years of her residence among them--who had tended them
+in sickness and sympathized with them in sorrow--was about to leave
+them for ever, they made a strong effort not to cloud her departure
+with demonstrations of grief, and it was only when she took farewell
+of Sosimo, the man who had been her beloved husband's body servant at
+Vailima, that they gave signs of breaking down. All had brought
+presents, and Mrs. Stevenson and her daughter stood on the deck
+wreathed in flowers, surrounded by baskets of pineapples, oranges,
+bananas, and other fruits. Each departing friend, after kissing their
+hands, added something to the pile of gifts--Samoan fans, seed and
+shell necklaces, rolls of _tapa_, and native woven baskets, and the
+two ladies had all the fingers of both hands adorned with Samoan
+tortoise-shell rings. As the ship steamed away the little flotilla of
+boats, looking like green bouquets on the water, followed them for
+some distance, the boatmen singing as they rowed the farewell song of
+the islands, _To-fa mi feleni_ (good-bye, my friend).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BACK TO CALIFORNIA.
+
+
+For six months or more before Mrs. Stevenson's departure for England
+in 1898, she had been suffering severely from an illness which finally
+necessitated a surgical operation. This operation, which was a very
+critical one and brought her within the valley of the shadow for a
+time, was performed in London by Sir Frederick Treves, the noted
+surgeon and physician to the King. Treves asked no fee, saying that he
+considered it a privilege to give this service to the widow of
+Stevenson.
+
+While the family were in Dorking, where they had taken a house for the
+summer, Mrs. Strong received a letter of sympathy from Mrs.
+Stevenson's old friend, Henry James, which is so characteristic that I
+am impelled to quote it:
+
+"Dear Mrs. Strong:
+
+"I have been meaning each day to write to you again and tell you how
+much, in these days, I am with you in thought. I can't sufficiently
+rejoice that you are out of town in this fearful heat, which the air
+of London, as thick as the wit of some of its inhabitants, must now
+render peculiarly damnable. I rejoice, too, that you have, like
+myself, an old house in a pretty old town and an old garden with
+pleasant old flowers. Further, I jubilate that you are within decent
+distance of dear old George Meredith, whom I tenderly love and
+venerate. But after that, I fear my jubilation ceases. I deeply regret
+the turn your mother's health has taken has not been, as it so utterly
+ought to be, the right one. But if it has determined the prospect of
+the operation, which is to afford her relief, I hope with all my heart
+that it will end by presenting itself to you as 'a blessing in
+disguise.' No doubt she would have preferred a good deal less
+disguise, but, after all, we have to take things as they come, and I
+throw myself into the deep comfort of gratitude that her situation has
+overtaken her in this country, where every perfect ministration will
+surround her, rather than in your far-off insular abyss of mere--so to
+speak--picturesqueness. I should have been, in that case, at the
+present writing, in a fidget too fierce for endurance, whereas I now
+can prattle to you quite balmily; for which you are all, no doubt,
+deeply grateful. Give her, please, my tender love, and say to her that
+if London were actually at all accessible to me, I should dash down to
+her thence without delay, and thrust myself as far as would be good
+for any of you into your innermost concerns. This would be more
+possible to me later on if you should still be remaining awhile at
+Dorking--and, at any rate, please be sure that I shall manage to see
+you the first moment I am able to break with the complications that,
+for the time, forbid me even a day's absence from this place. I repeat
+that it eases my spirit immensely that you have exchanged the planet
+Saturn--or whichever it is that's the furthest--for this terrestrial
+globe. In short, between this and October, many things may happen, and
+among them my finding the right moment to drop on you. I hope all the
+rest of you thrive and rusticate, and I feel awfully set up with your
+being, after your tropic isle, at all tolerant of the hollyhocks and
+other garden produce of my adopted home. I am extremely busy trying to
+get on with a belated serial--an effort in which each hour has its
+hideous value. That is really all my present history--but to you all
+it will mean much, for you too have lived in Arcadia! I embrace you
+fondly, if you will kindly permit it--every one; beginning with the
+Babe, so as to give me proper presumption, and working my way steadily
+up. Good-bye till soon again.
+
+"Yours, my dear Teuila, very constantly,
+
+                                        "Henry James."
+
+
+Except for this unfortunate illness the family spent a pleasant summer
+in England, in a little cottage surrounded by an old-fashioned garden
+near Burford.
+
+[Illustration: From a photograph by Hollinger, London. Mrs. Robert
+Louis Stevenson.]
+
+One of the purposes of this visit to England was Mrs. Stevenson's
+desire to carry out one of her husband's last requests. In a letter
+not to be opened until after his death he asked that, if the
+arrangements already made for the writing and publication of his
+biography by Sidney Colvin should not have been carried out within
+four years, it should be placed in the hands of some other person. As
+the four years had elapsed and nothing had been done in the matter, it
+was decided that Graham Balfour, Stevenson's cousin and devoted
+friend, should undertake the task; and when Mrs. Stevenson had
+partially recovered from her illness she removed to the Balfour
+residence and gave her assistance for some time in laying out the
+plans for the book.
+
+Her convalescence was very slow, and, finding the damp climate of
+England unfavourable, she finally decided to move to the island of
+Madeira for rest and recuperation. Accompanied by her son and his
+family, her daughter having left for New York City to join her son,
+Austin Strong, she travelled by slow stages through France, Spain, and
+Portugal, reaching Madeira in the early part of December, 1898. From
+Lisbon they sailed in a filthy little Portuguese steamer, freighted
+with hay and kerosene, and the passengers, in utter disregard of the
+inflammable nature of the cargo, scattered cigarette ends and lighted
+matches all over the ship. However, a kind Providence carried them to
+port without accident.
+
+After a most uncomfortable voyage of two days and nights they drew
+into the beautiful bay of Funchal, with its curving shore and
+background of lofty mountains. The _quintas_, or country-houses, each
+surrounded by a terraced garden and vineyard, which dotted the slopes,
+gave a cheerful air to the landscape. Mrs. Stevenson speaks of it as
+the "most picturesque place" she ever saw, and she had seen many of
+the beauty spots of the world.
+
+In a letter to her daughter written from here she says: "My plans are
+vague. The years ahead of me seem like large empty rooms, with high
+ceilings and echoes. Not gay, say you, but I was never one for gaiety
+much--and I may discover a certain grandeur in the emptiness."
+
+When at last her strength seemed equal to the long journey, she once
+more turned her face towards the setting sun, and beautiful
+California. On the way a flying stop was made in Indiana to see
+relatives and friends of her girlhood. Speaking of them she says, "I
+saw my old friends, the Fletchers. They came to see me in droves, and
+it was strange to see them old men and women, talking of their
+grandchildren. It seems so difficult to realize that one's self is
+old; indeed, I don't believe I ever shall." While in Indianapolis she
+met for the first time her distinguished compatriot, James Whitcomb
+Riley, who afterwards wrote to her recalling the occasion of their
+meeting in his own gentle, kindly way. I quote the letter:
+
+                              "Indianapolis, Christmas, 1900.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Stevenson:
+
+"Since your brief visit here last winter I've been remembering you and
+your kindness every day, and in fancy have written down--hundreds of
+times--my thanks to you and yours--once, when first well enough to get
+down-town, wrapping a photograph for you of the very well man I _used_
+to be. Finding the portrait this Christmas morning, I someway think it
+good-omenish, and so send you the long-belated thing, together with a
+copy of a recent book in which are most affectionally set some old and
+some new lines of tribute to the dear man who is just away. How I
+loved him through his lovely art! And how I loved all he loved and yet
+loves--for with both heart and soul, and tears and smiles, he seems
+very near at hand. Therefore my very gentlest greetings on this
+blessed day go out to him as to you.
+
+"Fraternally,
+
+                                   "James Whitcomb Riley."[68]
+
+
+              [Footnote 68: Quoted by courtesy of Mr. Edmund Eitel,
+              nephew of Mr. Riley.]
+
+Mrs. Stevenson wished to live within sight of the Pacific Ocean, so
+she purchased a lot at the corner of Hyde and Lombard Streets, on the
+very top of one of San Francisco's famous hills, and at once began the
+building of her house, living meanwhile for a time on Belvedere Island
+and later at 2751 Broadway. The creation of a new thing--whether it
+might be a dress, a surprise dish for the table, a garden or a house,
+always appealed strongly to her, and as she plunged eagerly into the
+business of planning and discussing with architects and contractors,
+her interest in life rose again. As she remarked, "It is awfully
+exciting to build a house." Mr. Willis Polk was the architect, but he
+followed her design, which she made by building a little house out of
+match-boxes on the corner of a table. The house was rather unusual in
+its plan, flat-roofed, and with architecture somewhat "on the Mexican
+order," as the contractor said. It fitted in well with the landscape
+and gave one a feeling of home comfort and cheer within. She herself
+said it was "like a fort on a cliff." Hidden from the street by a high
+retaining wall and a colonnade embowered in vines was a beautiful
+garden where she gradually collected rare plants from various parts of
+the world. A wide stretch of emerald lawn filled the centre, and
+around its borders were massed flowering shrubs and small
+trees--low-growing varieties purposely chosen in order not to hide the
+sea view from the windows. Here a climbing syringa brought from the
+romantic Borda gardens in Mexico, where the sad Empress Carlota used
+to walk, flung out its tendrils gaily to the salt sea breeze, and
+seemed never to miss the kindlier sun of its former home. At one side
+there was a small cemented pool, the birds' drinking-place, where many
+of the little creatures came to dip their bills and trill their
+morning songs. In this quiet scented garden, kept safe from intruding
+eyes on all sides by vine-covered walls and shrubbery, one might sit
+and dream, reminded of the outside world only by the clanging of a
+street-car bell or the distant whistle of an ocean steamer.
+
+Within the walls of this house were a thousand objects gathered in her
+wanderings in all sorts of strange places, but the greatest attraction
+was the magnificent outlook over sea and land afforded by its
+commanding position. From the flat roof one looked down on one side
+upon the picturesque city, with its many hills and steeply climbing
+streets, all a-glitter at night with a million twinkling lights, and
+on the other upon the great sparkling expanse of the bay, alive with
+craft of every sort, from the great ocean steamer just in from the
+Orient to the tiny fisher boats, with their lateen sails, returning
+with their day's catch from outside the "Heads." From the drawing-room
+windows one could see the winking eye of Alcatraz Island, grim rocky
+guardian of the Golden Gate, and all the ships of the Pacific fleets
+making their slow way in to their docking places. How often must
+she have looked out upon those returning wanderers of the deep and
+thought with a tender sadness of that day in the treasured past when
+the Silver Ship sailed away with her and her beloved towards the
+enchanted isles!
+
+[Illustration: The house at Hyde and Lombard Streets, San Francisco,
+with some alterations in the way of bay windows, etc., which have been
+made since Mrs. Stevenson sold it.]
+
+Once she stood watching from these windows for the transport that was
+coming in with soldiers from the Philippines, among whom was her
+nephew, Edward Orr. As the ship hove in sight she sent her grandson
+flying to the roof to wave a welcome with a large flag, and almost the
+first thing the homesick young soldier saw as he turned eager eyes
+shorewards was the fluttering banner high on the house-top on the
+hill. Having nothing else convenient with which to return the salute,
+he and his mates snatched a sheet from a bunk and waved it from a
+porthole. Meanwhile Mrs. Stevenson had despatched her son to hire a
+launch and take the mother and sisters of her nephew out to meet him,
+and as soon as the sea-worn and tired young soldiers had landed at the
+Presidio she sent out baskets of fruit and bottles of milk for their
+refreshment.
+
+Island memories were always dear to her, and when one day she heard
+that a ship had come into port manned with sailors from Samoa, she at
+once sent to the dock and invited them all to call on her. Soon the
+dark-skinned, picturesque troop, shy but proud of the attention shown
+them by Tusitala's widow, arrived. The _ava_ bowl was brought out and
+placed before them as they sat cross-legged on the floor in a
+semi-circle, and after the brewing of the _ava_ it was drunk with all
+the proper ceremonies of speech-making and exchanges of compliments.
+Mr. Carmichael Carr, who, with his mother, the well-known singer, was
+one of the visitors that day, writes: "I have a wonderfully clear
+picture of the reception Mrs. Stevenson gave and the South Sea men she
+had gathered around her--their strange appearance and incantations and
+the peculiar drink they brewed."
+
+At the Hyde Street house she received many distinguished
+people--actors, writers, singers, and even royalties. There Henry
+James, S. S. McClure, David Bispham, William Faversham and his wife,
+ex-Queen Liliuokalani and a hundred others went to pay her their
+respects. It was at a reception she was giving to Liliuokalani--which,
+by the way, she gave in the hope of arousing favourable interest in
+the Queen's mission to Washington to seek justice--that she first met
+David Bispham, and first heard him sing, too, in a rather unusual way.
+Some one--I think it was Gelett Burgess--said to the Queen, "Will your
+Majesty please issue a royal command? We have never heard one."
+Whereupon her Majesty pointed her finger at Bispham and said, "The
+bard is commanded to sing!"
