on both sides; infinite
noise; and a historic event--Mr. Clarke, the missionary, and his wife,
assisted at a native dance. On my return from this function, I found
work had stopped; no more _South Seas_ in my belly. Well, Henry had
cleared a great deal of our bush on a contract, and it ought to be
measured. I set myself to the task with a tape-line; it seemed a dreary
business; then I borrowed a prismatic compass, and tackled the task
afresh. I have no books; I had not touched an instrument nor given a
thought to the business since the year of grace 1871; you can imagine
with what interest I sat down yesterday afternoon to reduce my
observations; five triangles I had taken; all five came right, to my
ineffable joy. Our dinner--the lowest we have ever been--consisted of
_one avocado pear_ between Fanny and me, a ship's biscuit for the
guidman, white bread for the Missis, and red wine for the twa. No salt
horse, even, in all Vailima! After dinner Henry came, and I began to
teach him decimals; you wouldn't think I knew them myself after so long
desuetude!

I could not but wonder how Henry stands his evenings here; the
Polynesian loves gaiety--I feed him with decimals, the mariner's
compass, derivations, grammar, and the like; delecting myself, after the
manner of my race, _moult tristement_. I suck my paws; I live for my
dexterities and by my accomplishments; even my clumsinesses are my
joy--my woodcuts, my stumbling on the pipe, this surveying even--and
even weeding sensitive; anything to do with the mind, with the eye, with
the hand--with a part of _me_; diversion flows in these ways for the
dreary man. But gaiety is what these children want; to sit in a crowd,
tell stories and pass jests, to hear one another laugh and scamper with
the girls. It's good fun, too, I believe, but not for R.L.S., _aetat._
40. Which I am now past forty, Custodian, and not one penny the worse
that I can see; as amusable as ever; to be on board ship is reward
enough for me; give me the wages of going on--in a schooner! Only, if
ever I were gay, which I misremember, I am gay no more. And here is poor
Henry passing his evenings on my intellectual husks, which the
professors masticated; keeping the accounts of the estate--all wrong I
have no doubt--I keep no check, beyond a very rough one; marching in
with a cloudy brow, and the day-book under his arm; tackling decimals,
coming with cases of conscience--how would an English chief behave in
such a