CHAPTER VI

SCOTLAND AGAIN

"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 canna 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."


On his return to Scotland the spell of his own land fell upon R.L.S. for
the first time. He realized now how he loved it spite of its bad
climate, how much there was at home waiting for him. "After all," he
said, "new countries, sun, music, and all the rest, can never take down
our gusty, rainy, smoky, grim old city out of the first place it has
been making for itself in the bottom of my soul."

But he had returned only to be banished. The doctors found his lungs
too weak to risk Edinburgh winters and advised him to try the Alps.

Accordingly a cottage was rented in Davos Platz, a health resort. There
and at similar places near by they spent the next few winters with
visits to England and France between. Switzerland never suited
Stevenson. He disliked living among invalids, and with his love for
exploring the nooks and corners of any spot he was in he felt like a