ds, with a
punishment of six years' imprisonment and, for a chief, degradation. To
him has been left the sole conduct of this anxious and decisive inquiry.
If the natives stand it, why, well! But I am nervous.

TO H. B. BAILDON

_Vailima, January 30th, 1894._

MY DEAR BAILDON,--"Call not blessed."--Yes, if I could die just now, or
say in half a year, I should have had a splendid time of it on the
whole. But it gets a little stale, and my work will begin to senesce;
and parties to shy bricks at me; and now it begins to look as if I
should survive to see myself impotent and forgotten. It's a pity suicide
is not thought the ticket in the best circles.

But your letter goes on to congratulate me on having done the one thing
I am a little sorry for; a little--not much--for my father himself lived
to think that I had been wiser than he. But the cream of the jest is
that I have lived to change my mind; and think that he was wiser than I.
Had I been an engineer, and literature my amusement, it would have been
better perhaps. I pulled it off, of course, I won the wager, and it is
pleasant while it lasts; but how long will it last? I don't know, say
the Bells of Old Bow.

All of which goes to show that nobody is quite sane in judging himself.
Truly, had I given way and gone in for engineering, I should be dead by
now. Well, the gods know best.

... I hope you got my letter about the _Rescue_.--Adieu.

R. L. S.

True for you about the benefit: except by kisses, jests, song, _et hoc
genus omne_, man _cannot_ convey benefit to another. The universal
benefactor has been there before him.

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

_Feb. 1894._

DEAR COLVIN,--By a reaction, when your letter is a little decent, mine
is to be naked and unashamed. We have been much exercised. No one can
prophesy here, of course, and the balance still hangs trembling, but I
_think_ it will go for peace.

The mail was very late this time: hence the paltriness of this note.
When it came and I had read it, I retired with _The Ebb Tide_ and read
it all before I slept. I did not dream it was near as good; I am afraid
I think it excellent. A little indecision about Attwater, not much. It
gives me great hope, as I see I _can_ work in that constipated, mosaic
manner, which is what I have to do just now with _Weir of Hermiston_.

We have given a ball; I send you a paper describing the event. We have
two guests in the house, Captain-Count W