Island Nights' Entertainments

, which was all pink, the daystar sparkled like a diamond. The land breeze blew in our faces, and smelt strong of wild lime and vanilla: other things besides, but these w

quite strange to me; and the look of these woods and m

lew out the b

e reef. That's Falesá, where your station is, the last village to the east; nobody

tangle of the woods and the breach of the surf, and the brow

me by the hand. 'I've dropped into a soft thing here,' says he.-'So you have,' says I, 'and time too!' Poor Johnny! I never saw him again but the once, and then he had changed his tune-couldn't get on with the natives, or the whites, or som

e die of?"

No go: he was booked beyond Kennedy. Then he had tried to open a case of gin. No go again: not strong enough. Then he must have turned to and run out on the ve

t to be the is

because of the beach-said he was afraid of Black Jack and Case and Whistling Jimmie, who was still alive at the time, but got drowned soon afterward when drunk. As for old Captain Randall,

right in the pass; looks to be a sixteen-foo

e. They've got a gallows bad reputation, but you know what a place the beach is for talking. My belief, that Whistling Jimmie was the

o be sure; but they were both rigged out smart in striped pyjamas and straw hats, and Case would have passed muster in a city. He was yellow and smallish, had a hawk's nose to his face, pale eyes, and his beard trimmed with scissors. No man knew his country, beyond he was of English speech; and it was clear he came of a good family and was splendidly educated. He was accomplished too; played the accordion first-rate; and give him a piece of string or a cork or a pack of cards, and he could show you tricks equal to any professional. He could speak, when he chose, fit for a drawing-room; and when he chose he could blaspheme worse than a Yankee boatswain, and talk smart to sicken a Kanaka. The way he thought would pay bes

lighter my heart. Our last trader had fled the place at half an hour's notice, taking a chance passage in a labour ship from up west. The captain, when he came, had found the station closed, the keys left with the native pastor, and a letter from the runaway, confessing he was fairly frightened of his life. Since then the firm had not been represented, and of course there was no cargo. The wind, besides, was fair, the captain hoped he could make his next island by dawn, with a good tide, and the business

is such a place, and more's the pity if there isn't! It was good to foot the grass, to look aloft at the green mountains, to see the men with their green wreaths and the women in their bright dresses, red and blue. On we wen

ys Case, "we mus

said I; "I ha

e all dressed out for the sake of the ship being in; and the women of Falesá are a handsome lot to see. I

pretty,"

e, and it was wetted through. She was young and very slender for an island maid, with a l

" said I. "

d presently smiled. She had a wide mouth, the lips and the chin cut like any statue's; and the smile came out for a moment and was gone. Then she stood with her head bent, and heard Case to an end, spoke back in the pret

er. I'll make it square with the old lady. You can have your

my memory, for I spoke back sharp. "

me-Uma's on the square." He spoke eager, I thought, and that surprised and pleased me. "Indeed," he went on, "I shouldn't make so sure of getting her, only she cotton

the word marriag

in the marriage," says he.

. The store was to the front, with a counter, scales, and the poorest possible display of trade: a case or two of tinned meats; a barrel of hard bread; a few bolts of cotton stuff, not to be compared with mine; the only thing

awled over by flies; one was in the corner of his eye-he never heeded; and the mosquitoes hummed about the man like bees. Any clean-minded man would have had the creature out at once and buried him; and t

at was hopeless; so he reached me a hand

ase. "We've had an epidemic here; and Captain Ran

tain indignantly. "Take gin for my health's sake, M

l have to brace up. There's going to be a marri

man aske

a," sa

Uma for? 's he come here for his health

rry her. I guess you're not her godfather and godmot

his gull. Trade and station belonged both to Randall; Case and the negro were parasites; they crawled and fed upon him like the flies, he none the wiser.

e; Randall, when he was violent, tearing it to laths. There I sat and had a meal which was served us by Case's wife; and there I was entertained all day by that remains of man, his tongue stumbling among low old jokes and long old stories, and his own wheezy laughter always ready, so that he ha

ce was tattooed, which was not the practice in that island; her eyes big and bright and crazy. These she fixed upon me with a rapt expression that I saw to be part acting. She said no plain word, but smacked and mumbled with her lips, and humme

is?" cried I, for t

d I saw he had hitched along the

afraid of h

her! I don't let her put her foot in here, only I suppos

and the captain told me she was making up a quantity of poetry in my praise because I was to marry Uma. "All right, old lad

crouched out of the house the same way that she came in, and must have plunged st

rum manne

and, to my surprise, he made the s

s I, "are yo

my advice, and whenever you come across Uma or Fa'avao or Vigours, or any of that crowd, you take a leaf out o' the priests, and do what I do. Savvy?" says he, r

o the clean air, and the clean sea, or some convenient river-though, it's true, I was committed to Case; and

wers; and behind her ears and in her hair she had the scarlet flowers of the hibiscus. She showed the best bearing for a bride conceivable, serious and still; and I thought shame to stand up with her in that mean house and before that grinning negro. I thought shame, I say; for the mountebank was dressed with a big paper collar, the book

f ---, is illegally married to Mr. John Wiltshire for one week, and

Black

n to th

from the

iam T.

r Mar

ce in these parts, and (as I told myself) not the least the fault of us white men, but of the missionaries. If they had let the nat

mark of a change in the traders. Case had been all eagerness to keep me; now, as though he had attained a purpose, he

d me good to be done with the captain and see, instead, the creature at my side. I felt for all the world as though she were some girl at home in the Old Country, and, forgetting myself for the minute, took her hand to walk with. Her fingers nestled into mine, I heard her breat

n the bargain; and I told myself I must make a stand at once, and bring her to her bearings. But she looked so quaint and pretty as she ran away and then awaited me, and the thing was done so like a child or a kind dog, that the best I could do was just to follow her whenever she went on, to listen for the fall of her bare feet, and to watch in the dusk for the shining of her body. And there was another thought came in my head. She played kitten with

m high and wide. My chests and cases had been piled in, and made rather of a mess; and there, in the thick of the confusion, stood Uma by the table, awaiting me. Her shadow went all the way up behind her into the hollow

ke that before; but the want of her took and shook

and I turned aside and made believe to rummage among my cases. The first thing I lighted on was a case of gin, the only one that I had brought; and, partly for the girl's sake, and partly for ho

the last, and looked

a little better master of my to

y you bring him?" she asked presently. "Suppose

much; now no want. You see, I no savvy I get one little

for; I had made my vow I would never let on to weakne

e. "I think you good man," she said. And suddenly she had fallen