ay we had a ride down to Tanugamanono, and then by the new wood
paths. One led us to a beautiful clearing, with four native houses;
taro, yams, and the like, excellently planted, and old Folau--"the
Samoan Jew"--sitting and whistling there in his new-found and
well-deserved well-being. It was a good sight to see a Samoan thus
before the world. Further up, on our way home, we saw the world clear,
and the wide die of the shadow lying broad; we came but a little
further, and found in the borders of the bush a banyan. It must have
been 150 feet in height; the trunk, and its acolytes, occupied a great
space; above that, in the peaks of the branches, quite a forest of ferns
and orchids were set; and over all again the huge spread of the boughs
rose against the bright west, and sent their shadow miles to the
eastward. I have not often seen anything more satisfying than this vast
vegetable.

_Sunday._--A heavenly day again! the world all dead silence, save when,
from far down below us in the woods, comes up the crepitation of the
little wooden drum that beats to church. Scarce a leaf stirs; only now
and again a great, cool gush of air that makes my papers fly, and is
gone.--The king of Samoa has refused my intercession between him and
Mataafa; and I do not deny this is a good riddance to me of a difficult
business, in which I might very well have failed. What else is to be
done for these silly folks?

_May 12th._--And this is where I had got to, before the mail arrives
with, I must say, a real gentlemanly letter from yourself. Sir, that is
the sort of letter I want! Now, I'll make my little proposal.[60] I will
accept _Child's Play_ and _Pan's Pipes_. Then I want _Pastoral_, _The
Manse_, _The Islet_, leaving out if you like all the prefacial matter
and beginning at I. Then the portrait of Robert Hunter, beginning
"Whether he was originally big or little," and ending "fearless and
gentle." So much for _Mem. and Portraits_. _Beggars_, sections I. and
II., _Random Memories_ II., and _Lantern Bearers_; I'm agreeable. These
are my selections. I don't know about _Pulvis et Umbra_ either, but must
leave that to you. But just what you please.

About _Davie_ I elaborately wrote last time, but still _Davie_ is not
done; I am grinding singly at _The Ebb Tide_, as we now call the
_Farallone_; the most of it will go this mail. About the following, let
there be no mistake: I will not write the abstract of _Kidnapped_; write
it who will, I