and the coral reef, and the distant mountains. We
banked the grave with flowers and the wreath of heather that you
sent. Chief Justice Ide and his two beautiful daughters were there."

Mother and daughter spent pleasant days in the garden--digging up kava
roots, stringing them on twine and hanging them up in the hall to dry,
and in many another homely task. In the evening they played chess,
and, as neither knew the game, they were well matched, and spent
engrossing evenings over it. Sometimes they would light a lantern and
walk over to see Mr. Caruthers, the lawyer, who lived more than a mile
away. When he saw the flicker of their lantern through the palm-trees
he would wind up his little musical box and they could hear its tinkle
of welcome. "We walked barefoot,"[59] says Mrs. Strong, "and I shall
never forget those lovely walks at night and the feel of the soft,
mossy grass under our feet. Mr. Caruthers was a clever, interesting
man. His Samoan wife would sit by sewing, and his children would study
their lessons in the other room while we sat on his veranda and had
long talks. On the night of his farewell visit to us we stood on the
veranda at Vailima and looked out on a glittering moonlight night, the
lawn sloping before us, the great shadowy trees beyond, and in the
distance the blue line of the sea--'nothing between us and the North
Pole,' we used to say. Mr. Caruthers said, 'How can you leave this for
any other country? This is the "cleaner, greener land,"' and he quoted
Kipling's verses."

[Footnote 59: It is the custom in Samoa to go barefoot
in the wet season, in order to avoid the unpleasantness
of soggy wet shoes.]

The two women lived in perfect security in their lonely forest home,
never having the slightest fear of the natives who passed that way in
their comings and goings. Once in the middle of the night Mrs. Strong
was waked up by the sound of voices on the veranda, and, running down,
found her mother surrounded by twenty Samoans, all with baskets. Mrs.
Stevenson, hearing the sound of talking, had come down, to find these
men coming heavily laden from the direction of the Vailima taro, yam,
cocoanut, and banana plantation. "I politely asked them," says Mrs.
Strong, "to show my mother the contents of their baskets. They agreed
readily enough, and one after another they opened their baskets at her
feet, disclosing nothing but edible wild roots, until we began t