. Then he said he _must_ go. He had had his back broken in his own
islands, he said; it had come broken again, and he must go away to a
native house and have it mended. "Confound your back!" said we; "lie
down in your bed." At last, one day, his fever was quite gone, and he
could give his mind to the broken back entirely. He lay in the hall; I
was in the room alone; all morning and noon I heard him roaring like a
bull calf, so that the floor shook with it. It was plainly humbug; it
had the humbugging sound of a bad child crying; and about two of the
afternoon we were worn out, and told him he might go. Off he set. He was
in some kind of a white wrapping, with a great white turban on his head,
as pale as clay, and walked leaning on a stick. But, O, he was a glad
boy to get away from these foolish, savage, childish white people, and
get his broken back put right by somebody with some sense. He nearly
died that night, and little wonder! but he has now got better again, and
long may it last! All the others were quite good, trusted us wholly, and
stayed to be cured where they were. But then he was quite right, if you
look at it from his point of view; for, though we may be very clever, we
do not set up to cure broken backs. If a man has his back broken we
white people can do nothing at all but bury him. And was he not wise,
since that was his complaint, to go to folks who could do more?

Best love to yourself, and Louie, and Aunt Nellie, and apologies for so
dull a letter from your respectful and affectionate

UNCLE LOUIS.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] The lady to whom the first three of these letters are addressed
"used to hear" (writes Mr. Lloyd Osbourne) "so frequently of the
'boys' in Vailima, that she wrote and asked Mr. Stevenson for news of
them, as it would so much interest her little girls. In the tropics,
for some reason or other that it is impossible to understand,
servants and work-people are always called 'boys,' though the years
of Methuselah may have whitened their heads, and great-grandchildren
prattle about their knees. Mr. Stevenson was amused to think that his
'boys,' who ranged from eighteen years of age to threescore and ten,
should be mistaken for little youngsters; but he was touched to hear
of the sick children his friend tried so hard to entertain, and
gladly wrote a few letters to them. He would have written more but
for the fact that his friend left t