Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1895 — GAVE AWAY HIS BIRTHDAY. [ARTICLE]

GAVE AWAY HIS BIRTHDAY.

The Novelist Stevenson and a Little Girl in Vermont. A charming story of Robert Louis Stevenson sees the light now, it is believed, for the first time. He was visiting a friend, afterward consul to Samoa, In northern Vermont. This gentleman had a little daughter, about 11 years old, who very speedily became a devoted friend of the novelist In pouring forth her Joys and sorrows in existence, she confided to Mr. Stevenson the woeful fact that she was born on the 20th day of February, and, therefore had enjoyed only two birthdays In all her eleven years. The poet sympathized not only in comforting words, but also In action. He meditated a few seconds, then went to the writing desk orgl drew up the following document: “I, Robert Louis Stevenson, in a sound state of mind and body, having arrived at that age when I no longer have any use for birthdays, do give and bequeath my birthday, on the 18th of November, to Miss Adelaide Ide, to be hers from this year as long as she wishes it “ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON." The little girl’s delight at this rare and most welcome gift has shown its appreciation once a year through several years of birthdays, and low the anniversary will be doubly treasured.