held up his
withered arm and peered at me. "It was a strong arm then; now it is but
good to carry food to my mouth, or to hold a stick when I walk." The
last words he uttered wistfully, and then sighed.

"The mate of that ship was a good man. He taught me many things. Once,
when we had left the cold seas and were among the islands of Tonga,
he struck me in his rage because I threw the harpoon at a great sperm
whale, and missed. That night I slipped over the side, and swam five
miles to the land. Dost know the place called Lifuka? 'Twas there I
landed. I lay in a thicket till daylight, then I arose and went into a
house and asked for food. They gave me a yam and a piece of bonito, and
as I ate men sprang on me from behind and tied me up hand and foot.
Then I was carried back to the ship, and the captain gave those pigs of
Tongans fifty dollars' worth of presents for bringing me back."

"He thought well of thee, Pakia, to pay so much."

He nodded.

"Aye, for I was a good man, and worth much to him. And I was not
flogged, for the mate was my friend always. All the voyage I was a lucky
man, till we came to a place called Amboyna. Here the mate became sick
and died, so I ran away. This time I was not caught, and when the ship
was gone, I was given work by an Englishman. He was a rich merchant--not
a poor trader like thee. He had a great house, many servants, and many
native wives. Thou hast but two servants, and no wife. Why have ye no
wife? It is not proper!"

I expressed my deep sense of the insignificance of my domestic
arrangements, and gave him another nip of brandy.

"But, like him, thou hast a big heart. May you live long and become a
_mau koloa_ (rich man). Ah! the grog, the good grog. I am young again
to-night... And so for two years I lived at Amboyna. Then my master went
to Peretania--to Livapoola--and took me with him. I was his servant, and
he trusted me and made much of me.

"Ah, Livapoola is a fine place. I was six months there, and wherever my
master went I went with him. By and by he married, and we went to live
at a place by the sea, in a fair white house of stone, with rich lands
encompassing it. It was a foreign place, and we crossed the sea to go
there. There were many women servants there, and one of them, named
Lissi, began to smile at, and then to talk to me. I gave her many
presents, for every week my master put a gold piece in my hand. One day
I asked him to give me this girl for my wife. H