In July of 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson received word that his future wife's divorce was almost complete but she was seriously ill. Dropping everything he left Scotland and traveled to Monterey in California.

Pennyless, in broken health, and his writing career in tatters he was nursed back to health by his doctor, his nurse, and his furture wife. His father then provided him money to help and he married. Still too weak to undertake the journey back to Scotland, he spent an unconventional honeymoon in a shanty in a derelict mining camp.

This is his story of their time in the shanty. Other tales of his quest appear in "Essays of Travel" and "Across the Plains."