e worked into any after-effort I might make on Stevenson. My
friend was a good and an acute critic who had done some acceptable
literary work in his day.

CHAPTER III--THE CHILD FATHER OF THE MAN

R. L. Stevenson was born on 13th November 1850, the very year of the
death of his grandfather, Robert Stevenson, whom he has so finely
celebrated. As a mere child he gave token of his character. As soon as
he could read, he was keen for books, and, before very long, had read all
the story-books he could lay hands on; and, when the stock ran out, he
would go and look in at all the shop windows within reach, and try to
piece out the stories from the bits exposed in open pages and the
woodcuts.

He had a nurse of very remarkable character--evidently a paragon--who
deeply influenced him and did much to form his young mind--Alison
Cunningham, who, in his juvenile lingo, became "Cumy," and who not only
was never forgotten, but to the end was treated as his "second mother."
In his dedication of his _Child's Garden of Verses_ to her, he says:

"My second mother, my first wife,
The angel of my infant life."

Her copy of _Kidnapped_ was inscribed to her by the hand of Stevenson,
thus:

"TO CUMY, FROM HER BOY, THE AUTHOR.
SKERRYVORE, 18_th_ _July_ 1888."

Skerryvore was the name of Stevenson's Bournemouth home, so named after
one of the Stevenson lighthouses. His first volume, _An Inland Voyage_
has this pretty dedication, inscribed in a neat, small hand:

"MY DEAR CUMY,--If you had not taken so much trouble with me all the
years of my childhood, this little book would never have been written.
Many a long night you sat up with me when I was ill. I wish I could
hope, by way of return, to amuse a single evening for you with my
little book. But whatever you think of it, I know you will think
kindly of

THE AUTHOR."

"Cumy" was perhaps the most influential teacher Stevenson had. What she
and his mother taught took effect and abode with him, which was hardly
the case with any other of his teachers.

"In contrast to Goethe," says Mr Baildon, "Stevenson was but little
affected by his relations to women, and, when this point is fully gone
into, it will probably be found that his mother and nurse in
childhood, and his wife and step-daughter in later life, are about the
only women who seriously influenced either his character or his art."
(p. 32).

When Mr Kelman is