before the recall is sounded."

So the _Casco_ was shipped back to San Francisco, Mrs. Stevenson,
senior, returned to Scotland for a visit, and the trading schooner
_Equator_ was chartered for a trip among the Marshall, Gilbert, and
Samoan Islands.

Just before leaving, the following letter came from Ori, which Stevenson
says he would rather have received than written "Red Gauntlet" or the
"Sixth AEneid."

"I make you to know my great affection. At the hour when you left us, I
was filled with tears; my wife Rui Telime, also, and all my household.
When you embarked I felt great sorrow. It is for this that I went upon
the road, and you looked from that ship, and I looked at you on the ship
with great grief until you had raised the anchor and hoisted the sail.
When the ship started I ran along the beach to see you still; and when
you were in the open sea I cried out to you 'Farewell Louis,' and when
I was coming back to my house I seemed to hear your voice crying, 'Rui,
farewell.' Afterwards I watched the ship as long as I could until the
night fell; and when it was dark I said to myself: 'If I had wings I
should fly to the ship to meet you,'... I wept then ... telling myself
continually, 'Teriitera returns to his own country and leaves his dear
Rui in grief.'... I will not forget you in my memory. Here is the
thought: I desire to meet you again. It is my Teriitera makes the only
riches I desire in this world. It is your eyes that I desire to see
again. It must be that your body and my body shall eat together at one
table, there is what would make my heart content. But now we are
separated. May God be with you all. May His word and His mercy go with
you, so that you may be well and we also, according to the words of
Paul.

"ORI A ORI, that is to say, RUI."

"All told," said Stevenson, "if my books have enabled or helped me to
make this voyage, to know Rui, and to have received such a letter, they
have ... not been writ in vain."

CHAPTER IX

VAILIMA

"We thank Thee for this place in which we dwell; for the love that
unites us; for the peace accorded us this day; for the hope with which
we expect the morrow; for the health, the work, the food, and the
bright skies that make our lives delightful, for the friends in all
parts of the earth, and our friendly helpers in this foreign isle....
Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our
friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us,