self from the ooze by
clinging to a strong plant. After a while Louis called out to me as
though in answer, and I hurried back to him. When I came up he said he
had mistaken the cry of a bird for my voice and supposed I had lost
the path. I helped him a little while pulling up the smaller weeds,
but was in mortal terror of touching a poisonous creeper whose
acquaintance I had already made and whose marks I still bear. It went
to my heart to dig up and destroy the most lovely specimens of ferns I
have ever seen, but I did it bravely, though I determined to return
some day and make a collection of them. Some of the more delicate
climbing ferns were magnificent. Occasionally as I drew out a plant
the air around me was filled with the perfume of its bruised leaves.
It was entrancing work, though we were soaked with mud and water, but
before very long my head began to swim, and I proposed to go back to
the house and see about some sort of food. I just managed to get a
meal prepared and then gave out utterly, for my beautiful banana swamp
had given me a fever with a most alarming promptitude. I could not
sleep all night, but kept waking with a start, my heart and pulses
bounding, and my head aching miserably. This morning Louis gave me a
dose of quinine, which soon helped me.

[Footnote 42: A tropical plant with an edible root.]

"The pigs had to be watered when we came back from the perfidious
swamp, but how to manage it I could not see. Paul was ill, Simile was
gone, and I feared it might be dangerous for Louis to lift pails of
water. I walked round and round the stone wall of their fortification,
but it seemed unclimbable and impenetrable. I might have got over
myself, but could not manage the pailful, also. Finally I thought of a
boy, the son of a neighbor, who had come to visit Paul, and persuaded
him to undertake the task of watering the pigs. The next day I
discovered that he had simply poured the water over the wall upon the
ground, and my poor pigs had gone thirsty all night. I cannot think
that is the sort of son to help a pioneer.

"In the midst of all this Louis wished to go down to Apia. It took all
six of the boys to catch the pony, and in the meantime Louis was
having a desperate struggle to find his clothes and dress. I was in a
dazed state with fever and quinine and could not help him at all. At
last he got away, in what sort of garb I tremble to think, and he was
hardly out of sight before I