said. 'I thank thee, O
chief, for thy prayers; else had the devils of the pool taken off my
head as they have taken off that of Red-Hair, and devoured my body as
they have devoured his.'

"Then the people picked him up, for he was weak, and every one that was
there left the pool in fear and trembling, except Nanakin and the two
priests, who laughed inwardly.

"When all was quiet, Luliban, too, came up from under the water and
dried her body, and oiled and scented her hair from a flask that she
had hidden in the bushes, and went back to Red-Hair's house, and, with
downcast face but a merry heart, asked her women to plead with her
husband not to beat her for running away. Then they told her of the
doings at the pool.

"When ten days were gone by for mourning, Luliban became wife to 'Harry
from Yap,' and he took her with him to Ngatik, and the favour of Nanakin
that was once Red-Hair's became his, and he prospered. And for long,
long years no one knew how it was that Red-Hair lost his head till
Luliban told it."

*****

"_Huh!_" said Sru, the boy, admiringly. "He was a Fine Man, that
Red-Hair; but the white man with the tattooed skin was a Better."

NINIA

I.

Away out upon the wide Northern Pacific there is a group of three little
islands. They are so very, very small that you need not seek to discover
them on the map of the Pacific Ocean; but if any of you have a chart of
the North or West Pacific, then you would easily be able to find them.
Run your eye up north, away past the Equator, in the direction of China,
and you will see, to the north of New Guinea, a large cluster of islands
named the "Caroline Islands," some of which are named, but most are
not--only tiny dots no bigger than a pin's head serve to mark their
position. Perhaps, however--if you get a German chart--you may see one
of the largest of the small dots marked "Pingelap," and Pingelap is the
name of the largest of the three little islands of my story; the others
are called Tugulu and Takai.

Now, although Pingelap and Tugulu and Takai are so close together that
at low tide one may walk across the coral reef that encircles the whole
group from one island to another, yet are they lonely spots, for there
is no other island nearer than Mokil, which is ninety miles away.

But yet, although the three islands are so small, a great number of
natives live upon them--between four and five hundred. There is only one
village, which is on P