become entangled in the barbed-wire fence that had been
blown down by the wind, and was dreadfully injured. Thus they
discovered that life in the tropics has its drawbacks as well as its
delights.

These were the primitive conditions that greeted the elder Mrs.
Stevenson on her arrival, and the poor lady's surprise and
consternation were increased by the appearance of the good-hearted
Paul while waiting on table--a plump little German with a bald head,
clothed in a flannel shirt open at the neck, a pair of ragged
trousers, particularly dilapidated in the seat and held up by a
leather strap round the waist, a sheath-knife stuck in the belt,
barefoot, and most likely offering the information that "the meat is
tough, by God." Having no pioneer ancestry to sustain her she was
unable to endure the discomforts of the place and only remained over
the stay of the _Lubeck_, after which she fled to Sydney, there to
await the time when civilization should have been established on the
plantation.

By the end of April the new house was ready for them to move in, and
by July the whole family, including the Strongs,[45] were established
on the place.

[Footnote 45: Mrs. Stevenson's daughter, Isobel Strong,
with her husband and son.]

The conditions of their lives were now vastly more comfortable. Mrs.
Stevenson no longer had to share the evening lamp with death's-head
moths and piping tree-frogs, for gauze doors and windows had been put
in to keep out the flying things. Nor did she have to take refuge in
the stable when the hurricane season came around, for the new house
was staunchly built and stout storm-shutters stood against the fury of
the wind and rain.

Of Vailima in its finished aspect I need not speak in detail, since it
has been fully and elaborately described by Graham Balfour in his
_Life of Robert Louis Stevenson_. With its band of "house boys" and
"out boys"--a fine-looking lot of fellows of whom their master was
very proud--the household grew to be almost like that of a feudal
chief, or Scotch laird of the old days, and Mrs. Stevenson took her
place as its mistress as though "to the manner born." The place became
the centre of social life in the island and was the scene of frequent
balls and parties, dinners with twenty-five or thirty guests,
Christmas parties with the guests staying for three days, and tennis
nearly every day with officers from the men-of-war in the harbour and
ladie