ld vanish, and some
dark-plumaged pirate of the lagoon, pouncing down like lightning upon
his unwarlike neighbour, would ruthlessly despoil him of his hard-earned
prize. One of these piratical gentry suffered before our eyes a fate
worthy of his rapacity. A gannet had seized upon a fish much larger
than his strength enabled him to manage, and was struggling in vain to
lift it into the air, when a hawk darted upon them, and striking his
talons into the fish, put the gannet to flight. But the greedy victor
had greatly miscalculated the strength of his intended prey. A
desperate conflict, sometimes under water, and sometimes just at the
surface, ensued. The hawk struggled gallantly, but in vain, and was at
length drawn under by his ponderous antagonist, to rise no more.

We landed a short distance beyond Johnny's row of "Oyster-trees," and by
the time we had climbed the hill, the sun had risen, though not yet
visible above the wooded heights which sheltered us to the eastward.

We were so intent upon our house-building project that, contenting
ourselves with a self-denying breakfast of cocoa-nuts, we at once set
zealously to work in carrying it out.

Arthur directed, superintended, and laid out the work in detail.
Morton, having fitted a handle to the hatchet-head, and laboriously
sharpened it upon a rough stone, undertook to supply materials as fast
as called for. While he cut down trees of the kind and size required by
Arthur, Max trimmed off the branches with his cutlass, and prepared them
for use. Johnny and Eiulo dragged them to the site of the building,
where Browne and I assisted Arthur in setting the posts into the ground,
and putting together the frame of the house. Of course, our destitution
of proper tools and implements rendered all this exceedingly laborious,
and, but for Arthur's perseverance and ingenuity, we should more than
once have given up in despair. Instead of spades, we were obliged to
use sharp bivalve shells from the shore, in digging places for the
upright posts of the building, and as it was necessary that these should
be set quite deep, in order to give it firmness and stability, the toil
was severe. Max, who came up occasionally to see how the work was
progressing, and to offer suggestions and criticisms, (more especially
the latter), on finding us upon our knees, patiently grubbing up the
earth with our shells, flatteringly compared us to so many hedge-hogs
excavating their burrows