l. We worked it to and fro, and then pulled it out.
Wondering how it came there, we left it and resumed our stick-throwing,
when we discovered three more on the other side of the tree; they were
lying amid the ruins of an old wall, built of coral-stone slabs. We
questioned the natives as to how these "pigs" came to be there. They
replied that, long before their time, a small vessel had come into
the lagoon and anchored, and that the crew had thrown the bars of iron
overboard. After the schooner had sailed away, the natives had dived for
and recovered the iron, and had tried to soften the bars by fire in the
hope of being able to turn it into axes, etc.

We accepted the story as true, and thought no more about it, though we
wondered why such useful, compact and heavy ballast should be thrown
away, and when my boat returned to take us to the ship, we took the iron
"pigs" with us.

Arriving at Samoa, we soon rid ourselves of our eighty-five
"blackbirds," who had all behaved very well on the voyage, and were
sorry to leave the ship; and that evening I paid a visit to an old
friend of mine--an American who kept a large store in Apia, the
principal port and town of Samoa. I was telling him all about our
cruise, when an old white man, locally known as "Bandy Tom," came up
from the yard, and sat down on the verandah steps near us. Old Tom was a
character, and well known all over Polynesia as an inveterate old loafer
and beachcomber. He was a deserter from the navy, and for over forty
years had wandered about the South Pacific, sometimes working honestly
for a living, sometimes dishonestly, but usually loafing upon some
native community, until they tired of him and made him seek fresh
pastures. In his old age he had come to Samoa, and my friend, taking
pity on the penniless old wreck, gave him employment as night watchman,
and let him hang about the premises and do odd jobs in the day-time.
With all his faults he was an amusing ancient, and was known for his
"tall" yarns about his experiences with cannibals in Fiji.

Bidding me "good-evening," Bandy Tom puffed away at his pipe, and
listened to what I was saying. When I had finished describing our visit
to Nisan, and the finding of the ballast, he interrupted.

"I can tell you where them 'pigs' come from, and all about
'em--leastways a good deal; for I knows more about the matter than any
one else."

Parker laughed. "Bandy, you know, or pretend to know, about everything
tha