Robert Louis Stevenson: A Record, an Estimate, and a Memorial

l of the master. It is in the form of "A Letter to Mr Stevenson's Friends," by his stepson, Mr Lloyd Osbourne, and bears the motto from Wal

turing 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 verandah, 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

Union jack in which it had been wrapped. One of the old Mataafa chiefs, who had been in prison, and who had been one of those who worked on the making of the "Road of the Loving Heart

see him more till we meet with God. Behold! Tusitala is dead; Mataafa is also dead. These two great friends have been taken by God. When Mataafa was taken, who was our support but Tusitala? We were in prison, and he cared for us. We were sick, and he made us well. We were hun

orning the work began of clearing a path through the wood on the hill to the spot on the crown where Mr Stevenson had expressed a wish to be buri

endeavours against evil-suffer us a while longer to endure, and (if it may be) help us to do better. Bless to us our extraordinary mercies; if the day come when these must be taken, have us play the man under affliction. Be with our friends; be with ourselves. Go with each of us to rest: i

in the words of Him to whom this d

ory of "The Road of Good Heart," how it came to be built, and of the great feast Mr St

t hire, without supplies, and I was tempted at first to refuse their offer. I knew the country to be poor; I knew famine threatening; I knew their families long disorganised for want of supervision. Yet I accepted, because I thought the lesson of that road might be more useful to Samoa than a thousand bread-fruit trees, and because to myself it was an exquisite pleasure to receive that which was so handsomely offered. It is now done; you have trod it to-day in coming hither. It has been made for me by chiefs; some of them old, some sick, all newly delive

the chiefs, Mr

a company of warriors in a battle, fighting for the defence of our common country against all aggression. For there is a time to fight and a time to dig. You Samoans may fight, you may conquer twenty times, and thirty times, and all will be in va

eople, to live and die with. And I see that the day is come now of the great battle; of the great and the last opportunity by which it shall be decided whether you are to pass

death, and how at great pains he had procured for it the necessary turkey, and how Mrs Stevenson had found a fair subs

others to whom I cling, I love better than all the world besides-my mother. From the opposite end of the table, my wife, who has been all in all

son and daughter to me, and have brought into my life mirth and beauty. Nor is this all. There sits the bright boy dear to my heart, full

t of the funeral and a descript

re the wooddove's note, the moaning of the waves as they break unceasingly on the dist

ies and their work, often aiding them by his advice and fine insight into the character of the

world, as I tell

in the lat

like a wave

swiftly, blin

who speaks tea

d weep, O my hea

ala, who rests

and sorrowing. Wi

ima, waiting a

d inquire of the

but has not T

I

owing one, co

letter, and I

jesty Vict

e loving one, has

nd weep, O my h

I

rt weeps with

of the days

athering for the C

le! left in h

f Vailima, wh

-their leade

nd weep, O my h

V

eart! it weep

ink of hi

him with fat

ited a glance or

some token from

nd weep, O my h

eart! I cannot

who are there

ala! Thou a

and thither in

nd weep, O my h

et closes with Mr St

QUI

wide and s

rave and

live and

me down w

verse you

s where he l

sailor, ho

er home from

heart and head, with soul and mind inte

the simple gr

r and e

l though they were. Ready for friendship; from all meanness free. So, t

head and

far th

ery truth

ywhere a

t a man of acute observation and quick eye for passing events and the characters that were in them with sympathy equal to his discernments. His portraits of certain Germans and others in these writings, and his power of tracing effects to remote and underlying causes, show suffici