+
+When the Stevenson Society of San Francisco held their yearly meetings
+of commemoration on Louis's birthday she was the honoured guest, and
+it was characteristic of her to remember to invite his old friend,
+Jules Simoneau of Monterey, for these occasions. When she first asked
+the old man to come he shrugged his shoulders and said: "What! Will
+you take me to see your fine friends in this old blouse? I have no
+other clothes." "Your clothes are nothing," she replied. "All that
+matters to me is that you were my husband's dear friend." So he went,
+and was entertained in her house with as much consideration as though
+he had been a prince of the blood. On the evening of the dinner given
+by the Society at the old restaurant which had once been frequented by
+Stevenson, she took Simoneau in her carriage, and when a fashionable
+young lady in her party objected to this arrangement she was rebuked
+by being sent home in a street-car.
+
+Among other public functions to which she was invited to do her honour
+as the widow of Stevenson was a banquet given by the St. Andrews
+Society, which included nearly all the Scotchmen in San Francisco. In
+conversation with three of them she remarked that she had the sugar
+bowl from which Bobby Burns had sweetened his toddy when he went to
+see Robert Stevenson,[69] and, after inviting them to call, promised
+to mix a toddy for them and sweeten it from the same historic sugar
+bowl. About a week later the three appeared, exceedingly Scotch in
+their long black coats and silk hats, and each carrying a formal
+bouquet. They had a delightful time, drinking their toddy, which was
+duly sweetened from the hallowed bowl, and reciting Burns's poems to
+her in such broad Scotch that she could not understand a word of it.
+But she loved the sound of it all the same.
+
+              [Footnote 69: Robert Louis Stevenson's grandfather.]
+
+It was soon after her return to San Francisco that Mrs. Stevenson
+interested herself in the story of a half-caste Samoan girl, a sort
+of modern Cinderella, of whom she had heard before leaving the
+islands. This girl, who was an orphan, had been left a fortune in
+lands and money in Samoa by her American father, and when she was five
+years of age had been sent to San Francisco by her guardian to be
+educated. There, through a combination of circumstances, she
+disappeared, and her property in Samoa lay unclaimed, while the rents
+went to the benefit of others. When Mrs. Stevenson heard of this she
+determined to make a search for the girl, and as soon as she reached
+San Francisco set out to do so. After the rounds of all the private
+schools and seminaries had been made without success, her friend, Miss
+Chismore, thought of trying the charity orphan asylums, and in one of
+these, a Catholic convent school for orphans, she found a girl bearing
+a somewhat similar name to the lost one. Mrs. Stevenson, taking with
+her a Samoan basket and some shells, immediately went out to see her.
+At the school a small, dark, shy girl was brought by the sisters into
+the visitors' room, and at sight of the Samoan basket she gave a
+joyful cry of recognition. The long-lost heiress was found, living as
+a pauper in a charity school! The difficulty then was to prove her
+claim to the property and secure it for her. In her determination to
+do this Mrs. Stevenson went to Washington, where, after seeing
+senators, priests of the Catholic Church, and other persons in
+authority, she finally succeeded in having the girl's lands, with some
+of the back rents, restored to her. All this was like a fairy story to
+the kind sisters at the convent, and their joy was unbounded at
+seeing their little pauper pupil thus romantically transformed into
+the rich princess. Meanwhile Mrs. Stevenson invited the young lady to
+her house, gave a party in her honour, helped her buy clothing
+suitable to her new station, and, when the time came for her
+triumphant departure to claim her island possessions, went to see her
+off on the steamer. As long as this little Cinderella lived she never
+forgot the fairy godmother who had worked this wonderful change in her
+life.
+
+It was during this period that the regrettable incident of Mr.
+Henley's attack on the memory of Stevenson occurred--an incident that
+attracted a great deal more attention in England than in America,
+where it was forgotten almost as soon as it happened. Mrs. Stevenson
+herself always ascribed this strange act on the part of her husband's
+old friend to his state of health, which had never been good and was
+rapidly growing worse; and, because she believed he had become
+embittered by his misfortunes, she bore no rancour. In referring to it
+she repeated one of her favourite sayings, "To know all is to forgive
+all," and when, after Mr. Henley's death, his widow wrote to her
+asking for letters to be published in his "life," she sent them with a
+kind and affectionate note.
+
+While the house in San Francisco was building, Mrs. Stevenson went
+away for a time, accompanied only by her maid, for a camping trip in
+the Santa Cruz Mountains, down among the redwoods. The delights of the
+place where they camped, in a shady little valley about ten miles from
+Gilroy, soon won her heart completely, and she decided to purchase a
+small ranch there for a permanent summer home. For the first season
+she lived there in true campers' fashion, which she describes in a
+letter to her daughter: "At the ranch I have one tent with a curtain
+in the middle. We sleep on one side of the curtain and sit on the
+other. I have only the most primitive facilities for cooking, and the
+butcher is twelve miles away over a mountain road. He is anything but
+dependable, and when I send for a piece of roast beef I may get a soup
+bone of veal, or a small bit of liver, or a side of breakfast bacon,
+which I keep hung in a tree. I cannot keep flour on a tree, so am
+dependent on the boarding-house [a small summer resort about a quarter
+of a mile distant] for my bread, and if they are short I have no
+bread. If I find I lack something essential I have to spend a whole
+day driving to town through the deep dust to get it. But of course I
+am going to do all kinds of things by and by." The truth was that this
+sort of life was exactly to her taste, and the wilder and rougher it
+was the better it suited her. She was always, to the end of her days,
+the pioneer woman, and the greensward of the woods went better to her
+feet than carpeted halls.
+
+Afterwards tents were put up for the accommodation of her family, and
+every spring, after the rains were over, they all moved down to take
+up a delightful out-of-door life such as can scarcely be enjoyed
+anywhere in the world except in California. Cooking was done in the
+open air, and meals were taken at a long table spread in a deep glen,
+where the trees were so thick that it was pleasantly cool even on the
+hottest days.
+
+As time went on the mistress of this sylvan paradise grew more and
+more attached to it, and she at length decided to build more permanent
+quarters. First of all, she made a model of a house out of match
+boxes, with pebbles for the foundation wall, all glued together,
+painted and complete. Then she hired a country carpenter and built her
+house--a pleasant little dwelling, with a wide veranda extending in
+country fashion around two sides of it.
+
+In building the foundation wall boulders from the stream were used,
+and many were found bearing bold imprints of fossil ferns, birds, and
+snakes. Mrs. Stevenson was delighted to have these reminders of a past
+age for her wall, but, alas, during her absence the stones were all
+cemented in place with the nice smooth sides outward and the fossils
+turned inward.
+
+Although it was so different from the tropic island that had now
+become but a tender memory, yet there was much about this place that
+recalled Vailima days--the sweet seclusion, the rich greenery all
+about, the music of the little tinkling stream, and, above all, the
+morning song of the multitudes of birds. It was for this, and perhaps
+to make a link between her California home and that other far across
+the wide Pacific that she chose to call the little ranch in the Santa
+Cruz Mountains Vanumanutagi, vale of the singing birds.
+
+At Vanumanutagi Mrs. Stevenson led a simple life, spending most of her
+time out-of-doors and occupying herself with plans for the planting
+and improvement of the land. The house was simply furnished, and the
+country people were charmed with the gay chintz and bright
+wall-paper, the brick fireplace, and the general appropriateness of it
+all. As it was not large, tents were put up for the family and guests
+to sleep in.
+
+Even this peaceful spot had its excitements, for in the autumn, when
+the undergrowth everywhere was as dry as tinder, its quiet was
+sometimes disturbed by the outbreak of California's summer
+terror--forest-fires. One of the worst of these happened when Mrs.
+Stevenson was at the ranch with only her sister Elizabeth[70] and a
+maid. It came suddenly, and the first they knew of it was the sight of
+what they took to be sea fog, rolling and tumbling over the tops of
+the hills. They soon knew it for what it was when it came pouring down
+into the valley and they began to choke with its acrid smell.
+Presently horsemen came galloping by on their way to warn ranchers of
+the fire, and every little while a man would come out and report the
+progress made in checking it. It was an oppressive, hidden danger, for
+nothing could be seen from the valley of the actual flames through the
+thick suffocating curtain of smoke that hung over all. The only avenue
+of escape was by way of the road to Gilroy, and the fire threatened
+momentarily to cut this off. Not wishing to abandon the place to its
+fate, Mrs. Stevenson thought out a plan for saving their lives in the
+last emergency by wrapping up in wet blankets and crouching in a sort
+of hole or low place in an open field near the house. Fortunately the
+fire was stopped before this became necessary.
+
+              [Footnote 70: The late Mrs. E. E. Mitchell, of Nebraska
+              City, Nebraska.]
+
+[Illustration: The house at Vanumanutagi ranch.]
+
+It was while she was living at the ranch that Mrs. Stevenson began to
+write the introductions to her husband's works in the biographical
+edition brought out by Charles Scribner's Sons. As she had but a
+modest opinion of her abilities, she undertook this work with the
+greatest reluctance, and in a letter to Mr. Scribner she remarks, "It
+appalls me to think of my temerity in writing these introductions."
+Yet I believe that everyone who reads them will feel that a new and
+personal interest has been added to each one of his books by her
+graphic story of the circumstances of its writing.
+
+Among the best loved of the infrequent guests who braved the long,
+hot, dusty drive from Gilroy to the ranch was the young California
+writer, Frank Norris. During his visits there Mrs. Stevenson became
+much attached to him, and he in turn was so charmed with the place and
+the life that he determined to buy a ranch in the neighbourhood. As I
+have already said, when an opportunity offered he bought the Douglas
+Sanders place, Quien Sabe Rancho, intending to spend all his summers
+there. Writing to Mrs. Stevenson about his plans in his gay boyish
+fashion, he says:
+
+"My dear Mrs. Stevenson:
+
+"This is to tell you that our famous round-the-world trip has been
+curtailed to a modest little excursion Samoa-wards and back, or mebbe
+we get as far as Sydney. We wont go to France, but will come to Quien
+Sabe in February--FEBRUARY! We find in figuring up our stubs that we
+have a whole lot more money than we thought, but the blame stuff has
+got to be transferred from our New York bank to here, which (because
+we went about it wrong in the first place), can't be done for another
+two weeks. We will make the first payment on Quien Sabe before October
+1st--$250. Will you ask Lloyd to let us know--or I mean to bear us in
+mind--if he hears of a horse for sale so we could buy the beast when
+we come up next February. Meanwhile will keep you informed as to
+'lightning change' programme we are giving these days.
+
+          "Ever thine (I've clean forgot me nyme)."
+
+
+The Norris cabin stands high on the mountain slope, and is reached by
+a steep winding road leading up from Vanumanutagi Ranch.
+
+To this ideal spot, this secluded little lodge in the wilderness,
+Frank Norris hoped to bring his wife and little daughter and spend
+many happy and fruitful summers. Here he intended to work on the last
+volume of his series of the wheat trilogy--the story of the hunger of
+the people, which was to be called by the appropriate name of _The
+Wolf_. His joy in his new purchase was unbounded, and many
+improvements to the cabin and ranch were projected. In all these plans
+Mrs. Stevenson took a more than neighbourly interest, for she spent
+time and money in helping to make the place comfortable and
+attractive. Among other things she built a curbing around the well,
+using for the purpose boulders from the inexhaustible supply in the
+bed of the stream, and, to have all complete, even sent to Boston for
+a real "old oaken bucket." At just the right intervals along the steep
+road to the cabin, measured off by her own indefatigable feet, she
+placed rustic seats, where the tired climber might rest.
+
+But alas! All these pleasing hopes came to naught, for within a short
+time after buying the ranch sudden death cut him off in the flower of
+his youth and the first unfolding of his genius. This was a sad blow
+to Mrs. Stevenson, for she had become much attached to the brilliant
+and lovable young writer. Sometime afterwards she thought of putting
+up a memorial to him on the little ranch where he had hoped to spend
+many happy years. Having decided that it should take the form of a
+stone seat, bearing a suitable inscription, she went to work in
+conjunction with Gelett Burgess to make the design. The site chosen
+for the seat is upon a small level spot a few yards below the cabin,
+at the side of the winding road leading up from the Stevenson ranch.
+In carrying out this project she took a melancholy pleasure, as she
+writes in a letter to Mr. Charles Scribner, dated 1902: "I am building
+a memorial seat to poor Frank Norris. With the assistance of a couple
+of men I have gathered a lot of boulders from the bed of a stream, and
+from these we have fashioned a bench to hold six or eight people, and
+set it where the view is glorious. I have helped lay the stones, and
+have dabbled in mortar until I can hardly use my hands to write. This
+sort of work is so much more interesting than scratching with a pen.
+In the joy of even so poor a creation I forget the sad purpose of it,
+and am as happy as one hopes to be who has lived as long as I."
+
+Before these two friends--he in the springtime of his days, she in
+the mellow autumn of maturity--passed away, they were persuaded to
+record their voices in a phonograph, but it was a useless effort, for
+no one who loved them has ever been able to endure to listen to their
+spirit voices, as it were, speaking from the other world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+TRAVELS IN MEXICO AND EUROPE.
+
+
+Eight years, divided between the house "like a fort on a cliff" in San
+Francisco and the sylvan solitude of the little ranch tucked away in
+its corner in the mountains of the Holy Cross, slipped by happily
+enough. Now and again the wandering mood came back, but, except for
+one visit to France and England, Mrs. Stevenson confined her
+journeyings to the American continent.
