g in the water, she laughed, and held the child up to watch
him. She was fey. The breeze, filled with all sorts of sweet perfumes
from the woods, blew her black hair about her shoulders, and the full
light of morning coming over the palm fronds of the woods beyond the
sward touched her and the child. Nature seemed caressing them.

Dick came ashore, and then ran about to dry himself in the wind. Then
he went to the dinghy and examined her; for he had determined to leave
the house-building for half a day, and row round to the old place to
see how the banana trees had fared during the storm. His anxiety about
them was not to be wondered at. The island was his larder, and the
bananas were a most valuable article of food. He had all the feelings
of a careful housekeeper about them, and he could not rest till he had
seen for himself the extent of damage, if damage there was any.

He examined the boat, and then they all went back to breakfast. Living
their lives, they had to use forethought. They would put away, for
instance, all the shells of the cocoa-nuts they used for fuel; and you
never could imagine the blazing splendour there lives in the shell of a
cocoa-nut till you see it burning. Yesterday, Dick, with his usual
prudence, had placed a heap of sticks, all wet with the rain of the
storm, to dry in the sun: as a consequence, they had plenty of fuel to
make a fire with this morning.

When they had finished breakfast he got the knife to cut the bananas
with if there were any left to cut and, taking the javelin, he went
down to the boat, followed by Emmeline and the child.

Dick had stepped into the boat, and was on the point of unmooring her,
and pushing her off, when Emmeline stopped him.

"Dick!"

"Yes?"

"I will go with you."

"You!" said he in astonishment.

"Yes, I'm--not afraid any more."

It was a fact; since the coming of the child she had lost that dread of
the other side of the island or almost lost it.

Death is a great darkness, birth is a great light--they had intermixed
in her mind; the darkness was still there, but it was no longer
terrible to her, for it was infused with the light. The result was a
twilight sad, but beautiful, and unpeopled with forms of fear.

Years ago she had seen a mysterious door close and shut a human being
out for ever from the world. The sight had filled her with dread
unimaginable, for she had no words for the thing, no religion or
philosophy to explain it away or