very clever, very well written, and out of
sight the most inside-out thing in the world; I have dug up the hatchet;
a scalp shall flutter at my belt ere long. I think my new book should be
good; it will contain our adventures for the summer, so far as these are
worth narrating; and I have already a few pages of diary which should
make up bright. I am going to repeat my old experiment, after
buckling-to a while to write more correctly, lie down and have a
wallow. Whether I shall get any of my novels done this summer I do not
know; I wish to finish the _Vendetta_ first, for it really could not
come after _Prince Otto_. Lewis Campbell has made some noble work in
that Agamemnon; it surprised me. We hope to get a house at Silverado, a
deserted mining-camp eight miles up the mountain, now solely inhabited
by a mighty hunter answering to the name of Rufe Hansome, who slew last
year a hundred and fifty deer. This is the motto I propose for the new
volume: "_Vixerunt nonnulli in agris, delectati re sua familiari. His
idem propositum fuit quod regibus, ut ne qua re egerent, ne cui
parerent, libertate uterentur; cujus proprium est sic vivere ut velis._"
I always have a terror lest the wish should have been father to the
translation, when I come to quote; but that seems too plain sailing. I
should put _regibus_ in capitals for the pleasantry's sake. We are in
the Coast range, that being so much cheaper to reach; the family, I
hope, will soon follow. Love to all.--Ever yours,

R. L. S.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] _Engraisser_, grow fat.

[24] Pall Mall Gazette.

[25] Here follows a long calculation of ways and means.

[26] Addison's.

[27] In reference to the father's estrangement at this time, Sir James
Dewar, an old friend of the elder Stevenson, tells a story which
would have touched R. L. S. infinitely had he heard it. Sir James
(then Professor) Dewar and Mr. Thomas Stevenson were engaged
together on some official scientific work near Duns in Berwickshire.
"Spending the evening together," writes Sir James, "at an hotel in
Berwick-on-Tweed, the two, after a long day's work, fell into close
fireside talk over their toddy, and Mr. Stevenson opened his heart
upon what was to him a very sore grievance. He spoke with anger and
dismay of his son's journey and intentions, his desertion of the old
firm, and taking to the devious and barren paths of literature. The
Professor too