It
seemed to me original as sin; it seemed to belong to me like
my right eye. I had counted on one boy, I found I had two in
my audience. My father caught fire at once with all the
romance and childishness of his original nature. His own
stories, that every night of his life he put himself to sleep
with, dealt perpetually with ships, roadside inns, robbers,
old sailors, and commercial travellers before the era of
steam. He never finished one of these romances; the lucky
man did not require to! But in TREASURE ISLAND he recognised
something kindred to his own imagination; it was HIS kind of
picturesque; and he not only heard with delight the daily
chapter, but set himself acting to collaborate. When the
time came for Billy Bones's chest to be ransacked, he must
have passed the better part of a day preparing, on the back
of a legal envelope, an inventory of its contents, which I
exactly followed; and the name of 'Flint's old ship' - the
WALRUS - was given at his particular request. And now who
should come dropping in, EX MACHINA, but Dr. Japp, like the
disguised prince who is to bring down the curtain upon peace
and happiness in the last act; for he carried in his pocket,
not a horn or a talisman, but a publisher - had, in fact,
been charged by my old friend, Mr. Henderson, to unearth new
writers for YOUNG FOLKS. Even the ruthlessness of a united
family recoiled before the extreme measure of inflicting on
our guest the mutilated members of THE SEA COOK; at the same
time, we would by no means stop our readings; and accordingly
the tale was begun again at the beginning, and solemnly re-
delivered for the benefit of Dr.
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