+
+One of these excursions led her to Mexico--a country that she found
+more interesting than any she had ever visited in Europe. Sometimes I
+think this may have been because of some primitive element in her own
+nature that responded to the traditions of that strange land--so aged
+in history, so young in civilization--but, anyway, she told me that
+she felt a genuine thrill there such as she had never experienced in
+any of the historic places of the Old World. At the tomb of Napoleon
+she remained cold, but at the "tree of the sad night," where Cortes is
+said to have wept bitter tears on that dark and rainy night away back
+in 1520, her imagination was deeply touched. At the church of
+Guadalupe she looked at the pitifully crude paintings and other
+thank-offerings of the simple devotees with deep and sympathetic
+interest.
+
+Much more interesting than the city of Mexico she found the quaint and
+ancient town of Cuernavaca, where Maximilian was wont to come with his
+Empress to enjoy the delights of the famous Borda Gardens. These
+gardens, though fallen from their first high estate, were still very
+beautiful at the time of Mrs. Stevenson's visit.
+
+Of these pleasant days in Cuernavaca she writes in a letter to her
+daughter:
+
+"I have a little plant from the garden where Carlota lived, which I
+think is a climbing syringa. We go round nearly every evening to the
+palace built by Cortes, in one room of which he strangled one of his
+mistresses.... I had always supposed Maximilian to be a most exemplary
+person, but he seems to have lived in a palace some three miles from
+here with a beautiful Mexican girl, while poor Carlota was left alone
+in town in the Borda Gardens.... Everybody goes barefoot here, though
+all dressed up otherwise, and everybody wears the _rebozo_.[71] This
+morning I killed a scorpion on the wall alongside the bed, and the
+other day I also assisted in the killing of a tremendous tarantula in
+the middle of the road. We stood far off and threw stones at it. None
+of mine hit the mark, but I threw like mad.... I hope you were not
+frightened by the news of the earthquake here. We got a good shake but
+no harm done. Just a little south of us there has been terrible
+damage--a whole town destroyed and people killed. Here all the people
+ran into the streets, and kneeling, held out their hands towards the
+churches that contain their miraculous images.... We have had a
+'blessing of the animals' at the cathedral, where cats, dogs, eagles,
+doves, cocks and hens, horses, colts, donkeys, cows and bulls, dyed
+every color of the rainbow and wearing wreaths of artificial flowers
+round their necks, were brought to receive this sacrament. I wanted to
+take Burney [her little Scotch terrier], but feared his getting some
+contagion, so gave it up, and now my Burney has forever lost the
+chance of becoming a holy, blessed dog.... The native people here are
+very abject, and seem almost entirely without intellect; yet they are
+the only servants to be had unless one sends to California, and they
+make life a desperate business. The only spirit I have seen in any of
+them was to-day, when a native policeman tried to get up a fight
+between his own huge dog and my little Burney. Of course Burney the
+valiant was ready for the fray and would probably have disposed of the
+big dog had I not run up, closing and clubbing my parasol as I came.
+The policeman thought I was going to strike him, and for one second
+stood up to me fiercely, saying 'No Senorita! No Senorita!' Then his
+knees suddenly gave way and he and his dog and his friend who was
+standing by to see fair play utterly collapsed."
+
+              [Footnote 71: The _rebozo_ is a scarf or shawl worn
+              wound about the head and shoulders.]
+
+Steeped as the country was in old tradition, and far removed as it
+seemed from all knowledge of the outside world, the name of Robert
+Louis Stevenson had penetrated to its inmost recesses, and its people
+were pleased to bestow honour upon his widow. Writing of this she
+says: "I want to tell you that at every little lost place on the road
+I have received extra attention because of my name. In this house I
+have the best room, the landlord himself giving it up to me. I hope
+Louis knows this."
+
+The little plant of which she spoke, the climbing syringa, which was
+given to her as a special favour by the man in charge of the Borda
+Gardens, reached San Francisco in good condition and took most kindly
+to its new home. Slips of it were given to friends, and its sweet
+flowers, reminiscent of the ill-fated queen who once breathed their
+perfume, now scent the air in more than one garden round San Francisco
+Bay.
+
+It was not long after her return from this trip to Mexico that Mrs.
+Stevenson began to be troubled with a bronchial affection that
+increased as she advanced in years and made it necessary for her to
+seek a frequent change from the cool climate of San Francisco. In
+November of 1904 a severe cough from which she was suffering led her
+southward. This time she was accompanied by Salisbury Field, the son
+of her old friend and schoolmate of Indiana days, Sarah Hubbard Field.
+Mr. Field had now become a member of Mrs. Stevenson's household, and
+at a later date married her daughter, Isobel Osbourne Strong.
+
+Arriving at La Jolla by the sea, a most picturesque spot on the
+southern coast of California, they were disappointed in not finding it
+as warm as they had expected, so it was decided to go further south.
+In the course of their inquiries at San Diego they met a Western miner
+named George Brown, who told them stories of a lonely desert island
+off the coast of Lower California, where he was about to open a
+copper-mine for the company for which he was general manager. The more
+he talked of this lonesome isle and of how barren and desolate it was
+the more Mrs. Stevenson was fascinated with it, and when he finally
+invited them, in true Western fashion, to accompany him thither, she
+joyfully accepted. In the early part of January she took passage with
+her little party, consisting of herself, Mr. Field, and her maid, on
+the small steamer _St. Denis_, which was sailing from San Diego and
+making port at Ensenada and San Quintin on the way to Cedros Island.
+
+At the island the Stevenson party was offered the large company house
+of ten rooms by Mr. Brown, but preferred to live in a little
+whitewashed cottage that stood on the beach. Except for the Mexican
+families of the mine workmen there were no women on the island besides
+Mrs. Stevenson and her maid. The small circle of Americans soon became
+intimately acquainted, for the lack of other society and interests
+naturally drew them close together. Besides George Brown, Clarence
+Beall, and Doctor Chamberlain, the company doctor, there was only a
+queer old character known as "Chips," a stranded sea carpenter who was
+employed to build lighters on the beach.
+
+Mrs. Stevenson had all of Kipling's fondness for mining men,
+engineers--all that great class of workers, in fact, who harness the
+elements of earth and air and bend them to man's will--and she was
+very happy on this lonely island with no society outside of her own
+party but that of the few employed at the mine. Between her and Mr.
+Beall, a young mining engineer employed on the island, a strong and
+lasting bond of friendship was established from the moment of their
+first meeting, when she saw him wet and cold from a hard day of
+loading ship through the surf and insisted on "mothering" him to the
+extent of seeing that he had dry clothing and other comforts. And,
+although the difference between the green tropic isle beyond the
+sunset which lay enshrined in her memory and this barren cactus-grown
+pile of volcanic rocks was immeasurable, yet the one, in its peace,
+its soft sweet air, and the near presence of the murmuring sea, called
+back the other.
+
+When, after three pleasant, peaceful months, the time came for her
+departure, there was general sorrow on the island, where it may well
+be imagined that her presence had greatly lightened the tedium of
+existence for its lonely dwellers. "To this day," writes Doctor
+Chamberlain, "whenever I pick up one of Mr. Stevenson's novels, my
+first thoughts are always of his wife and our days at Cedros Island."
+
+While in Ensenada on the return trip Mrs. Stevenson heard of a ranch
+for sale there, and after looking at it decided to purchase it. The
+place, known as El Sausal,[72] lies on the very edge of the great
+Pacific, and has a magnificent beach. The climate is as nearly perfect
+as a climate can be, and Mrs. Stevenson often said that if the world
+ever learned of the magic healing in that country there would be a
+great rush to the peninsula, so long despised as a hopeless desert.
+
+              [Footnote 72: _Sausal_ (pronounced sowsal) is a Spanish
+              word meaning willow grove.]
+
+There was only a little cottage of a very humble sort on the ranch and
+supplies were hard to get, but she loved it and was never better in
+health than when she was at Sausal. At this time she returned to San
+Francisco, but the following winter she went back to take possession
+and spent some time there. Writing to Mr. Charles Scribner, she says:
+"I am living in a sweet lost spot known as the Rancho El Sausal, some
+six miles from Ensenada in Lower California. If I had no family I
+should stop here forever; except for the birds, and the sea, and the
+wind, it is so heavenly quiet, and I so love peace." Running through
+the place was a little stream, the banks of which were thick with the
+scarlet "Christmas berry," so well known in the woods of Upper
+California; multitudes of birds--canaries, linnets, larks,
+mocking-birds--all sang together outside the door in an amazing
+chorus; and on the beach near by the sea beat its soft rhythmic
+measure.
+
+They were very close to nature at Sausal, but though its situation was
+so isolated they had no fear, for the penalties for any sort of crime
+were terrific. Burglary, or even house-breaking, were punished with
+death, and one could hardly frown at another without going to prison
+for it. Sometimes they were surprised by the sudden appearance of a
+man, tired and dusty, dashing up on a foam-covered horse and asking
+for food. To such an unfortunate they always gave meat and drink, and
+when the _rurales_[73] presently galloped up and demanded to know
+whether they had seen an escaped prisoner they swallowed their
+conscientious scruples and answered "No!" Personally they met with
+nothing but the most punctilious courtesy from the Mexican officials.
+When Mrs. Stevenson received a Christmas box from her daughter, the
+chivalric _comandante_ at Ensenada, in order to make sure that she
+should have it in time, sent it out to Sausal magnificently conducted
+by three mounted policemen.
+
+              [Footnote 73: Mexican mounted police.]
+
+When she left this peaceful spot in the spring of 1906 to return to
+San Francisco she little thought that she was moving towards one of
+the most dramatic incidents in her eventful life. All went as usual on
+the journey until they had passed Santa Barbara on the morning of the
+fateful day, April 18, when vague rumours of some great disaster began
+to circulate in a confused way among the passengers. Soon they knew
+the dreadful truth, though in the swift running of the train they
+themselves had not felt the earthquake, and it was not long before
+concrete evidence confirmed the reports, for at Salinas they were
+halted by the broken Pajaro bridge. At that place Mrs. Stevenson slept
+the night on the train, and the next day she hired a team and drove by
+a roundabout way to Gilroy, near which, it will be remembered, her
+ranch, Vanumanutagi, was situated. There they learned that San
+Francisco was burning, and while Mr. Field made his way as best he
+could to the doomed city, she camped in a little hotel in Gilroy
+waiting for news--a prey meanwhile to the most intense fears for the
+safety of various members of her family, from whom she was entirely
+cut off.
+
+While she waited as patiently as might be in the little country town,
+there were strenuous times in the burning city, but, as telegraph
+wires were all down and no mails were going out, she was compelled to
+remain in suspense until three days later, when the fire was subdued
+and Mr. Field was able to get back to her with the news that her
+family were all safe and her house unharmed. The story of the rescue
+of her house from the flames has been curiously contorted by persons
+who have attempted to write about it without knowing the facts. The
+real saviors of Mrs. Stevenson's house were her nephews and Mr. Field,
+and even they might have lost the day had it not been for a
+providential wind that blew in strongly from the sea against the
+advancing wall of flame. For three days and nights they looked down
+from their high post upon the raging furnace below and anxiously
+watched the progress of the fire as it leaped from street to street in
+its mad race up the hill, and when at last the two houses and a large
+wooden reservoir immediately opposite went roaring up all hope seemed
+gone. In the end it was through a mere trifle that the tide of fortune
+was turned in their favour. In the garden there was a small cement
+pool, the home of a tiny fish answering to the name of Jack. When the
+water in the pool was slopped over by the earthquake poor Jack was
+tossed some yards away upon the grass, whence he was rescued, alive
+and wriggling, and restored to his own element, only to be killed
+later by some thoughtless refugee who washed his hands in the water
+with soap. The half bucket or so of water remaining in the pool helped
+to save the day, for the fire fighters dipped rugs and sacks in it,
+and, climbing to the flat roof, took turns in dashing through the
+scorching heat to beat the cornices when they began to smoke. Even so,
+the escape was so narrow that at times it seemed hopeless, and the
+rescuers took the precaution to dig a hole in the garden and bury the
+silverware, the St. Gaudens plaque, and other valuables.
+
+When the three days' conflagration had finally worn itself out and the
+tired and smoke-begrimed fighters could take account, they found the
+house and its contents safe, except for a huge hole in the roof where
+the earthquake had thrown down a large heavy chimney, piling up the
+bricks on the bed in the guest-chamber, fortunately not occupied at
+the time. But the outlook was ghastly, for the house stood high on its
+clean-swept hill like a lonely outpost in a great waste of cinders,
+half-fallen chimneys, and sagging walls. In two weeks' time, while
+they still smoked, the ruins took on a strangely old look, and it was
+like standing in the midst of the excavations of an ancient city.
+Around the solitary house on the hill the wind howled, making a
+mournful moaning sound through the broken network of wires that hung
+everywhere in the streets.
+
+Homeless refugees, running through the streets like wild creatures
+driven before a prairie fire, came pouring past, and some stopped to
+build their lean-to shacks of pieces of board and sacking against the
+sheltering wall of the house. Blankets and other things were passed
+out to keep them warm, and when they finally went their way the
+blankets went with them, but Mrs. Stevenson was glad that they should
+have them and said she would have done the same had she been in their
+case.
