esque. I was not a little proud of John Silver also; and to
this day rather admire that smooth and formidable adventurer. What
was infinitely more exhilarating, I had passed a landmark. I had
finished a tale and written The End upon my manuscript, as I had not
done since _The Pentland Rising_, when I was a boy of sixteen, not yet
at college. In truth, it was so by a lucky set of accidents: had not
Dr Japp come on his visit, had not the tale flowed from me with
singular ease, it must have been laid aside, like its predecessors,
and found a circuitous and unlamented way to the fire. Purists may
suggest it would have been better so. I am not of that mind. The
tale seems to have given much pleasure, and it brought (or was the
means of bringing) fire, food, and wine to a deserving family in which
I took an interest. I need scarcely say I mean my own."

He himself gives a goodly list of the predecessors which had found a
circuitous and unlamented way to the fire

"As soon as I was able to write, I became a good friend to the paper-
makers. Reams upon reams must have gone to the making of _Rathillet_,
_The Pentland Rising_, _The King's Pardon_ (otherwise _Park
Whitehead_), _Edward Daven_, _A Country Dance_, and _A Vendetta in the
West_. _Rathillet_ was attempted before fifteen, _The Vendetta_ at
twenty-nine, and the succession of defeats lasted unbroken till I was
thirty-one."

Another thing I carried from Braemar with me which I greatly prize--this
was a copy of _Christianity confirmed by Jewish and Heathen Testimony_,
by Mr Stevenson's father, with his autograph signature and many of his
own marginal notes. He had thought deeply on many subjects--theological,
scientific, and social--and had recorded, I am afraid, but the smaller
half of his thoughts and speculations. Several days in the mornings,
before R. L. Stevenson was able to face the somewhat "snell" air of the
hills, I had long walks with the old gentleman, when we also had long
talks on many subjects--the liberalising of the Scottish Church,
educational reform, etc.; and, on one occasion, a statement of his
reason, because of the subscription, for never having become an elder.
That he had in some small measure enjoyed my society, as I certainly had
much enjoyed his, was borne out by a letter which I received from the son
in reply to one I had written, saying that surely his father had never
meant