ty-five and forty,
and all seemed good friends. Most of them were married. They arrived in
a roar of good spirits, tripping one another down the slippery trail and
engulfing Saxon and Billy in a comradeship as artless and warm as the
sunshine itself. Saxon was appropriated by the girls--she could not
realize them women; and they made much of her, praising her camping and
traveling equipment and insisting on hearing some of her tale. They were
experienced campers themselves, as she quickly discovered when she saw
the pots and pans and clothes-boilers for the mussels which they had
brought.

In the meantime Billy and the men had undressed and scattered out after
mussels and abalones. The girls lighted on Saxon's ukulele and nothing
would do but she must play and sing. Several of them had been to
Honolulu, and knew the instrument, confirming Mercedes' definition
of ukulele as "jumping flea." Also, they knew Hawaiian songs she had
learned from Mercedes, and soon, to her accompaniment, all were
singing: "Aloha Oe," "Honolulu Tomboy," and "Sweet Lei Lehua." Saxon
was genuinely shocked when some of them, even the more matronly, danced
hulas on the sand.

When the men returned, burdened with sacks of shellfish, Mark Hall, as
high priest, commanded the due and solemn rite of the tribe. At a wave
of his hand, the many poised stones came down in unison on the white
meat, and all voices were uplifted in the Hymn to the Abalone. Old
verses all sang, occasionally some one sang a fresh verse alone,
whereupon it was repeated in chorus. Billy betrayed Saxon by begging her
in an undertone to sing the verse she had made, and her pretty voice was
timidly raised in:

"We sit around and gaily pound, And bear no acrimony Because our
ob--ject is a gob Of sizzling abalone."

"Great!" cried the poet, who had winced at ob--ject. "She speaks the
language of the tribe! Come on, children--now!"

And all chanted Saxon's lines. Then Jim Hazard had a new verse, and one
of the girls, and the Iron Man with the basilisk eyes of greenish-gray,
whom Saxon recognized from Hall's description. To her it seemed he had
the face of a priest.

"Oh! some like ham and some like lamb And some like macaroni; But bring
me in a pail of gin And a tub of abalone.

"Oh! some drink rain and some champagne Or brandy by the pony; But I
will try a little rye With a dash of abalone.

"Some live on hope and some on dope And some on alimony. But our
tom-cat, he lives o