+
+All this while her son and daughter--the son in New York and the
+daughter in Italy--were in a state of anguished suspense as to their
+mother's fate. By a strange coincidence the daughter had herself been
+in some danger from the great eruption of Vesuvius, and had but just
+escaped from that when she heard newsboys crying in the streets of
+Rome, "San Francisco _tutta distrutta_!" Several days passed in
+intense anxiety before she received the telegram with the blessed
+words "Mother safe!"
+
+As it was quite impossible to live in the destroyed city until some
+sort of order should be established, even water being unprocurable on
+the Hyde Street hill, Mrs. Stevenson decided to take refuge for the
+time at Vanumanutagi Ranch near Gilroy. Even there she found a sorry
+confusion, for the house chimneys were all wrecked and the stone wall
+around the enclosure had been thrown down and scattered. There was
+plenty of good water, however, and the possibility of getting
+provisions and living after a fashion, so she settled down to stay
+there until conditions should improve in the city. It was an eerie
+place to stay in, too, for that section lies close to the main
+earthquake fault, and the quivering earth was a long time settling
+down from its great upheaval. For as long as a year afterwards small
+quakes came at frequent intervals, and in the stillness of the night
+strange roaring sounds, like the approach of a railroad train, and
+sudden exploding noises, like distant cannon shot, came to add their
+terrors to the creaking and swaying of the little wooden house.
+
+After some months Mrs. Stevenson went to San Francisco, but she found
+the discomfort still so great and the sight of the ruined city so
+depressing that she finally yielded to the persuasions of her son and
+Mr. Field to accompany them on a trip to Europe. They sailed from New
+York in November, 1906, on the French steamer _La Provence_.
+
+After a stay of only three or four days in Paris, they took the train
+for the south--an all-day trip. As Mrs. Stevenson had always thought
+she would love Avignon, though she had never been there, it was
+decided to go there first. In their compartment on the train there was
+a French bishop, a Monseigneur Charmiton, and his sister, with whom
+they soon fell into conversation. The bishop and his sister seemed
+appalled at the idea of anyone wanting to spend a winter in Avignon.
+"By no means go there," they said, "but come down where we live. It is
+beautiful there." The good people had a villa, it seemed, half-way
+between Nice and Monte Carlo. But Mrs. Stevenson wanted to decide upon
+Avignon for herself, so they went on, and found it a most picturesque
+place, but soon discovered the truth of the old saw, "Windy Avignon,
+liable to plague when it has not the wind, and plagued with the wind
+when it has it." This wind swept strong and cold down the Valley of
+the Rhone, making it so bleak and forbidding that they were forced to
+cut their visit short.
+
+They left next day for Marseilles, where they found, much to their
+delight, not only their motor-car, which had been shipped from New
+York, but Monseigneur Charmiton and his sister, who were on the point
+of leaving for their villa at Cap Ferrat. "And how did you like
+Avignon?" were their first words. Although too polite to say "I told
+you so," they now insisted the Riviera be given a fair trial. So,
+chance and friendly counsel prevailing, the Stevenson party motored
+east through lovely Provence, passing swiftly through Hyeres of
+haunting memory, and on to Cannes, where they stopped the night; and
+so to an hotel in Beaulieu, where Monseigneur's sister had engaged
+rooms for them till a villa was found to their liking. And soon a
+charming one at St. Jean-sur-Mer, a little village near Beaulieu, was
+taken for the season.
+
+The Villa Mes Rochers stood in a walled garden, which sloped gently to
+a terrace on the edge of the sea--a place for tea in the afternoons
+when the mistral was not blowing. Here they settled down for the
+winter.
+
+It was a pleasant, easy life. There were friends in Nice and Monte
+Carlo; there was the daily motor ride; there were books to read,
+letters to write, and recipes to be learned from the French and set
+down in the famous cook book without which Mrs. Stevenson never
+travelled. Here they lingered till April, and then set out in their
+motor for London.
+
+Their route again lay through Provence. They stopped at Arles, famous
+alike for its beautiful women and its sausages. The beautiful women
+were absent that day, but a sausage appeared at table and was
+pronounced worthy of its niche in the sausage Hall of Fame. Further
+along, in the Cevennes, they were enchanted with Le Puy, and the
+lovely, lovely country where Louis had made his memorable journey with
+Modestine. And so they went on north, by Channel steamer to Folkstone,
+up through Kent, and into London by the Old Kent Road; then to
+lodgings in Chelsea, where old friends called and old ties were
+renewed.
+
+After a month in London a house was taken in Chiddingfold, Surrey, to
+be near "the dear Favershams," as Mrs. Stevenson always called them.
+Mr. and Mrs. William Faversham, whom Mrs. Stevenson held in great
+affection, owned The Old Manor in Chiddingfold, and they had found a
+place for her near them--Fairfield, a charming old house in an
+old-world garden, and, best of all, not five minutes' walk from The
+Old Manor.
+
+Life at Fairfield, except for constant rain, was delightful. Graham
+Balfour, the well-beloved, came for a visit; Austin Strong and his
+wife ran down from London; many an afternoon was spent at Sir James
+Barrie's place near Farnham. Sir James loved Mrs. Stevenson--a dear,
+shy man who had so little to say to so many, so much to say to her.
+Then there were the Williamsons (of _Lightning Conductor_ fame), whom
+she had met in Monte Carlo; they also had a house in Surrey. And there
+were Sir Arthur and Lady Pinero, who lived only a mile or two from
+Fairfield. Mrs. Stevenson considered the genial, witty, gently cynical
+Sir Arthur one of the most interesting men she had ever met. Lady
+Pinero always called her husband "Pin," and Sir Arthur was enchanted
+when, after looking at him with smiling eyes, Mrs. Stevenson one day
+turned to Lady Pinero and remarked, "I've always doubted that old
+saying, 'It is a sin to steal a Pin,' but now I understand it
+perfectly."
+
+Katherine de Mattos, Stevenson's cousin, also honoured Fairfield with
+a visit, and Coggie Ferrier, sister of Stevenson's boyhood friend, and
+the woman perhaps above all others in England whom Mrs. Stevenson
+loved best, came frequently. And always there were the Favershams, who
+were very dear to her heart. It was a memorable summer, full of
+pleasant companionship--and rain. Towards the middle of August, on
+account of the never-ceasing rain, it was finally decided to abandon
+Fairfield and return to France for a long motor trip.
+
+The first night out from Chiddingfold was spent at Tunbridge Wells,
+and next day a stop was made at Rye to call on Henry James. Never did
+travellers receive a more hearty or gracious welcome. It is a quaint,
+lost place, Rye--one of the old Cinque Ports; to enter it one passes
+under an ancient Roman arch; the nearest railroad is miles away. It is
+nice to think that after giving him a cup of tea in her drawing-room
+in San Francisco two years before, Mrs. Stevenson could see the house
+he lived in, admire his garden, drink tea in his drawing-room, and
+talk long and pleasantly with this old and valued friend she was never
+to see again.
+
+The second motor trip in France was an unqualified success. Keeping to
+the west and avoiding Paris, this time their route lay through Blois,
+Tours, Angouleme, Libourne, Biarritz, till, finally, several miles
+from Pau, they had a _panne_, as they say in France, and their motor,
+which had behaved remarkably well until that moment, entered Pau
+ignominiously at the end of a long tow-rope. As it took ten days to
+make the repairs necessary, they used the interval of waiting to go by
+train to Lourdes. It was the particular time when pilgrims go to seek
+the healing waters of the miraculous fountain, and they saw many sad
+and depressing sights--for the lame, the halt, the blind, people
+afflicted with every sort of disease, and some even in the last
+agonies, crowded the paths in a pitiful procession. Mrs. Stevenson
+afterwards said that when she saw the blind come away from the sacred
+fount with apparently seeing eyes, and the lame throw away their
+crutches and walk, she was, as King Agrippa said unto Paul, "almost
+persuaded" to believe.
+
+Gladly putting this picture behind them, they went on to
+Bagneres-de-Bigorre, a little village nestling at the base of the
+Pyrenees. The weather there was perfect, and the whole atmosphere of
+the place so sweetly simple and unsophisticated that Mrs. Stevenson
+loved it best of all. After six pleasant days spent there, the motor
+now mended, they returned by train to Pau and resumed their trip--due
+east to Carcassonne, that lovely, lovely city, with its mediaeval
+ramparts and towers, and then on to Cette on the Mediterranean, where
+they landed in a storm.
+
+And so north, almost paralleling their first trip, they ran through
+Mende, Bourges, and Montargis, and one rainy afternoon passed within
+sight of the village of Grez, where so many years before Fanny
+Osbourne first met Louis Stevenson, but the memories that it brought
+were too poignant, and she was only able to give one look as they sped
+swiftly by.
+
+Arriving in Paris on October 3, after this leisurely journey through
+beautiful France, they remained but a few days there and then went on
+to London, where they met the Favershams and sailed in company with
+them for America on the _Vaterland_. With but a brief stop in New York
+they hastened on to San Francisco to carry out a certain plan that had
+been formulated while they were in France. Oddly enough, it was on the
+other side of the world that Mrs. Stevenson first heard of beautiful
+Stonehedge, the place at Santa Barbara which became the home of her
+last days. At Monte Carlo she met Mrs. Clarence Postley, of
+California, who dilated on the charms of the Santa Barbara place--its
+fine old trees, its spring water, its romantic story of being haunted
+by the ghost of a beautiful countess--until finally Mrs. Stevenson
+said that if it was as charming as that she would buy it. After her
+return to California she went to see it, and, finding it even more
+lovely than she had been told, the bargain was struck. It had been
+evident for some time, too, that her health required a warmer climate
+than that of San Francisco, and, above all, she longed for a place
+where she might live more in the open than the winds and fogs of the
+bay city permitted. So, though she was very sad at leaving the house
+on the heights where she had lived long enough for her heart-strings
+to take root, she sold it in 1908 and removed to the southern place,
+there to enter on a new phase of her life.
+
+The house at Hyde and Lombard Streets, following out the curious
+fatality that made everything connected with her take on some romantic
+aspect, became for a time the abode of Carmelite Sisters, the Roman
+Catholic Order whose strict rules require its devotees to live almost
+completely cut off from the world. The long drawing-room, where Mrs.
+Stevenson had entertained so many of the great people of the earth,
+became the chapel, and in place of the light laughter and gay talk
+that once echoed from its walls only the low intoning of the mass was
+heard. At the front door, where the Indian pagan idols had kept guard,
+a revolving cylinder was placed so that the charitable might put in
+their donations without seeing the faces or hearing the voices of the
+immured nuns. In the green garden where Mrs. Stevenson had so often
+walked and dreamed of other days the gentle sisters knelt and prayed
+that the sins of the world might be forgiven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE LAST DAYS AT SANTA BARBARA.
+
+
+Of all the beautiful places of the earth where it was Fanny
+Stevenson's good fortune to set up her household gods at various
+times, perhaps the loveliest of all was this spot on the peaceful
+shore of the sunset sea, under the patronage of the noble lady, Saint
+Barbara. In the Samoan gardens tropical flowers flamed under the hot
+rays of the vertical sun; in San Francisco geraniums and fuchsias
+rejoiced and grew prodigiously in the salt sea fog; but at Santa
+Barbara, where north and south meet, the plants of every land thrive
+as though native born. The scarlet hibiscus, child of the tropics,
+grows side by side with the aster of northern climes; the
+bougainvillaea flings out its purple sprays in close neighbourhood to
+the roses of old England; the sweet-william, dear to the hearts of our
+grandmothers, blooms in rich profusion in the shade of the
+pomegranate; and in brotherly companionship with the Norwegian pine
+the magnolia-tree unfolds its great creamy cups.
+
+In her garden at Stonehedge, situated in lovely Montecito, about six
+miles from Santa Barbara, Fanny Stevenson found the chief solace of
+her declining years. Its extent of some seven acres gave her full
+scope for the horticultural experiments in which she delighted. When
+she took possession of the place it was in rather a neglected state,
+but that was all the better, for it gave her a free field to develop
+it according to her own tastes. The house was a well-built but
+old-fashioned affair of an unattractive type, with imitation towers
+and gingerbread trimmings, and at first sight her friends assured her
+that nothing could be done with it. Architects, when asked for advice,
+said the only thing was to tear it down and build a new house. But,
+instead, she called in a carpenter from the town and set to work on
+alterations. When all was done the house had a pleasant southern look
+that fitted in well with the luxuriant growth of flowers and trees in
+which it stood, and its red roof made a cheerful note in the
+landscape.
+
+In the grounds she worked out her plans, leisurely adding something
+year by year, a little Dutch garden, sweeping walks and lawns, a
+wonderful terraced rose-garden with a stone pergola at the upper end,
+where the creepers were never trimmed into smug stiffness, but grew in
+wild luxuriance at their own sweet will, and soon they made a glorious
+tangle of sweet-smelling blooms and glossy green leaves. From the
+living-room windows one looked out over a broad expanse of mossy lawn;
+groups of vermilion-coloured hibiscus and poinsettias kept harmonious
+company; dahlias made great masses of gorgeous colour among the green;
+tall hollyhocks were ranged along the veranda in old-fashioned
+formalism; indeed, it would be like quoting from a florist's catalogue
+to mention all the plants to be found in this garden.
