The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

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Once the engineers were all but lost when the _Smeaton_ slipped her
moorings and left them stranded on the rock.

In spite of all the obstacles, the work was completed at the end of two
years and the light was shown for the first time February 1, 1811.

"I found Robert Stevenson an appreciative and intelligent companion,"
writes Sir Walter Scott in his journal, speaking of a cruise he made
among the islands of Scotland with a party of engineers. The notes made
by him on this trip were used afterward in his two stories, "The Pirate"
and "Lord of the Isles."

"My grandfather was king in the service to his finger-tips," wrote Louis
Stevenson. "All should go his way, from the principal light-keeper's
coat to the assistant's fender, from the gravel in the garden walks to
the bad smell in the kitchen, or the oil spots on the storeroom floor.
It might be thought there was nothing more calculated to awaken men's