Vailima Letters | Page 6

the men wanted - and which was no more than fair - all are
gone - and my weeding in the article of being finished! Pity the sorrows
of a planter.
I am, Sir, yours, and be jowned to you, The Planter, R. L. S.
Tuesday 3rd
I begin to see the whole scheme of letter-writing; you sit down every
day and pour out an equable stream of twaddle.
This morning all my fears were fled, and all the trouble had fallen to
the lot of Peni himself, who deserved it; my field was full of weeders;
and I am again able to justify the ways of God. All morning I worked at
the South Seas, and finished the chapter I had stuck upon on Saturday.
Fanny, awfully hove-to with rheumatics and injuries received upon the
field of sport and glory, chasing pigs, was unable to go up and down
stairs, so she sat upon the back verandah, and my work was chequered
by her cries. 'Paul, you take a spade to do that - dig a hole first. If you
do that, you'll cut your foot off! Here, you boy, what you do there? You
no get work? You go find Simele; he give you work. Peni, you tell this
boy he go find Simele; suppose Simele no give him work, you tell him
go 'way. I no want him here. That boy no good.' - PENI (from the
distance in reassuring tones), 'All right, sir!' - FANNY (after a long
pause), 'Peni, you tell that boy go find Simele! I no want him stand here
all day. I no pay that boy. I see him all day. He no do nothing.' -
Luncheon, beef, soda-scones, fried bananas, pine-apple in claret, coffee.
Try to write a poem; no go. Play the flageolet. Then sneakingly off to
farmering and pioneering. Four gangs at work on our place; a lively
scene; axes crashing and smoke blowing; all the knives are out. But I
rob the garden party of one without a stock, and you should see my
hand - cut to ribbons. Now I want to do my path up the Vaituliga
single-handed, and I want it to burst on the public complete. Hence,
with devilish ingenuity, I begin it at different places; so that if you
stumble on one section, you may not even then suspect the fulness of

my labours. Accordingly, I started in a new place, below the wire, and
hoping to work up to it. It was perhaps lucky I had so bad a cutlass, and
my smarting hand bid me stay before I had got up to the wire, but just
in season, so that I was only the better of my activity, not dead beat as
yesterday.
A strange business it was, and infinitely solitary; away above, the sun
was in the high tree-tops; the lianas noosed and sought to hang me; the
saplings struggled, and came up with that sob of death that one gets to
know so well; great, soft, sappy trees fell at a lick of the cutlass, little
tough switches laughed at and dared my best endeavour. Soon, toiling
down in that pit of verdure, I heard blows on the far side, and then
laughter. I confess a chill settled on my heart.
Being so dead alone, in a place where by rights none should be beyond
me, I was aware, upon interrogation, if those blows had drawn nearer, I
should (of course quite unaffectedly) have executed a strategic
movement to the rear; and only the other day I was lamenting my
insensibility to superstition! Am I beginning to be sucked in? Shall I
become a midnight twitterer like my neighbours? At times I thought the
blows were echoes; at times I thought the laughter was from birds. For
our birds are strangely human in their calls. Vaea mountain about
sundown sometimes rings with shrill cries, like the hails of merry,
scattered children. As a matter of fact, I believe stealthy wood-cutters
from Tanugamanono were above me in the wood and answerable for
the blows; as for the laughter, a woman and two children had come and
asked Fanny's leave to go up shrimp-fishing in the burn; beyond doubt,
it was these I heard. Just at the right time I returned; to wash down,
change, and begin this snatch of letter before dinner was ready, and to
finish it afterwards, before Henry has yet put in an appearance for his
lesson in 'long explessions.'
Dinner: stewed beef and potatoes, baked bananas, new loaf- bread hot
from the oven, pine-apple in claret. These are great days; we have been
low in the past; but now are we as belly-gods, enjoying all things.
WEDNESDAY. (HIST. VAILIMA RESUMED.)
A gorgeous evening of after-glow in the