+
+[Illustration: Stonehedge at Santa Barbara.]
+
+Nor did she neglect the purely useful, for the most delicious fruits
+and vegetables--from the lemons, oranges, and loquats of the south
+to the apricots, apples, and pears of the north--grew to perfection
+under her fostering care. She was always on the lookout for new
+varieties, and I find among her correspondence a letter from the
+distinguished horticulturist, Luther Burbank, in answer to her request
+for strawberry plants:
+
+                              "Santa Rosa, California, Feb. 21, 1911.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Stevenson:
+
+"I feel most highly honored and pleased with your kind order of the
+15th instant for 25 Patagonian strawberry plants, which were sent out
+yesterday.... You can never know the regard and love in which Mr.
+Stevenson is held in thousands of hearts who have never expressed
+themselves to you.
+
+                    "Sincerely yours,
+
+                                        "Luther Burbank."
+
+
+The story of Fanny Stevenson's life at Stonehedge is one of the still
+peace that she loved more and more as time went on, almost its only
+excitements being the blooming of a new flower, the digging of a well,
+or perhaps the trying out of an electric pump. The hurly-burly of the
+world was far away from that quiet spot, and only the arrival of the
+daily mail by rural carrier, or an infrequent visitor from some one of
+the country houses in the neighbourhood, broke the sweet monotony of
+existence. Of the simple pleasures of her life here she writes to her
+husband's cousin, Graham Balfour, in these words:
+
+"As I write, my delightful Japanese boy, Yonida, brings me in a great
+bunch of violets in one hand and quantities of yellow poppies in the
+other, while in front of me stands an immense vase of sweet peas--all
+just plucked from my garden. I wish that you might share them with me,
+and that you might hear the mocking-bird that is singing by my window.
+A mocking-bird is not a night-in-gale, to be sure, but he has a fine
+song of his own. I have such a nice little household; my two Japanese
+young men, who do gardening and such things; a most excellent, very
+handsome, middle-aged cook named Kate Romero, who, in spite of her
+name is half Irish and half English; and Mary Boyle, altogether Irish
+and altogether a most delightful creature. The most important member
+of the family, however, is my cat; Kitson is a full-bred Siamese royal
+temple cat, and is quite aware of his exalted pedigree. He exacts all
+and gives nothing. There are times when I should prefer more affection
+and less _hauteur_. He's a proud cat, and loves no one but Kitson."
+
+This cat, a strange creature coloured like a tawny lion, with face,
+tail, and paws a chocolate brown, and large bright-blue eyes staring
+uncannily from his dark countenance, possibly had more affection than
+his haughty manner indicated, for, after his mistress's death, he
+refused food and soon followed her into the other world, if so be that
+cats are admitted there.
+
+In this house were gathered all the heirlooms, books, old furniture,
+pictures, and other interesting objects which had been brought down
+from San Francisco. The St. Gaudens medallion of Stevenson was fitted
+into a niche over the mantelpiece in the living-room, where Mrs.
+Stevenson spent much of her time seated before the great fireplace
+with the haughty Kitson on her lap. On the mantelshelf there was a
+curious collection of photographs--one of Ah Fu, the Chinese cook of
+South Sea memory, side by side with that of Sir Arthur Pinero, famous
+playwright--silent witnesses to the wide extent of her acquaintance
+and the broad democracy of her ideas.
+
+At Stonehedge her life ran on almost undisturbed in the calm stillness
+that she loved so much. Now and then she went for a day's fishing at
+Serena, a place on the shore a few miles from Stonehedge. With its
+background of high, rugged hills and the calm summer sea at its feet
+it has a serene beauty that well befits its name.
+
+At infrequent intervals people of note arriving in Santa Barbara
+sought her out, and though she received them graciously she was
+equally interested in the visit of an Italian gardener and his wife,
+who came to bring her a present of some rare plant, and with whom she
+had most delightful talks about the flowers of the tropics. She was
+much pleased, too, when one day a Scotch couple, plain, kindly people,
+came merely to look at the house where the widow of their great
+countryman lived. When they came she happened to be in the garden and
+they apologized for the intrusion and were about to withdraw, but the
+moment she recognized the accent she welcomed them with outstretched
+hands. When they left their carriage was loaded with flowers, and she
+stood on the veranda waving her hand in farewell.
+
+In August, 1909, accompanied by her daughter, Mr. Field, her nephew
+Louis Sanchez, and the maid Mary Boyle, she went on a motor trip to
+Sausal in Lower California, where they found that the house had been
+broken into by duck hunters, and presented a forlorn appearance.
+Coming from the comfort of Stonehedge to this deserted cabin was
+something of a shock to the rest of the party, and but for Mrs.
+Stevenson they would have left at once. "Mrs. Robinson Crusoe,"
+however, justified her name with such enthusiasm that the others
+caught fire. Louis Sanchez lent a ready hand to repairs and under his
+magic fingers doors swung upon their hinges, tables ceased to wabble,
+door-knobs turned, and even a comfortable rocking-chair "for Tamaitai"
+emerged from a hopeless wreck. Mrs. Strong and Mary Boyle assaulted
+the little cabin with soap and water and disinfectants, and with much
+courage and laughter routed two swarms of bees which had taken
+possession of the ceiling. Mr. Field supplied the larder with game and
+fish, and ran the automobile to town for supplies. Mrs. Stevenson,
+who, at Stonehedge, was always somewhat dismayed by the morning
+demands of the cook for the day's orders, delighted in surprising the
+party with unexpected good dishes which she cooked with her own hands.
+
+As the years passed her health began to show distinct signs of
+breaking, and when she proposed another trip to Mexico in the spring
+of 1910, her family feared she was not strong enough to endure the
+fatigue, but as she herself said she "would rather go to the well and
+be broken than be preserved on a dusty shelf," they finally agreed.
+
+She had had a great admiration for Mexico ever since her first visit,
+and wanted to show her daughter the land she said was "older and more
+interesting" than any country she had ever seen. Then, as her nephew
+was a mining engineer recently graduated from the University of
+California, she hoped to find a good opening for him in that land of
+gold and silver. The three set off in high spirits, for there was
+nothing Mrs. Stevenson liked better than change of scene.
+
+Although during this time in Mexico City she found the altitude very
+trying in its effect on her heart, and was in consequence obliged to
+keep rather quiet, yet she was able to move about to a certain extent
+and to see some of the sights of the place. She loved to sit by the
+Viga Canal and watch the life of the people ebb and flow along its
+tree-lined stretches--the queer old flat-bottomed and square-ended
+boats coming in on work days with vegetables and flowers from the
+so-called "floating gardens," and on days of _fiesta_ transformed into
+pleasure craft with gay streamers and flags. On moonlight nights the
+tinkle of guitars sounded everywhere on the still waters of the canal
+and far out on the lake, for it is the custom of well-to-do people to
+hire these boats and with their musicians spend the evening _a la_
+Venice.
+
+In the city the travellers were much interested in the Monte de
+Piedad, the pawn shop which is run under State control. Here great
+bargains may sometimes be picked up in jewels left there by ladies of
+good family in reduced circumstances. Mrs. Stevenson had a very
+feminine liking for jewels, but they had to be different from the
+ordinary sort to attract her, and she was much pleased to pick up in
+Mexico some pieces of the odd and barbaric designs that she especially
+liked.
+
+Delightful days were spent in the city prowling about the queer old
+shops and buying curious things that are not to be found in other
+parts of the world. This was the kind of shopping that she really
+enjoyed--this poking about in strange, romantic places.
+
+Among the very few people that Mrs. Stevenson met in Mexico in a
+social way was the well-known historian and archaeologist, Mrs. Zelia
+Nuttall, whom she considered a most charming and interesting woman.
+Together with her daughter she lunched with Mrs. Nuttall at her
+picturesque house, once the home of Alvarado, in the outskirts of
+Mexico City. It was the oldest house they had ever seen, and, with its
+inner _patio_, outside stairways and balconies, and large collection
+of rare idols, pots, and weapons that Mrs. Nuttall had herself
+unearthed from old Indian ruins, was intensely interesting.
+
+Hearing of an opening in the mining business at Oaxaca for her nephew,
+she decided to go there and look into the matter. Conditions at Oaxaca
+were found to be even more primitive than at the capital. One time
+they asked for hot water, but the American landlady threw up her hands
+and cried, "Oh, my dears! There is a water famine in Oaxaca. It is
+terrible. We can get you a very small jug to wash with, but it isn't
+clear enough to drink."
+
+"What are we to drink?"
+
+In answer to this she brought a large jug of bottled water that
+tasted strongly of sulphur. This they mixed with malted milk bought at
+a grocery, making a beverage of which they said that though they had
+tasted better in their time, they certainly never had tasted worse.
+Notwithstanding all these inconveniences Mrs. Stevenson was in the
+best of tempers and keenly interested in seeing places and things, and
+when she tired was happy with a magazine or sitting at a window
+watching the street life. The first evening, while they were sitting
+in the _patio_, there was a violent earthquake, which seemed to them
+worse than the famous shake of 1906 in San Francisco, but it did no
+damage and the hotel people made nothing of it.
+
+After seeing her nephew off to the mines at Taviche, and taking a side
+trip to see the ancient buried city of Mitla, Mrs. Stevenson and her
+daughter returned to the capital, where they took train for
+California, and were soon at home again amid the sweet flowers of
+Stonehedge. There Mrs. Stevenson once more took up the writing of the
+introductions to her husband's books, for which she had contracted
+with Charles Scribner's Sons. As I have already said, it was only
+after much urging that she consented to do this work, and her almost
+painful shrinking from it appears in a letter of March 25, 1911, to
+Mr. Charles Scribner: "With this note I send the introduction to
+Father Damien. I didn't see how to touch upon the others when I know
+so little about them. I know this thing is about as bad as anything
+can be. I cringe whenever I think of it, but I seem incapable of doing
+better. If, however, it is beyond the pale, write and tell me,
+please, and I will try once again. Louis's work was so mixed up with
+his home life that it is hard to see just where to draw the line
+between telling enough and yet not too much. I dislike extremely
+drawing aside the veil to let the public gaze intimately where they
+have no right to look at all. I think it is the consciousness of this
+feeling that gives an extra woodenness to my style--style is a big
+word--I should have put it 'bad style.'"
+
+It was during this time that news came of a severe accident to Alison
+Cunningham, Louis's old nurse--a misfortune which resulted in her
+death within a few weeks. Mrs. Stevenson always felt an especial
+tenderness for "Cummy," as the one whose kind hand had tended her
+beloved husband in his infancy, and she very gladly aided in the old
+lady's support during her last years. Lord Guthrie, Louis's longtime
+friend and schoolmate, says in his booklet on the story of Cummy:
+
+[Illustration: The last portrait of Mrs. Stevenson.]
+
+"From the novelist's widow she always received most delicate and
+thoughtful kindness. Mrs. Stevenson often wrote to her and she amply
+supplemented the original pension settled on her by Mr. Thomas
+Stevenson, Louis's father. A few months before Cummy's death (at the
+age of ninety-two), she cordially agreed, on condition that Cummy
+should not know of it, to make a special additional annual payment
+which I had ascertained, from an outside source, would add to the old
+lady's happiness. And as soon as she received my letter telling her of
+Cummy's accident (a fall causing a broken hip), I had a
+characteristically generous message from her, sent by wire from
+San Francisco, giving me carte-blanche for Cummy's benefit. I call
+this message characteristic, because I find in her letters such
+passages as this: 'Please, dear Cummy, always let me know instantly
+when there is anything in the world I can do to add to your comfort,
+your happiness, or your pleasure. There is so little I can do for you,
+and I wish to do so much. You and I are the last; and we must help
+each other all we can, until we, too, follow.'"[74]
+
+              [Footnote 74: Quoted by courtesy of Lord Guthrie.]
+
+When Cummy died Mrs. Stevenson was represented at the funeral by Mr.
+A. P. Melville, W. S., and a wreath ordered by her was placed on the
+coffin. She also bore the expense of Cummy's last illness and funeral
+and had a handsome tombstone put up in her memory.
+
+In these days the sands began to run low in the hour-glass of the life
+of Fanny Stevenson, and a great weariness seemed to be settling upon
+her. Writing to Mr. Scribner in June, 1913, she says: "All my life I
+have taken care of others, and yet I have always wanted to be taken
+care of, for naturally I belong to the clinging vine sort of woman;
+but fate seems still against me." Nevertheless, I truly believe she
+enjoyed being the head of her clan, the fairy godmother, the
+chieftainess of her family, to whom all came for help and counsel. But
+now the shadows of evening were growing long, and she was getting
+very, very tired.
+
+But, world-weary as she was, she consented at this time to prepare for
+publication in book form the notes which she had taken, primarily for
+her husband's use, of one of their voyages in the South Seas. As it
+happened, he made little use of the notes, so that most of it was new
+material. In this work, for dear memory's sake, she took a real
+pleasure, of which she speaks in the preface in these words: "The
+little book, however dull it may seem to others, can boast of at least
+one reader, for I have gone over this record of perhaps the happiest
+period of my life with thrilling interest." The book was brought out
+by Charles Scribner's Sons, under the title of _The Cruise of the
+"Janet Nichol"_, and it has a melancholy interest, apart from its
+contents, as the last work done by her in this life. She had only
+finished the reading of the proofs a few days before her death, and
+the book did not appear until some months afterwards.
