The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

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CHAPTER III

THE LANTERN BEARER

 "Perhaps there lives some dreamy boy, untaught
  In school, some graduate of the field or street,
  Who shall become a master of the art,
  An admiral sailing the high seas of thought,
  Fearless and first, and steering with his fleet
  For lands not yet laid down on any chart."

                                     --LONGFELLOW.


School days began for Louis in 1859, but were continually interrupted by
illness, travel, and change of school. His father did not believe in
forcing him to study; so he roamed through school according to his own