tly bloody axe which decapitated “young Mataafa” shoved under my nose to admire and adore。 I told my friend “Safolu” to take his beastly thing away and he seemed quite surprised 。 。 。 。 These books are R。 L。 S。‘s gift to you — write him a line 。 。 。 。
Your loving brother；
Bazett M。 Haggard。
Stevenson and I are great friends； he is such a good chap； but as I say of him in my book。
As regards the volumes themselves； which seem to fetch a great deal of money when they e on the market； I am only able to say that I have studied them with great zeal but am unable to make head or tail of them。 Perhaps this is because I do not possess the key to the joke or understand the local allusions。
I have only one more relic of Stevenson； a very amusing poem which he wrote to Lang and myself on “The World’s Desire；” or rather a copy of it； for I believe that Lang has lost the original。 Again I must express my sorrow that I never saw Stevenson。 Evidently he was a delightful man and as brilliant as he was charming； truly a master of his craft。 “Dr。 Jeckell and Mr。 Hyde” has always seemed to me one of the most remarkable things of its sort in the English language。 Longman gave me an early copy of it just after it was issued from the press； and this I still possess somewhere。 I shall never forget the thrill with which I read the story； in places the horror of it is enough to cause the hair to rise。 His essays； too； are almost unmatched； at any rate in our time； and next to these I should put “The Master of Ballantrae。” At least such is my individual taste。
About “King Solomon’s Mines” I have only this to add。 In it I made a mistake with reference to an eclipse； which brought me into much trouble with astronomers； and also with numbers of the reading