+
+In November, 1913, she was threatened with asthma, and in consequence
+went to spend some time at Palm Springs, a health resort on the desert
+in southeastern California. In the dry, clear air of that place her
+health improved so wonderfully that all her friends and family
+believed that a crisis had passed, and that she had fortunately sailed
+into one of those calm havens which so often come to people in their
+later years. She returned to Stonehedge seemingly well. All their
+fears were lulled, and the blow was all the more crushing when, on the
+18th of February, 1914, silently and without warning, she passed from
+this life. In the manner of her death and that of her husband there
+was a striking coincidence; each passed away suddenly, after only a
+few hours of unconsciousness, from the breaking of an artery in the
+brain. The story of her last moments may best be told in the words of
+a letter from her devoted maid, Agnes Crowley,[75] which is so sincere
+and touching that I quote it without eliminations:
+
+              [Footnote 75: Her former maid, Mary Boyle, had married
+              and left her service.]
+
+"My dear Mrs. Sanchez:
+
+"We are a very sad little household--we are all heart-broken, to think
+our dear little Madam has gone away never to return. It seems too
+awful, and just when she was enjoying everything. We were home from
+Palm Springs just one week when she was taken away from us--but you
+can console yourself by thinking that she was surrounded by love and
+devotion. She was not sick and did not suffer. Tuesday evening,
+February 17, she felt well and read her magazines until nine o'clock,
+and Mr. Field played cards with her till 10.30. Then she retired. The
+next morning I went in to attend to her as usual, and there was my
+dear little Madam lying unconscious. I thought at first she was in a
+faint, and I quickly ran for Mr. Field; he jumped up and put on his
+bathrobe and went to her while I called Dr. Hurst. It took the doctor
+about seven minutes to get here, and as soon as he saw her he said it
+was a stroke, but he seemed to be hopeful and thought he could pull
+her through. He put an ice pack on her head and gave her an injection
+in the arm and oxygen to inhale, and she seemed to begin to breathe
+natural, and we all hoped, but it was in vain. She never regained
+consciousness, and at two o'clock she just stopped breathing, so you
+see she did not suffer. But oh Mrs. Sanchez, we all seemed so
+helpless--we all loved her so and yet could do nothing. Dr. Hurst
+worked hard from 8.30 till two o'clock, and when the end came he cried
+like a little child, for he loved Mrs. Stevenson very much. It was an
+awful blow to us all--it was so sudden. This place will never seem the
+same to William and me, for we loved our little Madam dearly, and it
+was a pleasure to do anything for her--for she was always so gentle
+and sweet. I adored her from the first time I ever saw her, and will
+always consider it the greatest pleasure of my life to have had the
+privilege of waiting upon her.
+
+          "I remain very affectionately,
+
+                                        "Agnes Crowley."
+
+
+When the angel of death stooped to take her he came on the wings of a
+wild storm, which raged that week all through the Southwest--fitting
+weather for the passing of the "Stormy Petrel." Railroads were flooded
+all over the country, and her son, Lloyd Osbourne, was delayed by
+washouts for some days on the way out from New York. On his arrival
+the body was removed to San Francisco, where a simple funeral ceremony
+was held in the presence of a few sorrowing friends and relatives. On
+her bier red roses, typical of her own warm nature, were heaped in
+masses. A touching incident, one that it would have pleased her to
+know, was the appearance of Fuzisaki, her Japanese gardener at
+Stonehedge, with a wreath of beautiful flowers. It was in accordance
+with her own wish, several times expressed to those nearest her, that
+her body was cremated and the ashes later removed to Samoa, there to
+lie beside her beloved on the lonely mountain top.
+
+To her own family the sense of loss was overwhelming, and I cannot
+perhaps express it better than in the words of her grandson, Austin
+Strong: "To say that I miss her means nothing. Why, it is as if an Era
+had passed into oblivion. She was so much the Chief of us all, the
+Ruling Power. God rest her soul!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson passed from this earth the news of
+her death carried a pang of grief to many a heart in far distant
+lands. One who knew her well, her husband's cousin, Graham Balfour,
+writes his estimate of her character in these words:
+
+"Although I had met Fanny Stevenson twice in England, I first came to
+know her on my arrival at Vailima in August, 1892, when within a
+single day we established a firm friendship that only grew closer
+until her death. The three stanzas by Louis so completely expressed
+her that it seems useless for a man to add anything or to refine upon
+it:
+
+     'Steel-true and blade-straight
+      .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .
+      Honor, anger, valor, fire,
+      A love that life could never tire,
+      .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .
+      Teacher, tender comrade, wife,
+      A fellow-farer true through life.'
+
+"These were all the essentials, and if we add her devotion to her
+children and her loyalty to her friends, we have the fabric of which
+her life was woven. Her integrity and her directness were such that
+one could, and frequently did, differ from her and express the
+difference in the strongest terms without leaving a trace of
+bitterness.
+
+"I remember in particular a scheme which she wished to set on foot for
+releasing Mataafa and other Samoan chiefs from their exile in the
+German island of Jaluit and carrying them off to Australia. The
+project was a wild one and would only have led to their return and
+disgrace, and in these terms and much stronger expressions we
+discussed it, without ever abating one jot from our personal
+friendship.
+
+"And in the long years that followed absence made no difference. Every
+letter, when it came, was as full of affection and of confidence as
+its predecessors--full of loyalty and tenderness.
+
+"To her enemies, of course, she showed another side. Opposition she
+did not mind, but dishonesty and deceit were unforgivable.
+
+"The news of her death reached me in St. Helena, as the announcement
+of Louis's death found me on another far-off island in the Carolinas;
+and both times the world became a colder, greyer, more monotonous
+place."
+
+These pages have been written in vain if I have not made clear what
+the world owes this rare woman, not only for the sedulous care which
+kept the invalid genius alive long after the time allotted to him in
+the book of fate, but for the intellectual sympathy and keen
+discernment with which she stood beside him and
+
+     "Burnished the sword, blew on the drowsy coal,
+      Held still the target higher, chary of praise
+      And prodigal of counsel."
+
+In speaking of literature's great debt to her, Lord Guthrie says:
+
+"Without her Louis's best work neither could nor would have existed.
+In studying the life and works of Thomas Carlyle I often had occasion
+to contrast his wife and Louis's. With all Mrs. Carlyle's great and
+attractive qualities and her undoubted influence on her husband, she
+made his work difficult by her want of perspective, magnifying
+molehills into mountains. It could not be said that any of his great
+writings owed their existence to her."
+
+An article appearing in the _Literary Digest_ shortly after her death
+touches upon this point:
+
+"Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson was content to remain in the background
+and let her husband reap all the glory for his literary achievements,
+and the result was that her part in his career had probably been
+minimized in the public mind. She was a great deal more than a mere
+domestic help meet."
+
+From her old and attached friend, Mr. S. S. McClure, comes this
+sincere tribute:
+
+"The more I saw of the Stevensons the more I became convinced that
+Mrs. Stevenson was the unique woman in the world to be Stevenson's
+wife.... When he met her her exotic beauty was at its height, and with
+this beauty she had a wealth of experience, a reach of imagination, a
+sense of humor, which he had never found in any other woman. Mrs.
+Stevenson had many of the fine qualities that we usually attribute to
+men rather than to women; a fair-mindedness, a large judgment, a
+robust, inconsequential philosophy of life, without which she could
+not have borne, much less shared with a relish equal to his own, his
+wandering, unsettled life, his vagaries, his gipsy passion for
+freedom. She had a really creative imagination, which she expressed in
+living. She always lived with great intensity, had come more into
+contact with the real world than Stevenson had done at the time when
+they met, had tried more kinds of life, known more kinds of people.
+When he married her, he married a woman rich in knowledge of life and
+the world.
+
+"She had the kind of pluck that Stevenson particularly admired. He was
+best when he was at sea, and although Mrs. Stevenson was a poor sailor
+and often suffered greatly from seasickness, she accompanied him on
+all his wanderings in the South Seas and on rougher waters, with the
+greatest spirit. A woman who was rigid in small matters of domestic
+economy, who insisted on a planned and ordered life, would have
+worried Stevenson terribly.
+
+"A sick man of letters never married into a family so well fitted to
+help him make the most of his powers. Mrs. Stevenson and both of her
+children were gifted; the whole family could write. When Stevenson was
+ill, one of them could always lend a hand and help him out. Without
+such an amanuensis as Mrs. Strong,[76] Mrs. Stevenson's daughter, he
+could not have got through anything like the amount of work he turned
+off. Whenever he had a new idea for a story, it met, at his own
+fireside, with the immediate recognition, appreciation, and enthusiasm
+so necessary to an artist, and which he so seldom finds among his own
+blood or in his own family.
+
+              [Footnote 76: Now Mrs. Salisbury Field.]
+
+"After Stevenson disappeared in the South Seas, many of us had a new
+feeling about that part of the world. I remember that on my next trip
+to California I looked at the Pacific with new eyes; there was a
+glamour of romance over it. I always intended to go to Samoa to visit
+him; it was one of those splendid adventures that one might have had
+and did not.
+
+"One afternoon in August, 1896, I went with Sidney Colvin and Mrs.
+Sitwell (now Lady Colvin) to Paddington Station to meet Mrs.
+Stevenson, when, after Stevenson's death she at last returned to
+Europe after her world-wide wanderings--after nine years of exile.
+When she alighted from the boat train I felt Stevenson's death as if
+it had happened only the day before, and I have no doubt that she did.
+As she came up the platform in black, with so much that was strange
+and wonderful behind her, his companion of so many years, through
+uncharted seas and distant lands, I could only say to myself:
+'Hector's Andromache!'"[77]
+
+              [Footnote 77: Quoted from _McClure's Magazine_.]
+
+She had one of those unusual personalities that attract other women as
+well as men, and one of them, Lady Balfour, writes of her from the
+point of view of her own sex:
+
+"When Mrs. Stevenson heard of my engagement to Graham Balfour she
+wrote me the kindest and tenderest of letters, telling me not to have
+any fears in the new path that lay before me. She added: 'I who tell
+you so have trodden it from end to end.' This sympathy meant much to
+me, for it could only have come from such a generous heart as hers.
+She had hoped that Palema[78] would continue to make his home with
+them, and she had great confidence in and love for him. He would have
+been a link between her and the old associations of the Vailima life,
+and his engagement to an English girl proved to her that this would no
+longer be possible. Yet where a less fine nature would have contented
+itself with the mere formal congratulations as all that could be
+possible under the circumstances, she gave generous sympathy to a
+stranger, who caused her fresh loss, from her generous 'steel-true'
+heart.
+
+              [Footnote 78: Sir Graham Balfour's Samoan name.]
+
+"I had been married about two years when Mrs. Stevenson came to
+England in 1898, and we were living at Oxford. I was naturally a
+little nervous as to my first introduction to her. My husband wanted
+to take me up to London to see her, but I asked to go alone, feeling
+somehow that it would be easier. To this day I remember the
+trepidation with which I followed the parlor maid upstairs in Oxford
+Terrace, and was ushered into the room where a lady of infinite
+dignity was lying on a sofa. It seems to me now that after one steady
+look from those searching 'eyes of gold and bramble dew' (which had
+rather the effect of a sort of spiritual X-ray), I lost my feeling of
+being on approval, and in ten minutes I was sitting on the floor
+beside the sofa, pouring out my own past history in remarkable detail,
+and feeling as if I had known Tamaitai for years.
+
+"In the following summer, 1899, she came to stay with us at Oxford,
+to give Palema all the help she could about the life of Robert Louis
+Stevenson he had just undertaken at her urgent request. Incidentally,
+she was to be introduced to her godson, our eldest boy Gilbert, who
+was then about six months old. She gave him a christening present of a
+silver bowl for his bread and milk, upon a silver saucer which could
+be reversed and used also as a cover. On the covering side were the
+words from the Child's Garden:
+
+     'It is very nice to think
+      The world is full of meat and drink
+      With little children saying grace
+      In every Christian kind of place.'
+
+"When the cover was taken off and used as a saucer it had on its
+concave side:
+
+     'A child should always say what's true
+      And speak when he is spoken to,
+      And behave mannerly at table,
+      At least as far as he is able.'
+
+"Tamaitai had had a very critical operation during the previous
+autumn, and was still comparatively invalided with the effects of it.
+She spoke enthusiastically of Sir Frederick Treves, who had performed
+it and had refused any fee, saying he counted it a privilege to attend
+her. I have a clear picture of her in my mind, lying on the sofa in
+our drawing-room. The door opened and the nurse carried in the baby,
+barefooted. 'Ah,' she said to him, 'who's this coming in hanging out
+ten pink rosebuds at the tail of his frock?' And the little pink toes
+justified a description that only she would have so worded.
+
+"We drove her round to a few of the most beautiful and characteristic
+of the Oxford colleges. She was easily fatigued, but she delighted in
+what she saw. I remember admiring her pretty feet, clad in quite
+inadequate but most dainty black satin shoes, with very high heels,
+and fine silk stockings. When I put my admiration into words she just
+smiled upon me delightfully but said nothing.
+
+"One evening we talked desultorily about the 'criminal instinct.'
