The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

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party who came from H.M.S. _Wallaroo_ on one Thanksgiving Day, when "the
kitchen department was in great excitement over that foreign bird the
turkey" and all was confusion. "But Louis kept his sailors on all the
afternoon. He took them over the house and showed them ... the
curiosities from the islands, the big picture of Skerryvore
lighthouse,... the treasured bit of Gordon's handwriting from Khartoum,
in Arabic letters on a cigarette paper,... and the library, where the
Scotchmen gathered about an old edition of Burns, with a portrait. Louis
gave a volume of Underwoods (Stevenson's poems) with an inscription to
Grant, the one who hailed from Edinburgh, and the man carried it
carefully wrapped in his handkerchief. They went away waving their hats
and keeping step."

A croquet-ground and tennis-court were laid out, and Vailima was the
scene of balls, dinners, and parties of all kinds. No birthday or
holiday, English, American, or Samoan, was allowed to pass unnoticed,
and the natives were included in these festivities whenever possible.