The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

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as it had a good mail service, a most important feature to a writer.
The monthly mail-steamers between San Francisco and Sydney, as well as
other Australian mail-boats, stopped there.

So he purchased four hundred acres on the hills three miles from Apia
and preparations were immediately made for clearing the ground and
building a house. Lloyd Osbourne left for England to bring back the
household treasures from Skerryvore, to make a real home, and Stevenson
and his wife lived gypsy fashion meanwhile in a four-room wooden house.

The new home was named Vailima, which is Samoan for "Five Waters," there
being five streams running through the property.

The house was built of wood, painted dark green with a red roof. When
finished its chief feature was the great hall within, sixty feet long,
lined and ceiled with California redwood. Here among the home
treasures--his own portrait, war dresses, corselets, fans, and mats