By Reef and Palm | Page 5

little table set in against an open window, hammering out a ring from a
silver coin on a marline-spike and vyce, whistles softly and contentedly
to himself as he raises his head and glances through the vista of
coconuts that surround his dwelling on this lonely and almost forgotten
island.
"The devil!" he thinks to himself, "I must be turning into a native. Four
years! What an ass I was! And I've never written yet--that is, never sent
a letter away. Well, neither has she. Perhaps, after all, there was little in
that affair of R----'s. . . . By God! though, if there was, I've been very
good to them in leaving them a clear field. Anyhow, she's all right as
regards money. I'm glad I've done that. It's a big prop to a man's
conscience to feel he hasn't done anything mean; and she likes
money--most women do. Of course I'll go back--if she writes. If
not--well, then, these sinful islands can claim me for their own; that is,
Nalia can."
* * * * *
A native boy with shaven head, save for a long tuft on the left side,
came down from the village, and, seating himself on the gravelled
space inside the fence, gazed at the white man with full, lustrous eyes.
"Hallo, TAMA!" said Challis, "whither goest now?"
"Pardon, Tialli. I came to look at thee making the ring. Is it of soft
silver--and for Nalia, thy wife?"
"Ay, O shaven-head, it is. Here, take this MASI and go pluck me a
young nut to drink," and Challis threw him a ship-biscuit. Then he went
on tapping the little band of silver. He had already forgotten the violet
eyes, and was thinking with almost childish eagerness of the soft glow

in the black orbs of Nalia when she should see his finished handiwork.
The boy returned with a young coconut, unhusked. "Behold, Tialli.
This nut is a UTO GA'AU (sweet husk). When thou hast drunk the
juice give it me back, that I may chew the husk which is sweet as the
sugar-cane of Samoa," and he squatted down again on the gravel.
* * * * *
Challis drank, then threw him the husk and resumed his work.
Presently the boy, tearing off a strip of the husk with his white teeth,
said, "Tialli, how is it that there be no drinking-nuts in thy house?"
"Because, O turtle-head, my wife is away; and there are no men in the
village to-day; and because the women of this MOTU [Island or
country.] I have no thought that the PAPALAGI [Foreigner] may be
parched with thirst, and so come not near me with a coconut." This
latter in jest.
"Nay, Tialli. Not so. True it is that to-day all the men are in the bush
binding FALA leaves around the coconut trees, else do the rats steal up
and eat the buds and clusters of little nuts. And because Nalia, thy wife,
is away at the other White Man's house no woman cometh inside the
door."
Challis laughed. "O evil-minded people of Nukunono! And must I, thy
PAPALAGI, be parched with thirst because of this?"
"FAIAGA OE, Tialli, thou but playest with me. Raise thy hand and call
out 'I thirst!' and every woman in the village will run to thee, each with
a drinking-nut, and those that desire thee, but are afraid, will give two.
But to come inside when Nalia is away would be to put shame on her."
* * * * *
The white man mused. The boy's solemn chatter entertained him. He
knew well the native customs; but, to torment the boy, he commenced
again.

"O foolish custom! See how I trust my wife Nalia. Is she not even now
in the house of another white man?"
"True. But, then, he is old and feeble, and thou young and strong. None
but a fool desires to eat a dried flying-fish when a fresh one may be
had."
"O wise man with the shaven crown," said Challis, with mocking good
nature, "thou art full of wisdom of the ways of women. And if I were
old and withered, would Nalia then be false to me in a house of another
and younger white man?"
"How could she? Would not he, too, have a wife who would watch her?
And if he had not, and were NOFO NOA (single), would he be such a
fool to steal that the like of which he can buy--for there are many girls
without husbands as good to look on as that Nalia of thine. And all
women are alike," and then, hearing a woman's voice calling his name,
he stood up.
"Farewell, O ULU TULA POTO (Wise Baldhead)," said Challis, as the
boy, still chewing his sweet