ed, effectually precluded
all hope of escape in that quarter, even if I could have stolen away from
the thousand eyes of the savages.

But these reflections now seldom obtruded upon me; I gave myself up to the
passing hour, and if ever disagreeable thoughts arose in my mind, I drove
them away. When I looked around the verdant recess in which I was buried,
and gazed up to the summits of the lofty eminence that hemmed me in, I was
well disposed to think that I was in the "Happy Valley," and that beyond
those heights there was nought but a world of care and anxiety.

In this frame of mind, every object that presented itself to my notice
struck me in a new light, and the opportunities I now enjoyed of observing
the manners of the natives, tended to strengthen my favourable
impressions. One peculiarity that fixed my admiration was the perpetual
hilarity reigning through the whole extent of the vale. There seemed to be
no cares, griefs, troubles, or vexations in all Typee. The hours tripped
along as gaily as the laughing couples down a country dance.

There were none of those thousand sources of irritation that the ingenuity
of civilized man has created to mar his own felicity. There were no
foreclosures of mortgages, no protested notes, no bills payable, no debts
of honour, in Typee; no unreasonable tailors and shoemakers, perversely
bent on being paid; no duns of any description; no assault and battery
attorneys, to foment discord, backing their clients up to a quarrel, and
then knocking their heads together; no poor relations everlastingly
occupying the spare bed-chamber, and diminishing the elbow-room at the
family table; no destitute widows with their children starving on the cold
charities of the world; no beggars; no debtor's prisons; no proud and
hard-hearted nabobs in Typee; or, to sum up all in one word--no Money! That
"root of all evil" was not to be found in the valley.

In this secluded abode of happiness there were no cross old women, no
cruel step-dames, no withered spinsters, no love-sick maidens, no sour old
bachelors, no inattentive husbands, no melancholy young men, no blubbering
youngsters, and no squalling brats. All was mirth, fun, and high good
humour. Blue devils, hypochondria, and doleful dumps went and hid
themselves among the nooks and crannies of the rocks.

Here you would see a parcel of children frolicking together the live-long
day, and no quarrelling, no contention among them. The same numbe