e German firm. So we hired a
couple of Samoans who were up here on a visit to the boys and packed him
off in their charge to the firm, where he arrived safely, and a receipt
was given for him like a parcel.[16]

Sunday last the _Alameda_ returned. Your mother was off bright and early
with Palema, for it is a very curious thing, but is certainly the case,
that she was very impatient to get news of a young person by the name
of Austin. Mr. Gurr lent a horse for the Captain--it was a pretty big
horse, but our handsome Captain, as you know, is a very big Captain
indeed. Now, do you remember Misifolo--a tall, thin Hovea boy that came
shortly before you left? He had been riding up this same horse of Gurr's
just the day before, and the horse threw him off at Motootua corner, and
cut his hip. So Misifolo called out to the Captain as he rode by that
that was a very bad horse, that it ran away and threw people off, and
that he had best be careful; and the funny thing is, that the Captain
did not like it at all. The foal might as well have tried to run away
with Vailima as that horse with Captain Morse, which is poetry, as you
see, into the bargain; but the Captain was not at all in that way of
thinking, and was never really happy until he had got his foot on ground
again. It was just then that the horse began to be happy too, so they
parted in one mind. But the horse is still wondering what kind of piece
of artillery he had brought up to Vailima last Sunday morning. So far it
was all right. The Captain was got safe off the wicked horse, but how
was he to get back again to Apia and the _Alameda_?

Happy thought--there was Donald, the big pack-horse! The last time
Donald was ridden he had upon him a hair-pin and a pea--by which I
mean--(once again to drop into poetry) you and me. Now he was to have a
rider more suited to his size. He was brought up to the door--he looked
a mountain. A step-ladder was put alongside of him. The Captain
approached the step-ladder, and he looked an Alp. I wasn't as much
afraid for the horse as I was for the step-ladder, but it bore the
strain, and with a kind of sickening smash that you might have heard at
Monterey, the Captain descended to the saddle. Now don't think that I am
exaggerating, but at the moment when that enormous Captain settled down
upon Donald, the horse's hind-legs gave visibly under the strain. What
the couple looked like, one on top of t'other, no words can tell you,
and your mothe