Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 16, 2025
Strong was waked up by the sound of voices on the veranda, and, running down, found her mother surrounded by twenty Samoans, all with baskets. Mrs. Stevenson, hearing the sound of talking, had come down, to find these men coming heavily laden from the direction of the Vailima taro, yam, cocoanut, and banana plantation. "I politely asked them," says Mrs.
Of the Vailima household time and wars had eliminated all but the youngest Mitaele, who looked much the same in spite of grey hair and a family of nine children.
The scale on which the household had been conducted was now cut down very much, and she and her daughter, retaining but a few of the former great retinue of servants, led a calm and peaceful life among their tropic flowers. "Vailima is so lovely now," writes Mrs. Strong to the elder Mrs. Stevenson. "The trees are all so big, and the hibiscus hedge is over ten feet high and blazing with flowers.
Our combined weight loaded it gunwale to the water, and I was obliged to steer with great care to avoid swamping. The adventure pleased Mrs. Stevenson greatly, and as we paddled along she sang 'They went to sea in a pea-green boat. I could understand her saying of her husband and herself 'Our tastes were similar. "Calling to say good-bye to my friends at Vailima, I met Mrs.
Pola always spoke of Vailima as "our place," and Mr. Stevenson as "my chief." I had given him a little brown pony that exactly matched his own skin. A missionary, meeting him in the forest road as he was galloping along like a young centaur, asked, "Who are you?" "I," answered Pola, reining in his pony with a gallant air, "am one of the Vailima men!"
Nothing would more surely arouse her anger than the sight of any unkindness to one of these "little brothers." Once at Vailima a gentleman, who ought to have known better, came riding up on a horse that showed signs of being in pain. "That horse has a sore back," she cried.
The next morning I ran out to buy her some shoes any kind but there were none small enough. At last our little carriage was sent down from Vailima and came around to the side entrance.
Among other doctors' prescriptions pasted in the book there is one for cankered ear in dogs. It was this prescription that she used on a young English officer of the Curaçoa who was visiting Vailima, and who was suffering terribly from some ear trouble. Mrs. Stevenson said to him, "I can cure you if you will let me treat you with my dog medicine."
It is already easier to estimate his importance and get the significance of his work than it was when he died in 1894 stricken down on the piazza of his house at Vailima, a Scotchman doomed to fall in a far-away, alien place.
"I was all over the place when I first came out," he said. He was silent for a moment. "I went away for good about three years ago, but I came back." He hesitated. "My wife wanted to come back. She was born here, you know." "Oh, yes." He was silent again, and then hazarded a remark about Robert Louis Stevenson. He asked me if I had been up to Vailima.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking