nne), my
Cavalier's cousin, the unhappy Lions, and the idiotic Mr. Lacy; so if
any erudite starts upon that track, you may choke him off. If you can
find aught for me, or if you will but try, count on my undying
gratitude. Lang's "Library" is very pleasant reading. My book _will_
reach you soon, for I write about it to-day.--Yours ever,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

Work on a series of tales of terror, or, as he called them,
"crawlers," planned in collaboration with his wife, soon superseded
for the moment other literary interests in his mind. _Thrawn Janet_
and the _Body-Snatchers_ were the only two of the set completed under
their original titles: _The Wreck of the Susanna_ contained, I think,
the germ of _The Merry Men_.

_Kinnaird Cottage, Pitlochry [June 1881]._

MY DEAR COLVIN,--_The Black Man and Other Tales._

The Black Man:
I. Thrawn Janet.
II. The Devil on Cramond Sands.
The Shadow on the Bed.
The Body-Snatchers.
The Case Bottle.
The King's Horn.
The Actor's Wife.
The Wreck of the Susanna.

This is the new work on which I am engaged with Fanny; they are all
supernatural. _Thrawn Janet_ is off to Stephen, but as it is all in
Scotch he cannot take it, I know. It was _so good_, I could not help
sending it. My health improves. We have a lovely spot here: a little
green glen with a burn, a wonderful burn, gold and green and snow-white,
singing loud and low in different steps of its career, now pouring over
miniature crags, now fretting itself to death in a maze of rocky stairs
and pots; never was so sweet a little river. Behind, great purple
moorlands reaching to Ben Vrackie. Hunger lives here, alone with larks
and sheep. Sweet spot, sweet spot.

Write me a word about Bob's professoriate and Landor, and what you think
of _The Black Man_. The tales are all ghastly. _Thrawn Janet_ frightened
me to death. There will maybe be another--_The Dead Man's Letter_. I
believe I shall recover; and I am, in this blessed hope, yours
exuberantly,

R. L. S.

TO PROFESSOR AENEAS MACKAY

This and the next four or five letters refer to the candidature of R.
L. S. for the Edinburgh Chair.

_Kinnaird Cottage, Pitlochry, Wednesday, June 21, 1881._

MY DEAR MACKAY,--What is this I hear?--that you are retiring from your
chair. It is not, I hope, from ill-health?

But if you are retiring, may I ask if you have promised y