A Good Play
We
built
a
ship
upon
the
stairs
All
made
of
the
back-bedroom
chairs,
And
filled
it
full
of
soft
pillows
To
go
a-sailing
on
the
billows.
We
took
a
saw
and
several
nails,
And
water
in
the
nursery
pails;
And
Tom
said,
"Let
us
also
take
An
apple
and
a
slice
of
cake;"—
Which
was
enough
for
Tom
and
me
To
go
a-sailing
on,
till
tea.
We
sailed
along
for
days
and
days,
And
had
the
very
best
of
plays;
But
Tom
fell
out
and
hurt
his
knee,
So
there
was
no
one
left
but
me.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, on November 13, 1850. He was a sickly youth, and an only son, for whom his parents had high hopes. When at last Stevenson was able to attend school, he did extremely well and entered the university at sixteen. His family expected him to become a lighthouse engineer, a family profession, but Stevenson agreed, as a compromise, to study law instead. He was a young rebel; he thought that his parents' religion was an abomination, and he soon became known as a bohemian, ranting about bourgeois hypocrisy.