Fairy princess kind and wise.
It was not long I waited; soon
Upon my threshold, in broad noon,
Gracious and helpful, wise and good,
The Fairy Princess Moe stood.[1]

TANTIRA, TAHITI, _Nov. 5, 1888_.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This is the same Princess Moe whose charms of person and disposition
have been recorded by the late Lord Pembroke in "South Sea Bubbles,"
and by M. Pierre Loti in the "Mariage de Loti."

XXIX

TO KALAKAUA

(WITH A PRESENT OF A PEARL)

The Silver Ship, my King--that was her name
In the bright islands whence your fathers came[1]--
The Silver Ship, at rest from winds and tides,
Below your palace in your harbour rides:
And the seafarers, sitting safe on shore,
Like eager merchants count their treasures o'er.
One gift they find, one strange and lovely thing,
Now doubly precious since it pleased a king.

The right, my liege, is ancient as the lyre
For bards to give to kings what kings admire.
'Tis mine to offer for Apollo's sake;
And since the gift is fitting, yours to take.
To golden hands the golden pearl I bring:
The ocean jewel to the island king.

HONOLULU, _Feb. 3, 1889_.

FOOTNOTE:
[1] The yacht _Casco_ had been so called by the people of Fakarava in
Tahiti.

XXX

TO PRINCESS KAIULANI

[Written in April to Kaiulani in the April of her age; and at Waikiki,
within easy walk of Kaiulani's banyan! When she comes to my land and her
father's, and the rain beats upon the window (as I fear it will), let
her look at this page; it will be like a weed gathered and pressed at
home; and she will remember her own islands, and the shadow of the
mighty tree; and she will hear the peacocks screaming in the dusk and
the wind blowing in the palms; and she will think of her father sitting
there alone.--R. L. S.]

Forth from her land to mine she goes,
The island maid, the island rose,
Light of heart and bright of face:
The daughter of a double race.

Her islands here, in Southern sun,
Shall mourn their Kaiulani gone,
And I, in her dear banyan shade,
Look vainly for my little maid.

But our Scots islands far away
Shall glitter with unwonted day,
And cast for once their tempests by
To smile in Kaiulani's eye.

HONOLULU.

XXXI

TO MOTHER MARYANNE

To see the infinite pity of this place,
The mangled limb, the devastated face,
The innocent sufferer smiling at the rod--
A fool were tempted