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Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894

"Vailima Letters"


IX. Practical Suggestions. Say three-sixths of it are done,
maybe more; by this mail five chapters should go, and that
should be a good half of it; say sixty pages. And if you
consider that I sent by last mail the end of the WRECKER,
coming on for seventy or eighty pages, and the mail before
that the entire Tale of the BEACH OF FALESA, I do not think I
can be accused of idleness. This is my season; I often work
six and seven, and sometimes eight hours; and the same day I
am perhaps weeding or planting for an hour or two more - and
I daresay you know what hard work weeding is - and it all
agrees with me at this time of the year - like - like
idleness, if a man of my years could be idle.
My first visit to Apia was a shock to me; every second person
the ghost of himself, and the place reeking with infection.
But I have not got the thing yet, and hope to escape. This
shows how much stronger I am; think of me flitting through a
town of influenza patients seemingly unscathed. We are all
on the cacao planting.
The next day my wife and I rode over to the German
plantation, Vailele, whose manager is almost the only German
left to speak to us.


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