+'Well,' I said at last, 'there's one thing certain, I should never
+commit a murder. I shouldn't have the courage when it came to the
+point!' 'Oh,' said she, 'I could murder a person if I hated him enough
+for anything he had done, but I should have to call upon him in the
+morning and tell him I was going to murder him at five o'clock.'
+
+"We dined out with some Oxford friends, among whom was a tall Scotch
+professor who was a brilliant and quick talker. Tamaitai took no part
+in the rapid thrust and parry of the talk, but sat silently looking
+from one to another with her great dark eyes. Their comment on her
+long afterwards was that she was the most inscrutable person they had
+ever met. As we drove home after the party I asked Tamaitai: 'What did
+you think of the talk?' There was a brief silence--then: 'I didn't
+understand a single word of it, they talked so fast,' said she
+frankly.
+
+"I don't think I ever knew a woman who was a more perfect 'gentleman.'
+Scorning all that was not direct, and true, and simple, she herself
+hated disguise or casuistry in any form. Her eyes looked through your
+soul and out at the other side, but you never felt that her judgment,
+whatever it was, would be harsh. She was curiously detached, and yet
+you always wanted her sympathy, and if she loved you it never failed
+you. She was a strong partisan, which was perhaps the most feminine
+part of her character. She was wholly un-English, but she made
+allowances for every English tradition. My English maids loved her
+without understanding her in the least. I never knew any one that had
+such a way as she had of turning your little vagaries and habits and
+fads to your notice with their funny side out, so that all the time
+you were subtly flattered and secretly delighted."
+
+I wish I had the power to describe that mysterious charm which drew to
+her so many and such various people--the high and the low in
+far-scattered places of the earth--but it was too elusive to put in
+words. Perhaps a large part of it lay in her clear simplicity, her
+utter lack of pretence or pose. I remember reading once in a San
+Francisco newspaper a comment by a writer who seemed to touch nearly
+upon the heart of the secret. The paragraph runs thus:
+
+"Once a man told me that Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson was the one woman
+in the world he could imagine a man being willing to die for. Every
+man I asked--every single man, rich and poor, young or old, clever or
+stupid--all agreed about Mrs. Stevenson, that she was the most
+fascinating woman he had ever seen. It was some years ago that I saw
+her, but I would know her again if I saw her between flashes of
+lightning in a stormy sea. Individuality--that was her charm. She
+knew it and she had sense enough to be herself. Individuality and
+simple unaffected honesty of speech and action and look are the most
+potent charms and the most lasting that any woman can ever hope to
+have."
+
+Her broad sympathies, too, had much to do with it. If there is any
+word in the English language that means the opposite of snob, it may
+certainly be applied to her. She picked out her friends for the simple
+and sufficient reason that she liked them, and they might and did
+include a duchess, a Chinese, a great English playwright, a French
+fisherman, a saloon-keeper who was once shipwrecked with her, a noted
+actor--and so on through a long and varied list. Once in Sydney when
+she was out walking with her daughter, both richly dressed, she
+stopped suddenly to shake hands with a group of black-avised pirates
+(to all appearances) with rings in their ears. She had met them
+somewhere among the islands, and her little white-gloved hand grasped
+their big brown ones with genuine and affectionate friendship. Wide
+apart as she and her husband were in many things, in their utter lack
+of snobbery they were as one. Once they were at a French
+watering-place when from their room upstairs they heard a loud uproar
+below. A voice cried: "I will see my Louis!" Going out to see what the
+trouble was, Louis found four French fishermen in a _char-a-bancs_--all
+in peasant blouses. The major-domo of the fashionable hotel was trying
+to keep them out, but when Louis appeared he called out their names
+joyfully, and they all cried: "Mon cher Louis!" After each had
+embraced him, he asked them up to his rooms, and, despite the
+ill-concealed scorn of the waiter, ordered up a grand dinner for them.
+They were the French fishermen he had known at Monterey, California,
+and one may be sure that they met with as cordial a welcome from his
+wife as from himself. I know that in one of her letters she urges him
+not to forget to write to Francois the baker, at Monterey, saying: "It
+seems to me much more necessary to write some word to him than to Sir
+Walter, or Baxter, or Henley, for they are your friends who know you
+and will not be disappointed, either in a pleasure or in humanity, as
+this poor baker will be. Indeed you must write and say something to
+him."
+
+As has been said, her dislike of deceit and treachery was one of the
+most strongly marked traits in her character. Once when she had reason
+to fear that a person whom she was befriending was deceiving her, and
+she was told that a simple inquiry would settle the matter, she
+replied: "But I couldn't bear to find out that he is lying to me."
+
+Her charities were many, but they were always of the quiet,
+unobtrusive sort, of which few heard except those most nearly
+concerned. For instance, when she heard of a poor woman in her
+neighbourhood whose life could only be saved by an expensive
+operation, she paid to have it done. Her life was full of such acts,
+and there are many, many people who have good reason to be grateful to
+her memory.
+
+But when all is said, it has always seemed to me that the bright star
+of her character, shining above all other traits, was her
+loyalty--that staunch fidelity that made her cling, through thick and
+thin, through good or evil report, to those whom she loved. But as she
+loved, so she hated, and as she endowed her friends with all the
+virtues, so she could see no good at all in an enemy. Yet, just when
+you thought you were beginning to understand her nature--with its love
+and hate of the primal woman--her anger would suddenly soften, not
+into tenderness, but into a sort of dispassionate wisdom, and she
+would quote her favourite saying: "To know all is to forgive all."
+
+That she had infinite tenderness for the feelings of others, living or
+dead, she proved every day. In a letter to Mr. Scribner asking advice
+about the publication in London of certain letters of her husband, she
+says:
+
+"Some of the letters that are intended to go into the book should not,
+in my judgment, appear at all. When my husband was a boy in his late
+'teens' and early twenties he and his father--a rigid old
+Calvinist--quarrelled on the subject of religion. Louis being young
+enough to like the melodrama, it took on an undue importance, out of
+all keeping with the real facts. During this turbulent period Louis
+poured out his soul in letters, the publication of many of which would
+give a false impression of the relations between the son and the
+father. Louis was twenty-five when I first met him, and the period of
+the religious discussion was long past. Mr. Thomas Stevenson loved me
+and was as kind to me as though I were his own daughter. I cannot, for
+the sake of an extra volume that would produce a certain amount of
+money, do anything that in my heart would seem disloyal to the dear
+old man's memory--all the more because he is dead."
+
+In her character there were many strange contradictions, and I think
+sometimes this was a part of her attraction, for even after knowing
+her for years one could always count on some surprise, some unexpected
+contrast which went far in making up her fascinating personality.
+Notwithstanding the broad view that she took of life in most of its
+aspects, in some things she was old-fashioned. She was never
+reconciled, for instance, to female suffrage, and once when she was
+persuaded to attend a political meeting at which her daughter was one
+of the speakers, she sat looking on with mingled pride in her
+daughter's eloquence and horror at her sentiments. Yet, after the
+suffrage was granted to women in California, her family was amused to
+see her go to the polls and vote and carefully advise the men employed
+on her place concerning their ballots.
+
+Some persons were repelled by what they considered Mrs. Stevenson's
+cold and distant manner, but they were not aware of what it took her
+own family a long time to discover--that this apparent detachment and
+sphinxlike immobility covered a real and childlike shyness; yet it was
+never apathy, but the stillness of a frightened wild creature that has
+never been tamed. Though she said so little, she never failed to
+create an impression. Some one once said of her that her silence was
+more fascinating than the most brilliant conversation of other women,
+and, indeed, "Where Macgregor sits is the head of the table" applied
+very aptly to her. Her manner had nothing of the aggressive
+self-confidence of the "capable woman." She seemed so essentially
+feminine, low-voiced, quiet, even helplessly appealing, that it was
+difficult to realize that she was a fair shot, a fearless horsewoman,
+a first-rate cook, an expert seamstress, a really scientific gardener,
+a most skillful nurse, and had, besides, some working acquaintance
+with many trades and professions upon which she could draw in an
+emergency.
+
+Her physical courage was remarkable; she would get on any horse, jump
+into a boat in any sea, face a burglar--do anything, in fact, that
+circumstances seemed to require. But perhaps her moral courage, that
+which gave her strength to face great crises--as when Louis was near
+death--with a smile on her face, was even greater. This I know came to
+her as a direct inheritance from our mother, Esther Van de Grift, who
+was never known to give way under the stress of great need.
+
+In her fondness for animals she reminds one of her maternal
+ancestress, Elizabeth Knodle, who used to rush out and seize horses by
+the bridle when she thought they were being driven too fast by their
+cruel drivers. Nothing would more surely arouse her anger than the
+sight of any unkindness to one of these "little brothers." Once at
+Vailima a gentleman, who ought to have known better, came riding up on
+a horse that showed signs of being in pain. "That horse has a sore
+back," she cried. The rider angrily denied it, but she insisted on his
+dismounting, and when the saddle was removed found that her suspicions
+were but too well founded. She compelled him to leave the suffering
+creature in her care until its back was entirely cured.
+
+I have been surprised sometimes to hear people speak of her as
+"bohemian." Simplicity and genuineness were the foundation-stones of
+her character, and she certainly dispensed with many of the useless
+conventions of society, but she was a serious-minded woman for whom
+the cheap affectations generally labelled as "bohemianism" could have
+no attractions.
+
+She was entirely feminine in her love of pretty clothes. In choosing
+her own attire, though she followed the fashions and never tried to be
+extravagant or _outre_, she had a discriminating taste that made her
+always seem to be dressed more attractively than other people. All who
+think of her, even in her last days, must have a picture in their
+minds of the dainty, lacy, silken prettiness in which she sat
+enshrined.
+
+She was pretty as a young woman, but as she grew older she was
+beautiful--with that rare type of beauty that "age cannot wither nor
+custom stale." With her clear-cut profile, like an exquisite cameo,
+color like old ivory, delicate oval face, eyes dark, vivid, and
+youthful, her appearance was most unusual. Louis used to say of her
+eyes that her glance was like that of one aiming a pistol--direct,
+steady, and to some persons rather alarming. Her voice, as I think I
+have said somewhere else in these pages, was low, with few
+inflections, and was compared by her husband to the murmur of a brook
+running under ice. The poet Gosse said of her: "She is dark and
+rich-hearted, like some wonderful wine-red jewel."
+
+For years she had worn her hair short, not in the fashion of a
+strong-minded female, but in a frame of soft grey curls which was
+exceedingly becoming to her face.
+
+Everywhere she went her appearance attracted attention. One evening at
+Santa Barbara when David Bispham was giving a concert, she sat in a
+box at the theatre, wearing a bandeau of pearls and diamonds round her
+head and a collar and necklace of the same. Leaning over the edge of
+the box, deeply interested in the singing, she didn't realize the
+impression she was making or the fact that Bispham was singing "Oh,
+the pretty, pretty creature" directly at her box. Suddenly she became
+aware of his compliment, gave a startled, embarrassed look at the
+audience, and retired behind her big ostrich-feather fan. People often
+turned to look at her in the street, and at such times she would say
+to her companions: "Is there anything wrong with my hat? The people
+all seem to be smiling at me." They were, but it was with surprised
+admiration. Saleswomen and shop-girls adored her, and at all the shops
+they vied with each other in waiting on her. On the way home she would
+say, with naive surprise: "How nice all those young women were! There
+were five of them all waiting on me at once."
+
+One of her vanities was her small feet, on which she always wore the
+daintiest of shoes, often totally unsuited to the occasion. Whenever I
+looked at her feet I was reminded of our maternal grandmother, sweet
+Kitty Weaver, and how she caught her death going to a ball in the red
+satin slippers.
+
+Her beauty was of the elusive type that is the despair of artists,
+and of all the portraits painted of her none seemed to me to represent
+her true self. I quote from _The Craftsman_ of May, 1912, a reference
+to a reproduction of the portrait painted of her by Mrs. Will Low:
+
+"We are sure that our readers the world over will enjoy the
+opportunity of this glimpse of Mrs. Stevenson, however the limitations
+imposed by black and white may prevent a full realization of the great
+charm of this unusual woman, whose personality is so magnetic, so
+serene in its poise, so richly intellectual, that those who have had
+the opportunity of knowing her always remember her as one of the most
+interesting and beautiful among women."
+
+She kept her spirit young to the last, so that no one could ever think
+of her as an old woman, and young people always enjoyed her company.
+
+As to her literary accomplishments, had she chosen to devote her time
+and strength to the development of her own talents, instead of using
+them, as has been the wont of women since the world began, in the
+support and encouragement of others, there is no saying how far she
+might have gone, for she had an active, creative imagination, and a
+discriminating, critical judgment of style. As it was, her writings
+were not extensive, and were almost all produced under the spur of
+some particular need. They consist of:
+
+Several fairy stories published years ago in _Our Young Folks_ and
+_St. Nicholas_, magazines for young people.
+
+_The Dynamiter_, written in collaboration with her husband.
+
+Introductions to her husband's works.
+
+A number of short stories in _Scribner's_ and _McClure's_ magazines,
+among which "Anne" and "The Half-White" attracted the most attention.
+
+_The Cruise of the Janet Nichol_, a posthumous work.
