The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson — Volume 2Stevenson, Robert Louis
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The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson — Volume 2
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Authors, Scottish -- 19th century -- Correspondence; Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894 -- Correspondence
Every hand was offered: I had gloves, but I had made up my mind on the
boat’s voyage _not_ to give my hand; that seemed less offensive than the
gloves. So the sisters and I went up among that crew, and presently I
got aside (for I felt I had no business there) and set off on foot across
the promontory, carrying my wrap and the camera. All horror was quite
gone from me: to see these dread creatures smile and look happy was
beautiful. On my way through Kalaupapa I was exchanging cheerful
_alohas_ with the patients coming galloping over on their horses; I was
stopping to gossip at house-doors; I was happy, only ashamed of myself
that I was here for no good. One woman was pretty, and spoke good
English, and was infinitely engaging and (in the old phrase) towardly;
she thought I was the new white patient; and when she found I was only a
visitor, a curious change came in her face and voice—the only sad thing,
morally sad, I mean—that I met that morning. But for all that, they tell
me none want to leave. Beyond Kalaupapa the houses became rare; dry
stone dykes, grassy, stony land, one sick pandanus; a dreary country;
from overhead in the little clinging wood shogs of the pali chirruping of
birds fell; the low sun was right in my face; the trade blew pure and
cool and delicious; I felt as right as ninepence, and stopped and chatted
with the patients whom I still met on their horses, with not the least
disgust. About half-way over, I met the superintendent (a leper) with a
horse for me, and O, wasn’t I glad! But the horse was one of those
curious, dogged, cranky brutes that always dully want to go somewhere
else, and my traffic with him completed my crushing fatigue. I got to
the guest-house, an empty house with several rooms, kitchen, bath, etc.
There was no one there, and I let the horse go loose in the garden, lay
down on the bed, and fell asleep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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