entripetal--the Keeling Islands being the great centre
towards which he flies. Verkimier is, and probably will always be, a
subject of wonder and of profound speculation to the youthful
inhabitants of the islands. They don't understand him and he does not
understand them. If they were insects he would take deep and
intelligent interest in them. As they are merely human beings, he
regards them with that peculiar kind of interest with which men regard
the unknown and unknowable. He is by no means indifferent to them. He
is too kindly for that. He studies them deeply, though hopelessly, and
when he enters the Sunday-school with his binoculars--which he often
does, to listen--a degree of awe settles down on the little ones which
it is impossible to evoke by the most solemn appeals to their spiritual
natures.

Nigel and Winnie have a gardener, and that gardener is black--as black
as the Ace of Spades or the King of Ashantee. He dwells in a corner of
the Rakata Cottage, but is addicted to spending much of his spare time
in the Krakatoa one. He is as strong and powerful as ever, but limps
slightly on his right leg--his "game" leg, as he styles it. He is, of
course, an _immense_ favourite with the young people--not less than with
the old. He has been known to say, with a solemnity that might tickle
the humorous and horrify the timid, that he wouldn't "hab dat game leg
made straight agin! no, not for a hundred t'ousand pounds. 'Cause
why?--it was an eber-present visible reminder dat once upon a time he
had de libes ob massa and Nadgel in his arms a-hangin' on to his game
leg, an' dat, t'rough Gracious Goodness, he sabe dem bof!"

Ha! You may smile at Moses if you will, but he can return the smile
with kindly interest, for he is actuated by that grand principle which
will sooner or later transform even the scoffers of earth, and which is
embodied in the words--"Love is the fulfilling of the law."

Even the lower animals testify to this fact when the dog licks the hand
that smites it and accords instant forgiveness on the slightest
encouragement. Does not Spinkie prove it also, when, issuing at call,
from its own pagoda in the sunniest corner of the Rakata garden, it
forsakes cocoa-nuts, sugar-cane, fruits, and other delights, to lay its
little head in joyful consecration on the black bosom of its benignant
friend?

And what of Moses' opinion of the new home? It may be shortly expressed
in his own words--

"It