nd as she looked at the strange
glades and groves, the picture of it rose before her, and seemed to
call her back.

It was a tiny possession, but it was home; and so little used to change
was she that already a sort of home-sickness was upon her; but it
passed away almost as soon as it came, and she fell to wondering at the
things around her, and pointing them out to the child.

When they came to the place where Dick had hooked the albicore, he hung
on his oars and told her about it. It was the first time she had heard
of it; a fact which shows into what a state of savagery he had been
lapsing. He had mentioned about the canoes, for he had to account for
the javelin; but as for telling her of the incidents of the chase, he
no more thought of doing so than a red Indian would think of detailing
to his squaw the incidents of a bear hunt. Contempt for women is the
first law of savagery, and perhaps the last law of some old and
profound philosophy.

She listened, and when it came to the incident of the shark, she
shuddered.

"I wish I had a hook big enough to catch him with," said he, staring
into the water as if in search of his enemy.

"Don't think of him, Dick," said Emmeline, holding the child more
tightly to her heart. "Row on."

He resumed the sculls, but you could have seen from his face that he
was recounting to himself the incident.

When they had rounded the last promontory, and the strand and the break
in the reef opened before them, Emmeline caught her breath. The place
had changed in some subtle manner; everything was there as before, yet
everything seemed different--the lagoon seemed narrower, the reef
nearer, the cocoa-palms not nearly so tall. She was contrasting the
real things with the recollection of them when seen by a child. The
black speck had vanished from the reef; the storm had swept it utterly
away.

Dick beached the boat on the shelving sand, and left Emmeline seated in
the stern of it, whilst he went in search of the bananas; she would
have accompanied him, but the child had fallen asleep.

Hannah asleep was even a pleasanter picture than when awake. He looked
like a little brown Cupid without wings, bow or arrow. He had all the
grace of a curled-up feather. Sleep was always in pursuit of him, and
would catch him up at the most unexpected moments--when he was at play,
or indeed at any time. Emmeline would sometimes find him with a
coloured shell or bit of coral that he had been playi