unconscious of the great debt of gratitude I owe you."

[Illustration: Facsimile of letter sent to Cummy with "An Inland
Voyage"]

If Thomas Stevenson had been one of the first to doubt his boy's
literary ability, he was equally quick to acknowledge himself mistaken.
He was proud of his brilliant son, keenly interested in whatever he was
working on and, during the days spent together at Skerryvore, gave him
valuable aid in his writing.

To have this old-time comradeship with his father, to enjoy his sympathy
and understanding once more was Stevenson's greatest joy at this time; a
joy which he sorrowfully realized he must soon part with forever as his
father's health was failing rapidly.

Thomas Stevenson remained at Skerryvore until April, 1887, when he left
for a short visit to Edinburgh. While there he became suddenly worse and
died on the 8th of May.

Louis's greatest reason for remaining in England was gone now, and he
determined to cross the ocean with his family once more.

His mother willingly gave up her home, her family, her friends, and the
comforts she had always enjoyed to go with him to a new country, on any
venture he might propose if his health could only be improved thereby.

On August 21, 1887, Louis bade good-by to Scotland for the last time and
sailed away from London on the steamship _Ludgate Hill_ for New York.

CHAPTER VII

SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA

"Tis a good land to fall in with men, and a pleasant land to see."

--(_Words spoken by Hendrik Hudson when he first brought his
ship through the Narrows and saw the Bay of New York_.)

Stevenson's second landing in New York was a great contrast to his
first. The "Amateur Emigrant" had no one to bid him welcome and Godspeed
but a West Street tavern-keeper, and now when Mr. Will Low, his old
friend of Fontainebleau days, hastened to the dock to welcome him on the
_Ludgate Hill_, he found the author of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" already
surrounded by reporters.

The trip had done him good in spite of their passage having been an
unusually rough one, with numerous discomforts. The _Ludgate Hill_ was
not an up-to-date liner and she carried a very mixed cargo. The very
fact of her being a tramp ship and that the passengers were free to be
about with the men and officers, stay in the wheel-house, and enjoy a
real sea life, delighted Stevenson, and he wrote back to Sidney Colvin:

"I enjoyed myself more than I could