side to prevent hemorrhage. In the midst of all these afflictions
he refused to be cast down and insisted that everything was for the
best, for he was now forced to take a much-needed rest which he would
not otherwise have taken. On March 25, 1884, she writes to his mother:

"I am not very good at letter writing since I have been doing blind
man's eyes, but here is a note to say that the blind man is doing very
well, and I consider the blindness a real providence. Since he has
been unable to read or do anything at all a wonderful change has come
over his health, spirits, and temper, all for the better.... I wish
you could see him with his eye tied up and singing away like mad;
truly like mad, as there is neither time nor method in it, only a
large voice. I am horribly busy, for I have to write for Louis from
dictation, answer all his letters, as well as my own, keep house,
entertain visitors, and do a good deal of the cooking. Our Wogg is an
invalid, having got himself badly mangled in several fights, the maid
is ill with symptoms of pleurisy, and altogether we are a forlorn
household, but with all this Louis and I are in high spirits. He says
it is wonderful how well one gets along without reading. He could
never have believed it."

Perhaps partly for the purpose of getting her out for a little fresh
air, he proposed that she should go for an hour's walk every day, and
during her absence invent a story to be told on her return. It was to
be a sort of Arabian Nights' Entertainment, with him as the Sultan and
her as Scheherazade. _The Dynamiter_ was suggested by certain
attempted outrages in London which had all turned out to be fiascos.
She began with the Mormon tale and followed with the others, one for
each afternoon. Afterwards, when a lean time came at Bournemouth and
money was badly needed, these stories, temporarily forgotten, were
recalled, written, and published as the second volume of the _New
Arabian Nights_ series. As there was only enough for a thin book he
wrote another, _The Explosive Bomb_, to fill up. It came out at first
under the title of _More New Arabian Nights_, but afterwards appeared
as _The Dynamiter_. Of the stories in this second series only one,
_The Explosive Bomb_, was entirely the work of Mr. Stevenson's own
hand, all the others being done in collaboration with his wife. _The
Dynamiter_ did double service, as his wife said, for first it amused
his tedious hours of illness at Hyeres, and a