Will O' the Mill, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 3 December 1894) was a Scottish
novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped,
and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Will O' the Mill is a short story which depicts the story of a man who lives by his
philosophy and loses his lady love.
Will was a young boy adopted by a miller and his wife. The mill where Will lived with
his adopted parents stood in a falling valley between pinewoods and great mountains. As a young
boy he used to look at the valley and the plains. He fancied going to the plains and explore the
city.
One day a traveller came to his inn. When talking, Will expressed his long time wish. The
traveller advised Will not to go to the city as life in the city was not good. Life in the mountains
was far better. Only the rich can survive in the city as the poor are neglected. He said that Wills
wish was just like looking at stars. We can see stars and fancy. But still they are far away from
our reach. After understanding the philosophy, Will continued to stay in the mountains even after
the death of his adopted parents.
At 30, he earned some respect in his district. He fell in love with the local parsons
daughter Marjory, who was 19 years old. She accepted to marry him. But, sticking to his
philosophy of not possessing things but only admiring from a distance, he chose not to marry her.
After three years, Marjory married somebody else. After a year she fell ill and died.
From that day of Marjorys death, he lived a machine life and reduced his talking. When
he was 72, death knocked at his door. Will told Death that he had been waiting for his arrival
since the death of Marjory. He went with death in his chariot. At last, Will moved out of the
mountains.
A Christmas Sermon by R. L. Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 3 December 1894) was a Scottish
novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped,
and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
A Christmas Sermon by Robert Louis Stevenson was written while he recovered from a
lung ailment at Lake Sarnac in the winter of 1887. The piece was to be published in the following
December. But it was published 6 years after Stevensons death in 1900.
The sermon asks moralists and the judgmental to focus less on their neighbours
conduct and more on their own. He says If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are
wrong. He does not ask to give them up; but conceal them like a vice.
Christmas is not only the mile-mark of another year, moving us to thoughts of selfexamination: it is a season, from all its associations, whether domestic or religious, suggesting
thoughts of joy.
In the short text he meditates on the questions of death, morality and mans main task in
life which he concludes is To be honest, to be kind - to earn a little and to spend a little less, to
make upon the whole a family happier for his presence.