"Tusitala" of course was the name Robert Louis Stevenson acquired when he went to live in Samoa, where he died. And it takes less room in a heading than Robert Louis Stevenson does).

Anyway, the other day by chance in a pub where they have books, I picked up a little book of prayers he wrote for his household in Samoa, printed in 1916. I'd no idea he ever wrote anything like that - stories, essays, verse, songs, yes, but prayers? I checked up and find there's a website with the collection - Prayers Written At Vailima"

Anyway here is a section of one which I think might have been written with the Mudcat in mind:

WE beseech Thee, Lord, to behold us with favour, folk of many families and nations gathered together in the peace of this roof, weak men and women subsisting under the covert of thy patience. Be patient still; suffer us yet awhile longer; - with our broken purposes of good, with our idle endeavours against evil, suffer us awhile longer to endure, and (if it may be) help us to do better.

Prayers actually are an interesting kind of literature. Some of them have a definite provenance, like these ones. Others just seem to have grown. A kind of folklore.