Robert Louis Stevenson reader

Part 2 — ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

Reading edition

Robert Louis Stevenson lived way across the ocean in Scotland.

When he was a little boy he was often sick.

Sometimes he could not go out of doors for months.

He had to spend many long days in bed.

His father and mother were rich and very kind to their little son.

They gave him everything he wanted that was good for him.

They tried in every way to make him happy.

Besides, he had the kindest nurse that a boy could have.

She loved Louis as if he were her own child.

“I have two mothers,” Louis would say.

When the little boy was sick and had to stay in bed, his nurse played games with him.

Often she read to him or told him beautiful stories.

Sometimes in the night the little lad could not sleep for pain.

Then he was afraid of the dark, and of the wind.

His nurse would wrap him warmly in a shawl or the bed clothes and carry him to the window.

“Look, laddie dearie,” she would say, “look at the stars.

A woman stands with a child in her arms in front of a window at night. Her hair is pulled back in a bun. She faces left, dressed in a long, plain white gown with red and black trim near the bottom. She gazes down gently at the child, who is wrapped in a dark blue blanket that reveals only the back of a brown head. Above them, a wooden curtain rod with brass rings holds two cream-colored curtains, which are pulled open to each side of the window.

They are bright.

It is always light somewhere in the world.

It will soon be morning and the pain will all be gone.”

So she would hold him fast and tell him stories or sing to him, till he forgot his pain and fell asleep.

Louis had no brothers or sisters, but he had many cousins who often came to visit him. These were his playmates.

He loved to play with other children.

I never knew of a boy who loved play more than Louis.

If he had no one else to play with, he played with his nurse.

Sometimes he made believe that his shadow was another little boy who played with him.

Sometimes he thought the wind was a big child playing out of doors.

When he went to bed at night, he made believe his bed was a boat.

“Good-by, Nurse,” he would say; “I’m going sailing into the Land of Nod.”

“Good-by, laddie. Don’t forget to sail back to your nursie.”

Even when he was sick and had to stay in bed, he turned it into a game.

His bed was the Land of Counterpane.

He was a giant who lived on Pillow-Hill.

He had many toys and he loved them all.

But best of all he loved his toy-soldiers.

Even when he was a man he always had a box of soldiers, and played with them.

When he heard the wind at night, he made believe it was a man riding by.

The roaring of the wind he called the beat of the horses’ hoofs.

Always playing, always trying to be cheerful and happy, I am sure Robert Louis Stevenson must have been one of the dearest boys in the world!

Don’t you wish you could have played with him?

Would you not like to hear some of the wonderful stories he knew so well how to tell?

So you shall when you are older; for he has written many stories and poems for the children he loved so well.

Every poem in this book was written by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Robert Louis Stevenson is shown in profile, facing left. He appears slender, with shoulder-length hair, and sits upright in bed, supported by large fluffy pillows. He holds a pen in his right hand, while papers or a manuscript rest on his lap. The scene is framed by a round medal-like border with a decorative vine pattern in the upper-left part of the rim. In the bottom right corner, hand-lettered text reads: AFTER THE MEDALLION BY AVGVST ST-GAVDENS J. C. J.

AFTER THE MEDALLION BY·AVGVST·ST·GAVDENS ·J·C·J·