The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

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lived, and the Alison who ferried Alan and David over to Torryburn was
one of Cummie's own people. The Highland country where the scenes were
laid, he had traversed many times, and the Island of Earraid, where
David was shipwrecked, was the spot where he had spent some of his
engineering days.

Stevenson had often said the "brownies" in his dreams gave him ideas for
his tales. At Skerryvore they came to him with a story that among all
his others is counted the greatest.

"In the small hours one morning," says his wife, "I was awakened by
cries of horror from Louis. Thinking he had a nightmare I awakened him.
He said angrily, 'Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey
tale.'"

The dream was so vivid that he could not rest until he had written off
the story, and it so possessed him that the first draft was finished