e, my beast of a partner has a septieme;
and if I have three aces, three kings, three queens, and three knaves
(excuse the slight exaggeration), the devil holds quatorze of tens!--I
remain, my dear James Payn, your sincere and obliged friend--old friend
let me say,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

TO MISS MIDDLETON

A letter from the lady to whom this is addressed, and who had been a
friend of the Stevenson family in Edinburgh, had called up some
memories of a Skye terrier, Jura, of whom readers have heard
something already.

_Vailima, Samoa, September 9, 1894._

DEAR MISS MIDDLETON,--Your letter has been like the drawing up of a
curtain. Of course I remember you very well, and the Skye terrier to
which you refer--a heavy, dull, fatted, graceless creature he grew up to
be--was my own particular pet. It may amuse you, perhaps, as much as
"The Inn" amused me, if I tell you what made this dog particularly mine.
My father was the natural god of all the dogs in our house, and poor
Jura took to him of course. Jura was stolen, and kept in prison
somewhere for more than a week, as I remember. When he came back
Smeoroch had come and taken my father's heart from him. He took his
stand like a man, and positively never spoke to my father again from
that day until the day of his death. It was the only sign of character
he ever showed. I took him up to my room and to be my dog in
consequence, partly because I was sorry for him, and partly because I
admired his dignity in misfortune.

With best regards and thanks for having reminded me of so many pleasant
days, old acquaintances, dead friends, and--what is perhaps as pathetic
as any of them--dead dogs, I remain, yours truly,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

TO A. CONAN DOYLE

The following refers to the papers originally contributed by various
writers to Mr. Jerome's periodical The Idler, under the title _My
First Book_, and afterwards republished in a volume. The references
towards the end are to the illustrations in the pages of The Idler.

_Vailima, Samoa, September 9, 1894._

MY DEAR CONAN DOYLE,--If you found anything to entertain you in my
_Treasure Island_ article, it may amuse you to know that you owe it
entirely to yourself. _Your_ "First Book" was by some accident read
aloud one night in my Baronial 'All. I was consumedly amused by it, so
was the whole family, and we proceeded to hunt up back Idlers and read
the wh