the
sisters, one by Tamasese, and one by Mitaele, the last of the Vailima
household. All they asked was that these little girls should go to the
tomb on the 10th of every March, the birthday of Aolele, and decorate
the grave. That they kept their promise is shown by the following
quotation from the Samoan _Times_:

[Illustration: The tomb, showing the bronze tablet with the verse from
Stevenson's poem to his wife.]

"On Friday morning, the 10th instant, the three pupils of the
convent school, Savalalo, whose scholarships were endowed by Mr. and
Mrs. Salisbury Field in memory of the late Mrs. Robert Louis
Stevenson, the mother of Mrs. Field, paid a visit to the Stevenson
tomb on Mount Vaea in honor of the anniversary of the birthday of the
deceased lady. The little party left at 7 A.M. and arrived at the
summit of the hill at about nine o'clock. Upon arrival at the top of
the hill the children lost no time in decorating the grave with
wreaths of flowers and greenery, a plentiful supply of which was taken
by them. After the decorating the party sat down to a small
_taumafataga_ (high chief lunch), after which they returned to town."

* * * * *

Tiger-lily and Scotch thistle--they sleep together under tropic stars,
far from the fields of waving corn and the purple moorlands, but each
year hands, alien to them both, tenderly lay flowers on their tomb.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson, by
Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ***

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