The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Merry Men, by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Title: The Merry Men
and Other Tales and Fables

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Release Date: February 28, 2007 [eBook #344]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MERRY MEN***

Transcribed from the 1904 edition Chatto & Windus edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org

THE MERRY MEN
AND
Other Tales and Fables

BY
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

TENTH EDITION

LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1904

Three of the following Tales have appeared in the _Cornhill Magazine_;
one in _Longman's_; one in Mr. Henry Norman's Christmas Annual; and one
in the _Court and Society Review_. The Author desires to make proper
acknowledgements to the Publishers concerned.

Dedication

_MY DEAR LADY TAYLOR_,

_To your name_, _if I wrote on brass_, _I could add nothing_; _it has
been already written higher than I could dream to reach_, _by a strong
and dear hand_; _and if I now dedicate to you these tales_, _it is not as
the writer who brings you his work_, _but as the friend who would remind
you of his affection_.

_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON_

SKERRYVORE, BOURNEMOUTH.

Contents

The Merry Men

i. Eilean Aros

ii. What the wreck had brought to Aros

iii. Land and sea in Sandag Bay

iv. The gale

v. A man out of the sea

Will o' the Mill

Markheim

Thrawn Janet

Olalla

The Treasure of Franchard

i. By the dying Mountebank

ii. Morning tale

iii. The adoption

iv. The education of the philosopher

v. Treasure trove

vi. A criminal investigation, in two parts

vii. The fall of the House of Desprez

viii. The wages of philosophy

THE MERRY MEN

CHAPTER I. EILEAN AROS.

It was a beautiful morning in the late July when I set forth on foot for
the last time for Aros. A boat had put me ashore the night before at
Grisapol; I had such breakfast as the little inn afforded, and, leaving
all my baggage till I had an occasion to come round for it by sea, struck
right across