ver!"

At this, a stout yet grizzled man of the isle lifts up his voice and
wails: "Kaala, my child, is gone. Who shall soothe my limbs when I
return from spearing the ohua? And who shall feed me with taro and
breadfruit like the chief of Olowalu, when I have no daughter to give
away? I must hide from the chief or I die." And thus wailed out Opunui,
the father of Kaala.

But a fierce hate stirred the heart of Opunui. His friend was driven
over the cliff at Maunalei, and he himself had lived only by crawling
at the feet of the slayer. He hid his hate, and planned to save
his girl and balk the killer of his people. He said in his heart,
"I will hide her in the sea, and none but the fish gods and I shall
know where the ever-sounding surf surges over Kaala."

Now, in the morn, when the girl with ruddy brown cheeks, and glowing
with the brightening dawn of love, stood in the doorway of the lodge
of her lord, and her face was sparkling with the sheen from the sun,
her sire in humble guise stood forth and said, "My child, your mother
at Mahana is dying. Pray you, my lord, your love, that you may see
her once more before his canoe shall bear you to his great land."

"Alas!" said the tender child, "since when is Kalani ill? I shall
carry to her this large sweet fish speared by my lord; and when I have
rubbed her aching limbs, she will be well again with the love touch
of her child. Yes, my lord will let me go. Will you not, O Kaaialii;
will you not let me go to give my mother a last embrace, and I shall
be back again before the moon has twice spanned the bay?"

The hero clasped his young love with one stout twining arm, and gazing
into her eyes, he with a caressing hand put back from her brow her
shining hair, and thus to his heart's life he spoke: "O my sweet
flower, how shall I live without thee, even for this day's march of
the sun? For thou art my very breath, and I shall pant and die like
a stranded fish without thee. But no, let me not say so. Kaaialii is
a chief who has fought men and sharks; and he must not speak like
a girl. He too loves his mother, who looks for him in the valley
of Kohala; and shall he deny thy mother, to look her last upon the
sweet face and the tender limbs that she fed and reared for him? Go,
my Kaala. But thy chief will sit and watch with a hungering heart,
till thou come back to his arms again."

And the pretty jessamine twined her arms around his neck, and laying
her cheek upon his breast