ow of a bull--"TIRAU O, NAKO MAI! (Come here!)"

Tirau came in timidly, clothed only in an AIRIRI or girdle, and slunk
into a far corner.

The melancholy trader and the father pulled her out, and she dumped
herself down in the middle of the room with a muttered "E PUAK ACARON;
KACARON; TE MALAN! (Bad white man)."

"Fine girl, Charley," said the skipper, digging him in the ribs. "Ought
to suit you, eh! Make a good little wife."

Negotiations then began anew. Father willing to part, girl
frightened--commenced to cry. The astute Charley brought out some new
trade. Tirau's eye here displayed a faint interest. Charley threw her,
with the air of a prince, a whole piece of turkey twill, 12
yards--value three dollars, cost about 2s. 3d. Tirau put out a little
hand and drew it gingerly toward her. Tibakwa gave us an atrocious
wink.

"She's cottoned!" exclaimed Charley.

* * * * *

And thus, without empty and hollow display, were two loving hearts made
to beat as one. As a practical proof of the solemnity of the occasion,
the bridegroom then and there gave Tirau his bunch of keys, which she
carefully tied to a strand of her AIRIRI, and, smoking one of the
captain's Manillas, she proceeded to bash out the mosquitoes from the
nuptial couch with a fan. We assisted her, an hour afterwards, to hoist
the sleeping body of Long Charley therein, and, telling her to bathe
his head in the morning with cold water, we rose to go.

"Good-bye, Tirau!" we said.

"TIAKAPO [Good-night]", said the good Little Wife, as she rolled up an
empty square gin bottle in one of Charley's shirts for a pillow, and
disposed her graceful figure on the matted floor beside his bed, to fight
mosquitoes until daylight.

THE METHODICAL MR BURR OF MADURO

One day Ned Burr, a fellow trader, walked slowly up the path to my
station, and with a friendly nod sat down and watched intently as, with
native assistance, I set about salting some pork. Ned lived thirty
miles from my place, on a little island at the entrance to the lagoon.
He was a prosperous man, and only drank under the pressure of the
monotony caused by the non-arrival of a ship to buy his produce. He
would then close his store, and, aided by a number of friendly male
natives, start on a case of gin. But never a woman went into Ned's
house, though many visited the store, where Ned bought their produce,
paid for it in trade or cash, and sent them off, after treating them on
a strictly busi