lived, and the Alison who ferried Alan and David over to Torryburn was
one of Cummie's own people. The Highland country where the scenes were
laid, he had traversed many times, and the Island of Earraid, where
David was shipwrecked, was the spot where he had spent some of his
engineering days.

Stevenson had often said the "brownies" in his dreams gave him ideas for
his tales. At Skerryvore they came to him with a story that among all
his others is counted the greatest.

"In the small hours one morning," says his wife, "I was awakened by
cries of horror from Louis. Thinking he had a nightmare I awakened him.
He said angrily, 'Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey
tale.'"

The dream was so vivid that he could not rest until he had written off
the story, and it so possessed him that the first draft was finished
within three days. It was called "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde."

This story instantly created much discussion. Articles were written
about it, sermons were preached on it, and letters poured in from all
sorts of people with their theories about the strange tale. Six months
after it was published nearly forty thousand copies were sold in
England alone; but its greatest success was in America where its
popularity was immediate and its sale enormous.

One day he was attracted by a book of verses about children by Kate
Greenaway, and wondered why he could not write some too of the children
he remembered best of all. Scenes and doings in the days spent at