life.

You are still--as when first I saw, as when I last addressed you--
in the venerable city which I must always think of as my home. And
I have come so far; and the sights and thoughts of my youth pursue
me; and I see like a vision the youth of my father, and of his
father, and the whole stream of lives flowing down there far in the
north, with the sound of laughter and tears, to cast me out in the
end, as by a sudden freshet, on these ultimate islands. And I
admire and bow my head before the romance of destiny.

R. L. S.
Vailima, Upolu,
Samoa, 1892.




CATRIONA--Part I--THE LORD ADVOCATE




CHAPTER I--A BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK



The 25th day of August, 1751, about two in the afternoon, I, David
Balfour, came forth of the British Linen Company, a porter
attending me with a bag of money, and some of the chief of these