FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146  
147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   >>   >|  
tepped out from their houses of thatch, and greeted each other as they hurried seaward for their morning bathe--the men among the swirl and wash of the breaking surf, and the women and children along the sandy beach in front of the village. Out upon the point of black and jagged reef that stretched northward from the entrance to the harbour was the figure of a young boy who bathed by himself. He was the son of the one white man on Strong's Island, whose isolated dwelling lay almost within hail of him. The father of the boy was one of those mysterious wanderers who, in the days of sixty years or so ago, were common enough on many of the islands of the North Pacific. Without any material means, save a bag of silver dollars, he had, accompanied by his son, landed at Lela Harbour on Strong's Island from a passing ship, and Charlik, the king of the island, although at first resenting the intrusion of a poor white man among his people, had consented to let him remain on being told by the captain of the ship that the stranger was a skilful cooper, and could also build a boat. It so happened that many of the casks in which the king stored his coconut-oil were leaking, and no one on the island could repair them; and the white man soon gave the native king proof of his craft by producing from his bag some of a cooper's tools, and going into the great oil shed that was close by. Here, with some hundreds of natives watching him keenly, he worked for half an hour, while his half-caste son sat upon the beach utterly unnoticed by any one, and regarded with unfavourable looks by the island children, from the mere fact of their having learned that his mother had been a native of a strange island--that to them was sufficient cause for suspicion, if not hostility. Presently the king himself, attended by his mother, came to the oil shed, looked in, and called out to the white man to cease his work. "Look you, white man," he said in English. "You can stop. Mend and make my casks for me, and some day build me a boat; but send away the son of the woman from the south lands. We of Kusaie (Strong's Island) will have no strangers here." The white man's answer was quick and to the point. He would not send his child away; either the boy remained with him on shore or they both returned to the ship and sought out some other island. "Good," said Charlik with cold assent, and turning to his people he commanded them to provide a house for t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146  
147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
island
 

Strong

 

Island

 

mother

 

cooper

 
Charlik
 
native
 

people

 
children
 

strange


sufficient

 

called

 
learned
 

suspicion

 
Presently
 

hostility

 
looked
 
attended
 

regarded

 

natives


watching

 

keenly

 

worked

 

hundreds

 

hurried

 

unnoticed

 

unfavourable

 

utterly

 

remained

 

strangers


answer

 
returned
 

commanded

 

provide

 

turning

 
assent
 

sought

 
English
 

greeted

 
thatch

Kusaie
 

tepped

 
houses
 
islands
 

Pacific

 

Without

 
jagged
 

common

 
material
 

accompanied