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Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Osbourne

WE

E thank Thee for this place in which we dwell; for the love that unites us; for the peace accorded us this day; for the hope with which we expect the morrow; for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies that make our lives delightful; for our friends in all parts of the earth, and our friendly helpers in this foreign isle. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors. If it may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another.

-VAILIMA PRAYERS

Bearing on the same line we have the legend that the
adage, "He laughs best who laughs last," was the
invention of a Scotchman who was endeavoring to
explain away a popular failing of his countrymen.
An adage seems to be a statement the reverse of which
is true or not. In all the realm of letters where can
be found anything more delightfully whimsical and
deliciously humorous than Barrie's "Peter Pan!" And
as a writer of exquisite humor, as opposed to English
wit, that other Scotchman, Robert Louis Stevenson,
stands supreme.

To Robert Louis life was altogether too important a
matter to be taken seriously. The quality of fine fool-
ing shown in the creation of a mystical character
called "John Libbel" remained with Stevenson to the
end of his days. Stevenson never knew the value of
money, because he was not brought up to earn money.
Very early he was placed on a small allowance, which