not blame me too much for my silence; I am
over head and ears in work, and do not know what to do first. I have
been hard at _Otto_, hard at _Silverado_ proofs, which I have worked
over again to a tremendous extent; cutting, adding, rewriting, until
some of the worst chapters of the original are now, to my mind, as good
as any. I was the more bound to make it good, as I had such liberal
terms; it's not for want of trying if I have failed.

I got your letter on my birthday; indeed, that was how I found it out
about three in the afternoon, when postie comes. Thank you for all you
said. As for my wife, that was the best investment ever made by man; but
"in our branch of the family" we seem to marry well. I, considering my
piles of work, am wonderfully well; I have not been so busy for I know
not how long. I hope you will send me the money I asked however, as I am
not only penniless, but shall remain so in all human probability for
some considerable time. I have got in the mass of my expectations; and
the L100 which is to float us on the new year cannot come due till
_Silverado_ is all ready; I am delaying it myself for the moment; then
will follow the binders and the travellers and an infinity of other
nuisances; and only at the last, the jingling-tingling.

Do you know that _Treasure Island_ has appeared? In the November number
of Henley's Magazine, a capital number anyway, there is a funny
publisher's puff of it for your book; also a bad article by me. Lang
dotes on _Treasure Island_: "Except _Tom Sawyer_ and the _Odyssey_," he
writes, "I never liked any romance so much." I will inclose the letter
though. The Bogue is angelic, although very dirty. It has rained--at
last! It was jolly cold when the rain came.

I was overjoyed to hear such good news of my father. Let him go on at
that!--Ever your affectionate,

R. L. S.

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

Of the "small ships" here mentioned, _Fontainebleau_ and _The
Character of Dogs_ are well known: _A Misadventure in France_ is
probably a draft of the _Epilogue to an Inland Voyage_, not
published till five years later. The _Travelling Companion_ (of which
I remember little except that its scene was partly laid in North
Italy and that a publisher to whom it was shown declared it a work of
genius but indecent) was abandoned some two years later, as set forth
on p. 193 of this volume.

_La Solitude, Hyeres [November 1883]._

L10,000 Pou