ar
Stevenson as he stood reading it aloud, with his hand stretched out
holding the manuscript, and his body gently swaying as a kind of
rhythmical commentary on the story. His fine voice, clear and keen it
some of its tones, had a wonderful power of inflection and variation, and
when he came to stand in the place of Silver you could almost have
imagined you saw the great one-legged John Silver, joyous-eyed, on the
rolling sea. Yes, to read it in print was good, but better yet to hear
Stevenson read it.

CHAPTER II--_TREASURE ISLAND_ AND SOME REMINISCENCES

When I left Braemar, I carried with me a considerable portion of the MS.
of _Treasure Island_, with an outline of the rest of the story. It
originally bore the odd title of _The Sea-Cook_, and, as I have told
before, I showed it to Mr Henderson, the proprietor of the _Young Folks'
Paper_, who came to an arrangement with Mr Stevenson, and the story duly
appeared in its pages, as well as the two which succeeded it.

Stevenson himself in his article in _The Idler_ for August 1894
(reprinted in _My First Book_ volume and in a late volume of the
_Edinburgh Edition_) has recalled some of the circumstances connected
with this visit of mine to Braemar, as it bore on the destination of
_Treasure Island_:

"And now, who should come dropping in, _ex machina_, but Dr Japp, like
the disguised prince, who is to bring down the curtain upon peace and
happiness in the last act; for he carried in his pocket, not a horn or
a talisman, but a publisher, in fact, ready to unearth new writers for
my old friend Mr Henderson's _Young Folks_. Even the ruthlessness of
a united family recoiled before the extreme measure of inflicting on
our guest the mutilated members of _The Sea-Cook_; at the same time,
we would by no means stop our readings, and accordingly the tale was
begun again at the beginning, and solemnly redelivered for the benefit
of Dr Japp. From that moment on, I have thought highly of his
critical faculty; for when he left us, he carried away the manuscript
in his portmanteau.

"_Treasure Island_--it was Mr Henderson who deleted the first title,
_The Sea-Cook_--appeared duly in _Young Folks_, where it figured in
the ignoble midst without woodcuts, and attracted not the least
attention. I did not care. I liked the tale myself, for much the
same reason as my father liked the beginning: it was my kind of
pictur