th
me [on the steamer _Lubeck_, on the way from Sydney to Samoa] a
cageful of beautiful yellow fowls, a big black mother sow is to
follow, and soon I mean to have some pretty Jersey cows and some
gentle horses. I have packages of garden seeds to experiment with, and
it is odd indeed if I am not able soon to provision a garrison. One of
the first things I shall plunge into is an ice-house run by cascade
power."

At first they lived in a two-room cottage, designed to serve later as
a gate lodge, where comfort was at a minimum. The road to Apia was
scarcely more than a footpath, and it was difficult to bring up
supplies in any quantity. At times provisions ran low, and the story
of the occasion when they were reduced to dining on a single
avocado[35] pear was told so often, in print and otherwise, that
during all the following time of plenty they had to keep explaining
that they really had enough to eat. Of course the famine was more
apparent than real, for there was enough food at the town only three
miles away, and the occasional dearth in those first days was merely a
matter of the inconvenience of bringing it up.

[Footnote 35: Commonly called "alligator" pear.]

It was in the hurricane season, too, and there were days when they sat
in momentary fear lest their frail dwelling should be carried away by
the fury of the storm or crushed beneath some falling giant of the
forest.

From the day of their arrival at Vailima, in September, 1890, Mrs.
Stevenson began to keep a diary--a record which has proved to be one
of the most valuable sources of material in writing her biography, and
which itself has a curious history. When, after her husband's death,
she finally left Vailima, the diary was inadvertently left behind,
eventually making its way to London and falling into the hands of an
English lady, Miss Gladys Peacock, who, thinking it might be of some
use to the family, sent it to Lloyd Osbourne, with a note saying that
"of course she had not read it." It is to the courtesy of this
Englishwoman that I am indebted for the extracts from the diary, of
which I shall make free use.

In their temporary lodge in the wilderness, where they were encamped
while the big house was building, furniture and other comforts of
civilization were decidedly lacking, but they had brought beds with
them, and Mrs. Stevenson at once set the carpenter to putting them up.
For help about the house and premises they had to depend