The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

Life of Robert Louis Stevenson
for Boys and Girls, The

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Title: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls
Author: Jacqueline M. Overton
Release Date: April 4, 2005 [EBook #15547]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE LIFE OF

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

BY
JACQUELINE M. OVERTON

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1933

[Illustration: Robert Louis Stevenson, from a photograph by Mr. Lloyd
Osbourne]

TO THE BOYS AT THE YORKVILLE LIBRARY AND TO ALL
OTHER BOYS WHO LOVE TO TRAMP AND CAMP AND SEEK
ADVENTURE I DEDICATE THIS BOOK WITH THE HOPE OF
MAKING THEM BETTER FRIENDS WITH A MAN WHO ALSO
LOVED THESE THINGS

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE LIGHTHOUSE BUILDERS 3
II. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 16

III. THE LANTERN BEARER 31
IV. EDINBURGH DAYS 47
V. AMATEUR EMIGRANT 72
VI. SCOTLAND AGAIN 93
VII. SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA 108
VIII. IN THE SOUTH SEAS 121
IX. VAILIMA 148
BIBLIOGRAPHY 175

ILLUSTRATIONS
Robert Louis Stevenson Frontispiece From a photograph by Mr. Lloyd
Osbourne FACING PAGE
No. 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, Stevenson's birthplace 18
Colinton Manse 26
Swanston Cottage 42
Edinburgh Castle 64
Skerryvore Cottage, Bournemouth 98
The Treasure Island map 100
Facsimile of letter sent to Cummy with "An Inland Voyage" 106
Bas-relief of Stevenson by Augustus Saint Gaudens 112
South Sea houses 130

The house at Vailima 154
A feast of chiefs 162
The tomb of Stevenson on Væa Mountain 172

THE LIFE OF
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

"Write me as one who loves his fellowmen." --HUNT.
CHAPTER I
THE LIGHTHOUSE BUILDERS
"... For the sake Of these, my kinsmen and my countrymen, Who early
and late in the windy ocean toiled To plant a star for seamen."
The pirate, Ralph the Rover, so legend tells, while cruising off the coast
of Scotland searching for booty or sport, sank the warning bell on one
of the great rocks, to plague the good Abbot of Arbroath who had put it
there. The following year the Rover returned and perished himself on
the same rock.
In the life of one of Scotland's great men, Robert Louis Stevenson, we
find proud record of his grandfather, Robert Stevenson, having built
Bell Rock Lighthouse on this same spot years afterward.
No story of Robert Louis Stevenson's life would be complete that failed
to mention the work done for Scotland and the world at large by the
two men he held most dear, the engineers, his father and grandfather.
When Robert Stevenson, his grandfather, received his appointment on

the Board of Northern Lights the art of lighthouse building in Scotland
had just begun. Its bleak, rocky shores were world-famous for their
danger, and few mariners cared to venture around them. At that time
the coast "was lighted at a single point, the Isle of May, in the jaws of
the Firth of Forth, where, on a tower already a hundred and fifty years
old, an open coal-fire blazed in an open chaufer. The whole archipelago
thus nightly plunged in darkness was shunned by seagoing vessels."
[Footnote: Stevenson, "Family of Engineers."]
The board at first proposed building four new lights, but afterward built
many more, so that to-day Scotland stands foremost among the nations
for the number and splendor of her coast lights.
Their construction in those early days meant working against
tremendous obstacles and dangers, and the life of the engineer was a
hazardous one.
"The seas into which his labors carried him were still scarce charted,
the coasts still dark; his way on shore was often far beyond the
convenience of any road; the isles in which he must sojourn were still
partly savage. He must toss much in boats; he must often adventure
much on horseback by dubious bridle-track through unfrequented
wildernesses; he must sometimes plant his lighthouses in the very camp
of wreckers.
"The aid of steam was not yet. At first in random coasting sloop, and
afterwards in the cutter belonging to the service, the engineer must ply
and run amongst these multiplied dangers and sometimes late into the
stormy autumn."
All of which failed to daunt Robert Stevenson who loved action and
adventure and the scent of things romantic.
"Not only had towers to be built