verly hung a canvas a foot below the roof. The air circulated
above it, bellying it out like a sail and making the atmosphere cool.
Under this was his dining-table, near a very handsome buffet, both
made by Grelet of the false ebony, for he was a good carpenter as he
was a crack boatsman, farmer, cowboy, and hunter. Here we sat over
pipe and cigarette after dinner, wine at our elbows, the garden
before us, and discussed many things.

Grelet had innumerable books in French and German, all the great
authors old and modern; he took the important reviews of Germany and
France, and several newspapers. He knew much more than I of history
past and present, of the happenings in the great world, art and
music and invention, finances and politics. He could name the
cabinets of Europe, the characters and records of their members, or
discuss the quality of Caruso's voice as compared with Jean de
Reszke's, though he had heard neither. Twenty-two years ago he had
left everything called civilization, he had never been out of the
Marquesas since that time; he lived in a lonely valley in which
there was no other man of his tastes and education, and he was
content.

"I have everything I want; I grow it or I make it. My horses and
cattle roam the hills; if I want meat, beef or goat or pig, I go or
I send a man to kill an animal and bring it to me. Fish are in the
river and the bay; there is honey in the hives; fruit and vegetables
in the garden, wood for my furniture, bark for the tanning of hides.
I cure the leather for saddles or chair-seats with the bark of the
rose-wood. Do you know why it is called rose-wood? I will show you.
Its bark has the odor of roses when freshly cut. Yes, I have all
that I want. What do I need from the great cities?"

He tamped down the tobacco in his pipe and puffed it meditatively.

"A man lives only a little while, _hein_? He should ask himself what
he wants from life. He should look at the world as it is. These
traders want money, buying and selling and cheating to get it. What
is money compared to life? Their life goes in buying and selling and
cheating. Life is made to be lived pleasantly. Me, I do what I want
to do with mine, and I do it in a pleasant place."

His pipe went out while he gazed at the garden murmurous in the
twilight. He knocked out the dottle, refilled the bowl and lighted
the tobacco.

"You should have seen this island when I came. These natives die too
fast. Ah, if I could only