Vailima Letters

CHAPTER I

_In the Mountain_, _Apia_, _Samoa_, _Monday_, _November_ 2_nd_, 1890

MY DEAR COLVIN,—This is a hard and interesting and beautiful life that we lead now. Our place is in a deep cleft of Vaea Mountain, some six hundred feet above the sea, embowered in forest, which is our strangling enemy, and which we combat with axes and dollars. I went crazy over outdoor work, and...