sinthe bottle by her bed, she made a slightly resentful _moue_
and murmured "_Encore une!_"

Oh, brave, witty Bibi!

AH! AH! QUEEN OF THE RUDE ISLANDS

[Illustration: AH! AH! QUEEN OF THE RUDE ISLANDS]

The "Rude" Islands! what a thrill that name awakes in the heart of every
wanderer--lying as they do in the very heart of the rolling Pacific. Was
it two or three hundred years ago that brave Joshua Mortlake discovered
and christened them? History has it that he was standing on the poop
deck of his schooner the "Whoops-a-Daisy" when he first beheld those
pocket Paradises of the Pacific. He shaded his eyes with his hand and
turned to his bosom friend--Eagle Trott:

"What exactly do those islands remind you of?" he asked.

Eagle looked down bashfully. "I'd rather not say," he replied.

At this Joshua slapped him heartily on the back.

"Stap me," he cried, using a colloquialism of the period, "if I do not
name them the Rude Islands." And from that moment they have been known
as nothing else.

To attempt to describe the wild untameable beauty of the coast scenery
would be almost as absurd as to endeavour to portray the seductive
sensuality and exotic perfection of the interior landscapes--but a brief
catalogue of some of the outstanding horticultural marvels will do no
harm to anyone and perhaps convey to the lay mind a slight conception of
the atmosphere in which Ah! Ah! was born and bred. For instance, the
flowering kaia-ooh! with its exquisite perfume (suggestive of the
Californian Poppy), the veemuawees (a small hard fruit suggestive of the
oak apple), and the perennial "Pooh!" (merely suggestive) all combined
to enwrap the infant Ah! Ah! in a somnolent cocoon of sensual
languidness, from which in after life she was hard put to it to escape.
To say that her dazzling beauty completely hypnotised any native for
miles round into instant submission--would perhaps be exaggerating; but
if one is to judge from the accounts of contemporary chroniclers she was
undoubtedly attractive.

For those interested in queer native traditions and legends, the origin
of her name must indeed prove an instructive object
lesson--intermingling as it does the austerity and reproach of the North
with the quaint domestic charm of the further South. The story runs
thus:

When quite a child this lithe supple young thing was as full of mischief
and engaging roguery as any tortoiseshell kitten--with elfin glee her
favourite sport w