ies_, a story that has delighted so many
children. In it he found a reference to his grandfather as one who
knew much about water-babies. So he wrote to his grandfather:

Dear Grandpater, have you seen a water baby? Did you put it in
a bottle? Did it wonder if it could get out? Can I see it some
day?
Your loving
JULIAN.

This is the answer to the letter:

March 24, 1892.
MY DEAR JULIAN:

I never could make out about that water-baby. I have seen
babies in water and babies in bottles; but the baby in the
water was not in the bottle and the baby in the bottle was not
in the water.
Ever your loving
GRANDPATER.

Huxley was also fond of cats and dogs and pets of all kind. His son
tells us that once he found his father in an uncomfortable seat, while
the cat had the best chair. He defended himself by saying that he
could not turn the beast away. In 1893 a man, who was writing on the
_Pets of Celebrities_, wrote to him for information concerning his
personal likings. Huxley sent him this letter:

A long series of cats has reigned over my household for the
last forty years or thereabouts; but I am sorry to say that I
have no pictorial or other record of their physical and moral
excellencies.

The present occupant of the throne is a large young gray
tabby, Oliver by name. Not that in any sense he is a
protector, for I doubt whether he has the heart to kill a
mouse. However, I saw him catch and eat the first butterfly of
the season, and trust that the germ of courage thus manifest
may develop, with age, into efficient mousing.

As to sagacity, I should say that his judgment respecting the
warmest place and the softest cushion in the room is
infallible, his punctuality at meal-time is admirable, and his
pertinacity in jumping on people's shoulders till they give
him some of the best of what is going indicates great
firmness.

XLIV

STEVENSON AT VAILIMA

Robert Louis Stevenson, the writer of _Treasure Island_ and many other
exciting romances, was an exile from home during the last few years of
his life. The state of his health demanded a sunny clime and so he was
forced to live in Samoa, a group of islands in the South