+
+Her own estimate of her talents and achievements was extremely modest,
+and it was always with the greatest reluctance that she put pen to
+paper. Yet she was intensely proud of the work of any member of her
+family--whether it might be sister, daughter, son, nephew, or
+grandson--and seemed to get more happiness out of anything we did than
+from her own work.
+
+She was appalled at the great flood of mediocre writing that has been
+pouring over the United States in the last decade or two, and speaks
+of it thus in a letter written to Mr. Scribner from her quiet haven at
+Sausal:
+
+"If I had a magazine of my own I should bar from its pages any story
+in which a young woman urges a young man to 'do things' when he
+doesn't have to. There would also be a list of words and phrases that
+I would not have within my covers. But, if I had a magazine what would
+become of my peace and quiet that I care so much for? No--no such
+strenuous life for me! They may call houses 'homes' and spell words so
+that children and foreigners must be unable to find out how to
+pronounce them--I need not know of such annoyances in El Sausal unless
+I choose. I have before me a great pile of magazines--hence these
+cries. I read them with wonder and interest. There seems to be such an
+extraordinary quantity of clever, talented, ignorant, unliterary
+literature let loose in them. Where does it all come from? And why
+isn't it better done--or worse done? I suppose we might call it 'near
+literature.' Sometimes, indeed, it is very near. I suppose it is the
+public school system that is accountable. Well, I never believed in
+general education, and here's a justification of my attitude."
+
+When one casts a backward glance over the life of Fanny Van de Grift
+Stevenson, it cannot be said that she knew much of that for which she
+had always longed--peace. Her girlhood was cut short by a too early
+marriage. Her first romance was soon wrecked, and her second was
+constantly overshadowed by fear for the loved one. Storm and stress,
+varied by some peaceful intervals, filled the larger portion of her
+days, and at their end it was in storm and flood that her spirit took
+its flight. But it was a full, rich life, and had she had the
+choosing, I believe she would have elected no other.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After something more than a year had elapsed from the time of her
+death, Mrs. Stevenson's daughter, who had now become the wife of Mr.
+Field, sailed with her husband in the spring of 1915 for Samoa,
+bearing with them the sacred ashes to be placed within the tomb on
+Mount Vaea.
+
+Early in the war the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces had taken
+possession of German Samoa, so that when Mr. and Mrs. Field arrived
+they found the Union Jack flying over Vailima, now used as Government
+House by the Administrator, Colonel Logan, and his staff. The natives,
+interested spectators of these stirring events, remarked among
+themselves that Tusitala, not going back to his own country, had drawn
+his country out to him.
+
+Two friends of the old Vailima days were a great help in making the
+arrangements for the funeral--Amatua, often referred to in the
+Stevenson letters as Sitione, now a serious elderly chief, and Laulii,
+a charming Samoan lady of rank, and a warm and attached friend of the
+Stevenson family. Of the Vailima household time and wars had
+eliminated all but the youngest--Mitaele, who looked much the same in
+spite of grey hair and a family of nine children.
+
+It was Amatua who saw to it that those who remained of the builders of
+the "Road of the Loving Hearts" and the chiefs who had cut the path up
+the mountain for Tusitala's funeral were included in the list of
+guests, and it was he who took personal charge of all the arrangements
+for the native ceremonies, which were conducted in the elaborate
+Samoan fashion as for a chief of the highest rank.
+
+Colonel and Mrs. Logan very graciously invited the Fields to Vailima
+and placed the house and grounds at their disposal.
+
+"It is strange," wrote Mrs. Field, "being here at Vailima. I was so
+afraid to come, but mercifully it is not the same. Rooms have been
+added, the polished redwood panels in the large hall are painted over
+in white; the lawn where the tennis courts were is cut up into flower
+beds; many of the great trees have gone; and the atmosphere of the
+place has changed so utterly that I have to say to myself 'This is
+Vailima' to believe that I am here after so many years. Mrs. Logan
+and the Governor came out to meet us when we arrived, and as we turned
+into the road and I saw the house for the first time it was the Union
+Jack flying from the flag-staff that affected me most. I felt like a
+person in a dream as we walked over the house--the same and yet
+changed out of all recognition. We had tea, and then in the soft
+sunset we went down to the waterfall, no longer a fairy dell of
+loveliness but improved with a dam, cement flooring, and a row of neat
+bathrooms. In the evening we sat on the upper veranda looking out over
+the moonlit tree-tops; the scene was very beautiful, with the view of
+the sea and Vaea mountain so green and so close. 'Here we wrote _St.
+Ives_ and _Hermiston_,' I tell myself, but I don't believe it."
+
+It had been their intention to have their old missionary friend, Dr.
+Brown, conduct the services, but at the last moment word was brought
+that he was detained on one of the other islands by storms. For a time
+they were much troubled, but at last Colonel Logan lifted a load off
+their hearts by offering to read the Church of England service
+himself.
+
+The day before that set for the funeral, June 22, it blew and rained,
+and there was much anxious foreboding about the weather. In the night,
+however, the wind blew away the clouds and rain, and morning broke,
+still, sunny, but cool--a perfect day.
+
+The small bronze case containing the ashes, wrapped in a fine mat, had
+been laid on a table in one of the rooms that had wide doors opening
+on the veranda. The guests began to arrive early, in Samoan fashion,
+bringing flowers and wreaths, and soon the table was a mass of lovely
+blooms--all colours, for the Samoans do not adhere to white for
+funerals. The high chief Tamasese, with his wife Vaaiga, both wearing
+mourning bands on their arms, were the first to arrive. Then came
+Malietoa Tanu, who was a prominent figure in the war in which the
+United States and England joined to fight against Samoa. Following
+them came a long concourse of the old friends of Mr. and Mrs.
+Stevenson--natives, half-castes, and whites, and last of all, in a
+little carriage, three sweet sisters from the Sacred Heart Convent.
+The sisters could not stay for the ceremony on the hill, but begged to
+be allowed to say a little prayer, and the three knelt before the
+table and said an _ave_ for one who had always been their friend.
+
+At nine o'clock they started on the steep climb up the mountain, the
+path having been cleared the day before by men sent up through the
+thoughtful kindness of the Administrator. Mr. Field led the way with
+the casket wrapped in a fine mat, then came Mrs. Field and Laulii,
+each carrying one of the mats used in Samoan funeral ceremonies, these
+being the same that had been carried at Mr. Stevenson's burial.
+
+[Illustration: The funeral procession as it wound up the hill.]
+
+After them came Colonel Logan and the two high chiefs, Tamasese and
+Malietoa, followed by all the other guests, including forty chiefs of
+the Tuamasaga. The procession, very picturesque in white clothing and
+wreaths of flowers, wound slowly up the mountainside in a zigzag path
+under the forest trees. Overhead the branches met in a leafy roof, and
+on each side of the narrow path the jungle closed in, thick, lush, and
+green. The lianas looped across from bough to bough, huge birds'
+nest ferns lay tucked in the branches, on all sides big-leaved plants,
+fronds of ferns, and tangled creepers crowded each other for space,
+and through all the mass of wild tropic growth the hot sunlight
+filtered in splashes of bright green.
+
+When, after many breathless pauses, the top was at last reached, the
+case was laid on the base of the tomb and covered with fine mats, with
+flowers all about it. Among them were the Japanese imitation
+cherry-blossoms sent by Yonida and Fuzisaki, the gardeners at
+Stonehedge. The company then gathered around the tomb in a
+semi-circle, and Colonel Logan read the Church of England service. It
+was an impressive ceremony, and the hearts of all were deeply moved by
+it. Filemoni, the Samoan pastor, followed with an eloquent speech in
+the native language.
+
+The mats were then removed from the small space that had been cut into
+the base of the tomb, and the little case was fitted in and cemented
+over. George Stowers, the original builder of the tomb, was there, and
+his hand sealed the ashes in their last resting-place.
+
+The ceremony now being over, the party went down the hill in little
+groups, resting by the way on fallen logs. Crossing the river at the
+bottom, they came into the Loto Alofa Road (Road of the Loving
+Hearts), where Amatua had made all the preparations for the funeral
+feast, which was to be given according to Samoan custom. A long
+table-cloth, consisting of bright-green breadfruit and banana leaves
+and ferns, stretched along the ground for sixty feet or more. The
+feast was preceded by the ceremonious drinking of _kava_ and speeches
+in Samoan. "I had expected the usual somewhat flowery eulogies," wrote
+Mrs. Field, "but their speeches were sincere and some of them very
+beautiful. They were translated by an interpreter, but fortunately my
+memory of the language helped me to follow the meaning, even though
+some of the 'high chief' expressions were beyond me. 'Many foreigners
+had visited Samoa,' they said, 'but of all who had professed affection
+and admiration for the land only one loved it so well that he chose it
+for his last resting-place. Tusitala had been the true friend, the
+dearly loved, the deeply mourned, and now when the wife of his heart
+had joined him after many lonely years the occasion was one too tender
+and too beautiful for sorrow.' They assured me that we might leave
+Samoa with peaceful hearts, knowing that those we loved were in the
+land--not of strangers, but of devoted friends, who would cherish the
+tomb on Vaea as they cherished in their hearts the memory of Tusitala
+and Aolele."
+
+Amatua then announced that the feast was ready, and the Governor and
+his wife were seated at the head at one end of the long table, with
+Tamasese and Malietoa Tanu on either side. The board, figuratively
+speaking, groaned under a great spread of native delicacies. It was
+full noon by this time, and very hot, but Amatua had thoughtfully
+placed little trees all along the side to keep off the sunshine. "At
+the end of the feast," says Mrs. Field, "I made a little speech of
+thanks, and it came straight from my heart, for I was deeply touched
+by the kindness of them all and their loyalty to the memory of my
+dear mother and Tusitala. We tried to thank Colonel Logan and his
+wife, but words can never do that."
+
+"Nothing more picturesque can be imagined than the narrow plateau that
+forms the summit of Mount Vaea, a place no wider than a room and as
+flat as a table. On either side the land descends precipitately; in
+front lie the vast ocean and the surf-swept reefs; in the distance to
+the right and left green mountains rise, densely covered with the
+primeval forest."[79]
+
+              [Footnote 79: Lloyd Osbourne, in _A Letter to His
+              Friends_, written directly after the death of Mr.
+              Stevenson.]
+
+Stevenson's tomb, with the tablet and lettering, was designed by
+Gelett Burgess, and was built by native workmen under the direction of
+a half-caste named George Stowers. The material was cement, run into
+boxes and formed into large blocks, which were then carried to the
+summit on the strong shoulders of Samoans, though each block was so
+heavy that two white men could scarcely lift it from the ground.
+Arrived at the summit the blocks were then welded into a plain and
+dignified design, with two large bronze tablets let in on either side.
+One bears the inscription in Samoan, "The resting-place of Tusitala,"
+followed by the quotation in the same language of "Thy country shall
+be my country and thy God my God." The other side bears the name and
+dates and the requiem:
+
+     "Under the wide and starry sky,
+      Dig the grave and let me lie.
+      Glad did I live and gladly die,
+        And I laid me down with a will.
+
+      This be the verse you grave for me:
+      Here he lies where he longed to be;
+      Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
+        And the hunter home from the hill."
+
+When Mr. and Mrs. Field arrived in Samoa they brought with them a
+tablet which they carried to the summit of Mount Vaea and had cemented
+in one end of the base of the tomb. It is of heavy bronze, and bears
+the name Aolele, together with these lines:
+
+     "Teacher, tender comrade, wife,
+      A fellow-farer true through life,
+      Heart whole and soul free,
+      The August Father gave to me."
+
+On the tablet for Mr. Stevenson the thistle for Scotland had been
+carved at one corner and the hibiscus for Samoa at the other. On his
+wife's the hibiscus was placed at one corner, and after long
+hesitation about the other, a sudden inspiration suggested to Mrs.
+Field the tiger-lily--bright flower whose name had been given to
+little Fanny Van de Grift by her mother in the old days in Indiana.
+
+Before leaving the island Mr. and Mrs. Field endowed a scholarship for
+three little girls at the convent school--one to be chosen by the
+sisters, one by Tamasese, and one by Mitaele, the last of the Vailima
+household. All they asked was that these little girls should go to the
+tomb on the 10th of every March, the birthday of Aolele, and decorate
+the grave. That they kept their promise is shown by the following
+quotation from the Samoan _Times_:
+
+[Illustration: The tomb, showing the bronze tablet with the verse from
+Stevenson's poem to his wife.]
+
+"On Friday morning, the 10th instant, the three pupils of the
+convent school, Savalalo, whose scholarships were endowed by Mr. and
+Mrs. Salisbury Field in memory of the late Mrs. Robert Louis
+Stevenson, the mother of Mrs. Field, paid a visit to the Stevenson
+tomb on Mount Vaea in honor of the anniversary of the birthday of the
+deceased lady. The little party left at 7 A.M. and arrived at the
+summit of the hill at about nine o'clock. Upon arrival at the top of
+the hill the children lost no time in decorating the grave with
+wreaths of flowers and greenery, a plentiful supply of which was taken
+by them. After the decorating the party sat down to a small
+_taumafataga_ (high chief lunch), after which they returned to town."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tiger-lily and Scotch thistle--they sleep together under tropic stars,
+far from the fields of waving corn and the purple moorlands, but each
+year hands, alien to them both, tenderly lay flowers on their tomb.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson, by
+Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ***
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