He eventually confessed to his father that he did not hope to become an engineer, at which his father swallowed his disappointment and suggested that he study law; Stevenson obediently did so, but was no more interested in this than in engineering, and although he was admitted to the bar at the age of 24, he never practiced. Still, his late teens and early twenties were a period of great and solid growth. He continued to read voluminously, if seldom in accordance with what he had been assigned. He roamed the streets of Edinburgh, alone and with friends, and although he apparently frequented his share of taverns and brothels, he also became a close observer of human behavior and a close listener to human language. Stevenson's youthful "dissipation" became much exaggerated in legend, after his fame and death; he was during these years on a strict allowance from his father and could not have afforded the wild life that gossip later attributed to him. He continued to travel, alone or with his parents, or sometimes with his cousin and good friend, Bob Stevenson. And always, from childhood on, he wrote — essays, poetry, descriptive sketches, and narrative accounts of historical events. His goal seems not to have been to make a living as a writer (which his family would not have considered a worthwhile profession) so much as to learn to write well. And learn he did.
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