e savages, we went through the ceremony of shaking hands,
and expected they would depart; but before doing so, Tararo went up to
Jack and rubbed noses with him, after which he did the same with
Peterkin and me! Seeing that this was their mode of salutation, we
determined to conform to their custom; so we rubbed noses heartily with
the whole party, women and all! The only disagreeable part of the
process was when we came to rub noses with Mahine; and Peterkin
afterwards said that when he saw his wolfish eyes glaring so close to
his face, he felt much more inclined to _bang_ than to _rub_ his nose.
Avatea was the last to take leave of us, and we experienced a feeling of
real sorrow when she approached to bid us farewell. Besides her modest
air and gentle manners, she was the only one of the party who exhibited
the smallest sign of regret at parting from us. Going up to Jack, she
put out her flat little nose to be rubbed, and thereafter paid the same
compliment to Peterkin and me.

An hour later the canoe was out of sight; and we, with an indefinable
feeling of sadness creeping round our hearts, were seated in silence
beneath the shadow of our bower, meditating on the wonderful events of
the last few days.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

SAGACIOUS AND MORAL REMARKS IN REGARD TO LIFE--A SAIL!--AN UNEXPECTED
SALUTE--THE END OF THE BLACK CAT--A TERRIBLE DIVE--AN INCAUTIOUS
PROCEEDING AND A FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE.

Life is a strange compound. Peterkin used to say of it that it beat a
druggist's shop all to sticks; for whereas the first is a compound of
good and bad, the other is a horrible compound of all that is utterly
detestable. And indeed the more I consider it, the more I am struck
with the strange mixture of good and evil that exists, not only in the
material earth, but in our own natures. In our own Coral Island we had
experienced every variety of good that a bountiful Creator could heap on
us. Yet on the night of the storm we had seen how almost, in our case--
and altogether, no doubt, in the case of others less fortunate--all this
good might be swept away for ever. We had seen the rich fruit-trees
waving in the soft air, the tender herbs shooting upwards under the
benign influence of the bright sun; and the next day we had seen these
good and beautiful trees and plants uprooted by the hurricane, crushed
and hurled to the ground in destructive devastation. We had lived for
many months in a clime, for the most p