Part 3 (1/2)

'I heard the winds, with unseen feet, Pass up the long and weary street,

'They say ”We coThe faint first breathings of the spring'

And the voice of the spring thus calling him as soon as it was heard, was obeyed; and, careless of the frowns that were bound to greet his return, he was off to wander on his beloved Braids and Pentlands, to lie long days a the whin and the broo on the Forth, and to think deep thoughts beside the ashed shore of that sea which ever drew him like the voice of a familiar friend

To that intense love of Nature, and of Nature's solitude, his readers owe ave such an interesting description of Swanston in _Good Words_ in the spring of 1895, that those truant hours of his educated him for his future work far better than a careful attendance at school and college could have done The same writer says that it was this open air life that he loved so dearly which gave to Stevenson's books their large leisure, and to his style its dignity There is much truth in the remark; but as far as the style is concerned it is the product of tiently for, that few authors can even conceive of it

In _Mehtful account of boyish days at a seaside resort, that is evidently North Berwick, and lovingly describes adventures with bull's-eye lanterns; adventures which see folk of his connection, and which repeated themselves a few years later on the other side of the Forth, where boys and girls recalled the doings of Robert Louis and his friends with bull's-eye lanterns and gunpowder, in that cheerful form known to Louis Stevenson as a 'peeoy,' and considered it a point of honour to do likewise, no nant such mischief made the authorities As for him, he was always the inventor and prime lory in

The wind-swept coast about North Berwick had a strong fascination for hi in fro on the lonely shore The autu event e, in May 1867, to be the summer home of the Stevensons

The boy took intense pleasure in his rambles about the hills, in his dreamy rests on 'Kirk Yetton'[2] and 'Allers with John Todd, the shepherd, after that worthy had ceased, as he coerous sheep-scarer, and so to play 'Claverhouse to his Covenanter'! The two soon becae philosophy,days the lad heard froreat friend of early Swanston years was Robert Young, the gardener, whose austere and Puritan views of life were sole master

Existence at Swanston was eventhan it had been in Edinburgh, and Louis, in his later school days and his early sessions at the University, was more than ever conspicuous by his absence fro the hills, long raate Whins, the port of Leith, and the rapidly changing localities round Leith Walk, so, the ancient horavely retired from the work-a-day world

In the year 1867 he ith his father to the 'Dhu Heartach'

Lighthouse, and so began to develop that passion for the Western Isles and the Western seas which future voyages in _The Pharos_ were to bring to the state of fervour and perfection which gave birth of _The Merrymen_, and to those descriptions of the wild and lovely scenery of Appin and the West Highlands, in which David Balfour and Alan Breck wander through the pages of _Kidnapped_

It was his father's intention that he should follow the fa, and with this in vieent to the Edinburgh University in the autumn of 1868 The professors in those days included Professors Kelland, Tait, Cru-Jenkin, Blackie, Masson, and many others whose na savour' in that Edinburgh which they and the truant student, who honoured his class attendance 'more in the breach than the observance,' loved so well

It was a stirring tiainst the innovation of Dr Sophia Jex-Blake and the pioneers of the Lady Doctors'back, scarcely so mildly mannered, so peacefully inclined as those who now sit placidly beside 'the sweet girl graduates' of our day, on the class-roon of the lady doctor as an accoht procession of modern times is apparently a cheerful and picturesque function, smiled on by the authorities, and welco honour to a new Lord Rector or souest of the city or the University In Mr Stevenson's tiht procession had all the joys of 'forbidden fruit' to the merry lads who braved the police and the professors for the pleasure of h the streets to the final bonfire on the Calton Hill, froed with clothes well oiled and singed, and faces and hands as black ascould ht in the police cells should be the reward of the ringleaders

Of one such procession, in the spring when Mr Stevenson's law studies were first interrupted by a journey south for his health, a clever student wrote an epic which was presented to_very precious_! The occasion was the Duke of Edinburgh's wedding, in 1874, and, yellow and faded, the _Epic_ still graceslines, one sees again those bygone days in which the slier face of Louis Stevenson are always so conspicuous in everylines froive a really excellent picture of the college life in his day

'A deputation we Sent hither by the students to demand That they--that is the students--in a band Maystreets on Friday night

Brave was the Provost, yet towards his heart The glowing life blood thrilled with sudden start; Well ht treht of all the terrors of the past, Of that fell row in Blackie's, April last-- Of Si-Maxwell too, Of Miss Jex-Blake and all her lovely crew-- He thought, ”If thus these desperadoes dare To act with ladies, learned, young and fair, Old women, like the Councillors and me, To direr torments still reserved may be

The better part of valour is discretion, I'll try to soften the thrice, impression due to make And clear his throat, in accents mild he spake, ”Ye have my leave, 'VR,' I mean 'DV'”

The students bowed, retired, and he was free'

The High Sheriff and the Chief of Police, when they heard of the Provost's weakness, were filled rath and dis back the concession, so that this historic procession was as much 'forbidden fruit' as its predecessors, and the students probably enjoyed it the more that they had as usual to dare all those in authority to carry it out

Another old-tiht Whether snow is less plentiful, or students are too cultured and too refined for these rough pastimes it is ireat_ sobll fight is also a thing of the past In those days they were Homeric combats, and a source of keen enjoyment to Robert Louis Stevenson, a very funny account of whoiven me at the time by his cousin, Lewis Balfour, fro an active part in the reat battle in the winter of 1869--or 1870--Mr Stevenson and one or two men, noell known in various professions, had seated theht Froed the combatants, but took no active part in the fray Within swarmed the students armed with soballs, without, the lads of the town, equally active, storates All were too intent on the battle to notice the advent of the police, who rushed into the college quadrangle andhis neck too much, in his keen enjoyment, Mr Stevenson overbalanced himself, slipped from his perch and was proallant efforts for his rescue, was ignominiously marched off to the Police Office at the veryup the Bridges It was useless for his attendant friends to assert that he had been a non-coht? The police had him and they meant to keep him for he could not produce sufficient bail from his so all their stray coins, their watches and other valuables, ed to secure his release so that he had not the experience--which it is possible he ht in the police cells of his native city

In his introduction to the _Meood story of his relations with that Professor, as always a true and appreciative friend to his clever if idle student He had handed in so few cards at the class of Engineering that his certificate was not forthco until he told his friend that his father would be very vexed if he could not produce the certificate--which he never intended to _use_--whereat the tender-hearted Professor handed it to hi the Professors was Professor Kelland; and one can well understand the attraction which the dainty, gentle refinement of that most kind-hearted ofStevenson's All Professor Kelland's students loved him; this one understood hiiants of those days who, and whose lectures he occasionally attended although not a member of his class; and, himself not without his amiable eccentricities, he could not fail to have a soft spot in his heart for the quaint humour and the pleasant eccentricity which endeared Professor Blackie to his class and to the public He was a poor attender at the Greek Class, however, and when he presented himself for his certificate the keen blue eyes of the Professor looked at him critically, and the Professor's remark was that he had been so seldonise his face!