irls, named Fetu and Vailele. The elder, Fetu (The Star),
was a quiet, reserved child, and had her father's slow, grave manner and
thoughtful face. The younger, Vailele (Leaping Water), was in manner
and her ever merry mood like her name, for she was a restless, laughing
little maid, full of jest and song the whole day long.

When the time came for Big Harry to say farewell, he called to him his
wife and the two girls--Fetu was fourteen, and Vailele twelve--and,
bidding them lower down the door of plaited thatch so that they might
not be observed, he unearthed the keg of dollars, and, knocking off the
two topmost hoops, took out the head. Then he took out nine hundred of
the bright, shining coins, and, placing them in the lap of Te Ava Malu,
quickly headed up the keg again, and put it back in its hiding-place.

"Listen now to me, O wife and children," said he in the native tongue.
"See this money now before us. Of the nine hundred dollars I shall take
seven hundred; for it is to my mind that if these tales I hear of these
far-off islands be true, then shall I buy from the chiefs there a piece
of land, and get men to build a house for me; and if all goeth well with
me, I shall return here to Nukufetau within a year. Then shall we sail
thither and dwell there. And these other two hundred dollars shalt thou
keep, for maybe a ship may come here, and then thou, Te Ava Malu, shalt
go to thy father and place them in his hand, and ask him to go to
the ship and buy for me a whaleboat, which, when we leave this land
together, we shall take with us."

Then, giving his wife the two hundred dollars, he placed the rest in a
canvas pouch slung round his waist, and, embracing them all tenderly,
bade them farewell, and walked down to the shining beach to where the
boat from the whaleship awaited his coming.

Drawing her children to her side, Te Ava Malu stood out upon the sand
and watched the whaler loosen her canvas and heave up anchor. Only when
the quick _click, click_ of the windlass pauls reached their listening
ears, as the anchor came up to the song of the sailors and the ship's
head swung round, did the girls begin to weep. But the mother, pressing
them to her side, chid them, and said that a year was but a little time,
and then she sank down and wept with them.

So, with the tears blinding their eyes, they saw the whaler sail slowly
out through the passage, and then, as she braced her yards up and stood
along the weather sh