front and massed support behind, in the most approved military fashion
of to-day."

Neither of them ever grew too old for this sport. Year after year they
went back to the game. Even when they went to Samoa they laid out a
campaign room with maps chalked on the floor.

In the spring of 1885 Thomas Stevenson purchased a house at Bournemouth,
England, near London, as a present for his daughter-in-law.

They named the cottage "Skerryvore," after the famous lighthouse he had
helped to build in his young days, and it was their home for the next
three years--busy ones for R.L.S.

[Illustration: Skerryvore Cottage, Bournemouth]

It was a real joy to have his father and mother and Bob Stevenson with
them again and his friends in London frequently drop in for a visit.

His health was never worse than during the Bournemouth days. He seldom
went beyond his own garden-gate but lived, as he says, "like a weevil in
a biscuit." Yet he never worked harder or accomplished more. He wrote in
bed and out of bed, sick or well, poems, plays, short stories, and
verses.

He finished "Treasure Island," the book that gained him his first
popularity, and wrote "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," which made him famous
at home and abroad.

"Treasure Island" had been started some time previous to please Lloyd,