“But the man Preston only laughed.  He was a fool in this though he was so clever in many other things.  He was a big man, broad in the shoulders with the bright eye and the merry laugh of a boy.  He had been a sailor, but had wearied of the life, and so he bought land in Ponape and became a trader.  He was a fair-dealing man with the people there, and so in three or four years he became rich, and bought more land and built a schooner which he sent away to far distant islands to trade for pearl-shell and loli (beche-de-mer).  Then it was that he went to Honolulu and came back with a wife.

“That day ere it became dark I went on shore with my captain; some of the other captains went with us.  The white man met them on the beach, surrounded by many of his servants, male and female.  Some were of Ponape, some from Tahiti, some from Oahu, and some from the place which you call Savage Island and we call Niue.  As soon as the captains had stepped out upon the beach and I had bidden the four sailors who were with me to push off to return to the ship, the trader, seeing the tatooing on my arms, gave a shout.

“‘Ho,’ he cried, turning to my captain, ’whence comes that boat-steerer of thine?  By the markings on his arms and chest he should be from the isles of the Tokelau.’

“My captain laughed.  ‘He comes from near there.  He is of Nukufetau.’

“Then let him stay on shore to-night, for there are here with me a man and a woman from Nanomaga; they can talk together.  And my wife Solepa, too, will be well pleased to see him, for her mother was a Samoan, and this man can talk to her in her mother’s tongue.’

“’So I too went up to the house with the white men, but would not enter with them, for I was stripped to the waist and could not go into the presence of the lady.  Presently the man and woman from Nanomaga sought me out and embraced me and made much of me and took me into another part of the house, where I waited till one of my shipmates returned from the ship bringing my jumper and trousers of white duck and a new Panama hat.  Ta|pa|!  I was a fine-looking man in those days, and women looked at me from the corner of the eye.  And now—­look at me now!  I am like a blind fish which is swept hither and thither by the current against the rocks and sandbanks.  Give me some more grog, dear friend; when I talk of the days of my youth my belly yearns for it, and I am not ashamed to beg.

“Presently, after I had dressed myself, I was taken by the Nanomea man into the big room where Solepa, the white man’s wife, was sitting with the white men.  She came to me and took my hand, and said to me in Samoan ’Talofa, Pakia, e ma|lolo| ea oe?’[5] and my heart was glad; for it was long since I heard any one speak in a tongue which is akin to mine own....  Was she beautiful? you ask.  Ta|pa|!  All women are beautiful when they are young, and their eyes are full and clear and their voices are soft and their bosoms are round and smooth!  All I can remember of her is that she was very young, with a white, fair skin, and dressed like the papalagi[6] women I have seen in Peretania and Ita|lia and in Chili and in Sydney.