ay he was quietly
murdered as he lay asleep in his house with his wife and two children;
and although Sralik wept loudly and cut his great chest with a shark's
teeth dagger, and offered sacrifices of turtle flesh to the white
man's _jelin_, Ninia his wife and many other people knew that it was by
Sralik's orders that Harry had been killed, for they had quarrelled
over the possession of a whaleboat which Harry had bought from a passing
ship, and which he refused to either sell or give to Sralik.

However, Sralik was not unkind to Ninia, and gave her much of her
dead husband's property, and told her that he would give her for an
inheritance for her two daughters the little islet--Takai.

And there in the year 1870 Ninia the widow, and Ninia her eldest
daughter (for on Pingelap names of the first-born are hereditary) and
Tarita, the youngest, went to live. With them went another girl, a
granddaughter of the savage old Sralik. Her name was Ruvani. She was
about eleven years of age, and as pretty as a gazelle, and because of
her great friendship for Ninia--who was two years older than she--she
had wept when she saw the mother and daughters set out for Takai.

Fierce-hearted Sralik coming to the doorway of his thatched hut heard
the sound of weeping, and looking out he saw Ruvani sitting under the
shade of some banana trees with her face hidden in her pretty brown
hands.

When he learned the cause of her grief his heart softened, and drawing
his little grand-daughter to him, patted her head, and said--

"Nay, weep not, little bird. Thou too shalt go to Takai; and see,
because of thee my heart shall open wide to Ninia and her daughters, and
I will give her four slaves--two men and two women--who shall toil for
you all. And when thou art tired of living at Takai, then thou and thy
two playmates shall come over here to me and fill my house with the
light of thy eyes."

So that is how Ninia, the widow of the wandering white man, and her
two daughters and their friend came to live at the little islet called
Takai.

II.

The months went by and Ruvani, the chief's granddaughter, still lived
with her friends, for she was too happy to leave them. Sometimes,
though, on bright moonlight nights, the three girls would paddle across
to the big village and gather with the rest of the village girls in
front of the chiefs house, and dance and sing and play the game called
_n'jiajia_; and then, perhaps, instead of going home ac