wondered afterwards
what he thought of it. Reduced as we were, we still had a few bottles of
champagne left. Champagne being an especial weakness of our gigantic
friend, it occurred to some one that this was a proper occasion to open
a couple of bottles. Louis, the Princess, and I were quite, as the
Scotch so well say, "begrutten," Areia's immense eyes were fairly
melting out of his head with emotion, the priest was wiping his eyes and
blowing his nose: and then for no apparent cause we suddenly fell to
drinking and clinking glasses quite merrily: the bewildered attendant
clinked and drank too, and then sat down and waited in case there should
be any repetition of the drinking part of the performance. And sure
enough there was, for in the midst of an animated discussion as to ways
and means, Mrs. Stevenson announced that it was St. Andrew's day, so
again the attendant clinked and drank with Ori's mad foreigners.

It is quite true that we live almost entirely upon native food; our
luncheon to-day consisted of raw fish with sauce made of cocoanut milk
mixed with sea water and lime juice, taro poi-poi, and bananas roasted
in hot stones in a little pit in the ground, with cocoanut cream to eat
with them. Still we like coffee in the evening, a little wine at dinner,
and a few other products of civilisation. It would be possible, the
chief said, to send a boat, but that would cost sixty dollars. A final
arrangement, which we were forced to accept, was that Rui should go in
his own boat, and the chief would appoint a substitute for some public
work that he was then engaged upon. Early the next morning, amidst a
raging sea and a storming wind, Rui departed with three men to help him.
It is forty miles to Papeete, and Rui, starting in the early morning,
arrived there at nine o'clock; but alas, the wind was against him, and
it was altogether six days before he got back.

Louis has done a great deal of work on his new story, _The Master of
Ballantrae_, almost finished it in fact, while Mrs. Stevenson and I are
deep in the mysteries of hatmaking, which is a ladies' accomplishment
taking the place of water-colour drawing in England. It is a small
compliment to present a hat to an acquaintance. Altogether we have about
thirteen. Next door to us is Areia's out-of-door house, where he and the
ladies of his family sleep and eat: it has a thatched roof of palm
branches, and a floor of boards, the sides and ends being open to the
world.