Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Torch-Bearers"

Summer Short Story: Part Two

“(Someone’s) life from without may seem but a rude mound of mud; there will be some golden chamber at the heart of it, in which he dwells delighted; and for as dark as his pathway seems to the observer, he will have some kind of a bull’s-eye at his belt.”

Knucklebones or Jacks as it is more commonly called today.

Robert Louis Stevenson is known for adventure novels like "Treasure Island” and “Kidnapped.” He sought to write fiction that would transport readers away from their circumstances. But he sought to do this, less by constructing an alternative world and more by surfacing the peculiar joy integral to childhood but lost as we become adults.

As the “tin bulls-eye lantern” hidden under his and his friend’s coats, he seeks to make us aware of the adventure that is still there in the midst of our everyday life. Each of us needs to draw out this missed sense of wonder if we are going to make good happen in our lives, relationships and communities.

So without further ado, part 2 (of 3) of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Lantern-Bearers.”