at make it a book to read and
re-read with infinite pleasure.

Mr Stevenson says, in its dedicatory preface, that he meant to make of
it a masterpiece; if he did not succeed in doing so, as a story, he
certainly gave in it a picture of the woods so true to nature and so
exquisite in style and in expression that it will live as among his best
work.

Good as this earlier writing was he had not yet found in it his full
inspiration, and it hardly appealed to so wide a public as the fresh and
delightful stories of adventure to which he finally turned his
attention. In connection with Mr Stevenson's fiction, it is interesting
to note that in his boyhood he greatly enjoyed the stories of a novelist
called Smythe, who at that time contributed to the _London Journal_, and
whose work had its influence on the boy's future tales. Smythe's novels
were full of stirring adventures, and many lads of that day, besides the
aspiring novelist, were much impressed by them, and can even now recall
incidents in them read so long ago as 1868!

He had applied for work to Mr Henderson, the Scotch editor of _Young
Folks_, and to the acceptance of this application the world owes
_Treasure Island_ and the charming stories which followed it. The editor
of _Young Folks_, who offered to take a story from him, showed him a
treasure-hunting tale by Mr Peace, and asked him to give him something
on the same lines. The result was _The Sea Cook_, which appeared in the
paper in the autumn of 1881, and was not very highly paid for. It was
written under the nom-de-plume of Captain North to give the idea the
author was a sailor; it was not given a very important place in the
paper and it had no very marked success as a serial. It was, with very
little alteration, published by Messrs Cassell & Co. in 1883, under the
name of _Treasure Island_, and it had an instant and well-deserved
success. It is an excellent book for boys, full of stirring adventure,
in the old-time fashion of fifty years ago, but it is much more; it is a
book that grown-up folk, whose taste is still fresh enough to enjoy a
good tale of the sea, delight in as heartily as the juniors. It was
written while the Stevenson family were staying for a time at Braemar,
and Mr Thomas Stevenson gave his son valuable help in it from his own
experiences at sea while on his cruises of inspection round the coasts.

_The Black Arrow_ also appeared in _Young Folks_ during 1883 as by
Captain North; it is sai