down when I did, I am surrounded by unfinished works. It is a good thing
my father was on the spot, or I should have had to work and die."

Early in the spring he and Mrs. Osbourne met again, and on May 19, 1880,
they were married in San Francisco.

For the rest of his life Stevenson had no cause to complain of
loneliness, for in his wife he had an "inseparable sharer of all his
adventures; the most open-hearted of friends to all those who loved him;
the most shrewd and stimulating critic of his work; and in sickness,
despite her own precarious health, the most devoted and most efficient
of nurses."

Immediately after their marriage Stevenson and his wife and stepson--and
the dog--went to the Coast Range Mountains and, taking possession of an
old deserted miner's camp, practically lived out-of-doors for the next
few months, with no neighbors aside from a hunter and his family.

This was healthy, but the life of a squatter has its limitations, and
their trials and tribulations during these weeks Stevenson told most
amusingly in "The Silverado Squatters."

Gradually a longing began to come to R.L.S. to see those at home once
more and have them know his wife. This desire grew so from day to day
that July found them bidding good-by to California, and on the 7th of
August they sailed from New York for Liverpool.