Island Nights' EntertainmentsStevenson, Robert Louis
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Island Nights' Entertainments
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Islands of the Pacific -- Fiction; Short stories
“I am in for this house,” thought he. “Little as I like the way it
comes to me, I am in for it now, and I may as well take the good along
with the evil.”
So he told the architect all that he wished, and how he would have that
house furnished, and about the pictures on the wall and the
knick-knacks on the tables; and he asked the man plainly for how much
he would undertake the whole affair.
The architect put many questions, and took his pen and made a
computation; and when he had done he named the very sum that Keawe had
inherited.
Lopaka and Keawe looked at one another and nodded.
“It is quite clear,” thought Keawe, “that I am to have this house,
whether or no. It comes from the devil, and I fear I will get little
good by that; and of one thing I am sure, I will make no more wishes as
long as I have this bottle. But with the house I am saddled, and I may
as well take the good along with the evil.”
So he made his terms with the architect, and they signed a paper; and
Keawe and Lopaka took ship again and sailed to Australia; for it was
concluded between them they should not interfere at all, but leave the
architect and the bottle imp to build and to adorn that house at their
own pleasure.
The voyage was a good voyage, only all the time Keawe was holding in
his breath, for he had sworn he would utter no more wishes, and take no
more favours from the devil. The time was up when they got back. The
architect told them that the house was ready, and Keawe and Lopaka took
a passage in the _Hall_, and went down Kona way to view the house, and
see if all had been done fitly according to the thought that was in
Keawe’s mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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