Transcribed from the 1906 Methuen and Co edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Book cover] [Picture: Robert Louis Stevenson] THE LETTERS OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON TO HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS SELECTED AND EDITED WITH NOTES AND INTRODUCTION BY SIDNEY COLVIN VOLUME II * * * * * LONDON METHUEN AND CO. 36 ESSEX STREET _Seventh Edition_ _First Published_ _November 1899_ _Second Edition_ _November 1899_ _Third Edition_ _April 1900_ _Fourth Edition_ _November 1900_ _Fifth Edition_ _January 1901_ _Sixth Edition_ _October 1902_ _Seventh Edition_ _December 1906_ CONTENTS VIII 6 LIFE AT BOURNEMOUTH—_Continued_ IX 59 THE UNITED STATES AGAIN WINTER IN THE ADIRONDACKS X 114 PACIFIC VOYAGES XI 209 LIFE IN SAMOA XII 285 LIFE IN SAMOA—_continued_ VIII LIFE AT BOURNEMOUTH, _Continued_, JANUARY 1886-JULY 1887. TO MRS. DE MATTOS [_Skerryvore_, _Bournemouth_], _January_ 1_st_, 1886. DEAREST KATHARINE,—Here, on a very little book and accompanied with lame verses, I have put your name. Our kindness is now getting well on in years; it must be nearly of age; and it gets more valuable to me with every time I see you. It is not possible to express any sentiment, and it is not necessary to try, at least between us. You know very well that I love you dearly, and that I always will. I only wish the verses were better, but at least you like the story; and it is sent to you by the one that loves you—Jekyll, and not Hyde. R. L. S. _Ave_! Bells upon the city are ringing in the night; High above the gardens are the houses full of light; On the heathy Pentlands is the curlew flying free; And the broom is blowing bonnie in the north countrie. We cannae break the bonds that God decreed to bind, Still we’ll be the children of the heather and the wind; Far away from home, O, it’s still for you and me That the broom is blowing bonnie in the north countrie! R. L. S. TO ALISON CUNNINGHAM