n we'll go ashore, unload, and
come back again. I want to tease that old man."

We caught all we could possibly carry in another quarter of an hour, and
I was confident that our take exceeded that of any other canoe. This was
because the natives would carefully watch their stone sinkers descend,
and use every care to keep them from being entangled in the coral,
whilst my line, which had a 12 oz. leaden sinker, would plump quickly to
the bottom in the midst of the hungry fish; consequently, although I
lost some hooks by fouling and now and then dragged up a bunch of coral,
I was catching more fish than any one else. And I was not going to let
my reputation suffer for the sake of a few hooks. So we coiled up our
lines on the outrigger platform, and taking up our paddles headed
shoreward, taking care to pass near Viliamu's canoe. He hailed me and
asked me for a pipe of tobacco.

"I shall give it to you when we return," I said.

"When you return! Why, where are you going?" he asked.

"On shore, you silly old woman! I have been showing these boys how to
fish for _gatala_, and we go because the canoe is sinking. When we
return these two _tamariki_ (infants) shall show _you_ how to fish now
that they have learnt from me."

There was a loud laugh at this, and as the old man took the jest very
good-naturedly I brought up alongside, showed him our take, and gave him
a stick of tobacco. The astonishment of himself and his crew of three at
the quantity of fish we had afforded me much satisfaction, though I
could not help feeling that our luck was not due to my own skill alone.

Returning to the islets we were just in time to escape two fierce
squalls, which lasted half an hour and raised such a sea that the
remaining canoes began to follow us, as they were unable to keep on the
ground. During our absence the women and children had been most
industrious; the weather-worn, dilapidated huts had been made habitable
with freshly-plaited _kapaus_--coarse mats of green coconut leaves, the
floors covered with clean white pebbles, sleeping mats in readiness, and
heaps of young drinking nuts piled up in every corner, whilst outside
smoke was arising from a score of ground ovens in which taro and puraka
were being cooked, together with bundles of _atuli_ wrapped in leaves.

Etiquette forbade Mareko and myself counting our fish until the rest of
the party returned, although the women had taken them out of the canoe
and laid them on the