whites at the feast,--and merriment had its home there. After
the first onslaught, the vintages of Bordeaux and of the Rhineland,
and the brews of Munich and Milwaukee shared attention with the
viands. The head of the mats had a sedate atmosphere, because of
the several preachers there, and those Tahitians ambitious to shine
in a diaconal way talked seriously of the problems of the church,
of future himenes, and the waywardness of those who "knew not the
fear of Ietu-Kirito." Their indications of grief at the hardness
of the heathens' hearts grew more lively as they sipped the wine,
thinking perhaps of that day when the Master and the disciples did
the same at another wedding feast.

Soon their voices were drowned by the low notes of an accordion and the
chanting by the bachelors of an ancient love-song of Tahiti. Miri and
Caroline and Maraa, being of Mataiea, had returned for this arearea,
and were seated with the young men. The Tahitians are charitable in
their regard of very open peccadilloes, especially those animated by
passion or a desire for amusement, thinking probably that were stones
to be thrown only by the guiltless, there would be none to lift one;
certainly no white in Tahiti. The dithyramb of a bacchanal sounded,
and the outlaw dentist was reminded of his former intimate friend,
King Pomare the Fifth.

"I was a bosom chum of the king," he said confidentially as he
poured me a shell of Burgundy. "He was much maligned. He drank too
much for his health, but so do almost all kings, from what I've read
and seen. Lord! what a man he was! He'd sit around all night while
the hula boomed, applauding this or that dancer, and seeing that the
booze circulated. He was a fish, that's a fact. He never had enough,
and he could stow away a cask. Good-hearted! When he would go to the
districts he always sent word when he had laid out his course, and
after a few days in each place he would go on with his crowd. He paid
for everything except, of course, gifts of fruit and fish. Every night
there would be a big time, dancing and drinking. Jiminy! But times were
different then. Look at me! I've lived freely all my life, and I am
over forty years here, but you wouldn't know I was past seventy. It's
the climate and not worrying or being worried about clothes or sin."

The bride had long since left the table, removed her shoes, and put
on a Mother Hubbard gown. She and her mother I saw having a bite
together in private comfort