not
lead them on the ice. "That is well!" said he, and the little picket
laughed aloud as we splashed into the river. We returned to Apia,
through Apia, and out to windward as far as Vaiala, where the word went
that the men of the Vaimauga had assembled. We met two boys carrying
pigs, and saw six young men busy cooking in a cook-house; but no sign of
an assembly; no arms, no blackened faces. (I forgot! As we turned to
leave Faamuina's, there ran forward a man with his face blackened, and
the back of his lava-lava girded up so as to show his tattooed hips
naked; he leaped before us, cut a wonderful caper, and flung his knife
high in the air, and caught it. It was strangely savage and fantastic
and high-spirited. I have seen a child doing the same antics long before
in a dance, so that it is plainly an _accepted solemnity_. I should say
that for weeks the children have been playing with spears.) Up by the
plantation I took a short cut, which shall never be repeated, through
grass and weeds over the horses' heads and among rolling stones; I
thought we should have left a horse there, but fortune favoured us. So
home, a little before six, in a dashing squall of rain, to a bowl of
kava and dinner. But the impression on our minds was extraordinary; the
sight of that picket at the ford, and those ardent, happy faces whirls
in my head; the old aboriginal awoke in both of us and knickered like a
stallion.

It is dreadful to think that I must sit apart here and do nothing; I do
not know if I can stand it out. But you see, I may be of use to these
poor people, if I keep quiet, and if I threw myself in, I should have a
bad job of it to save myself. There; I have written this to you; and it
is still but 7.30 in the day, and the sun only about one hour up; can I
go back to my old grandpapa, and men sitting with Winchesters in my
mind's eye? No; war is a huge _entrainement_; there is no other
temptation to be compared to it, not one. We were all wet, we had been
about five hours in the saddle, mostly riding hard; and we came home
like schoolboys, with such a lightness of spirits, and I am sure such a
brightness of eye, as you could have lit a candle at!

Do you appreciate the height and depth of my temptation? that I have
about nine miles to ride, and I can become a general officer? and
to-night I might seize Mulinuu and have the C. J. under arrest? And yet
I stay here! It seems incredible, so huge is the empire of prudence and
the