ck. And I daresay
they will sleep on board, so get ready three spare bunks."

Manson was usually a slow, drawling speaker--except when he had occasion
to admonish the crew; then he was quite brilliant in the rapidity of
his remarks--but now he was clearly a little excited and seemed to have
shaken the fever out of his bones, for he not only drank his brandy and
soda as if he enjoyed it, but asked the steward to bring him his pipe.
This latter request was a sure sign that he was getting better. Then he
began his story.

*****

Although six years had passed since he had visited this part of the
great island, Manson knew his way inland to the lake. The forest was
open, and consisted of teak and cedar with but little undergrowth.
Suddenly, as he was passing under the spreading branches of a great
cedar, he saw something that made him stare with astonishment--a little
white girl, driving before her a flock of goats! She was dressed in
a loose gown of blue print, and wore an old-fashioned white linen
sun-bonnet, and her bare legs and feet were tanned a deep brown. Only
for a moment did he see her face as she faced towards him to hurry up a
playful kid that had broken away from the flock, and then her back was
again turned, and she went on, quite unaware of his presence.

"Little girl," he called.

Something like a cry of terror escaped her lips as she turned to him.

"Oh, sir," she cried in trembling tones, "you frightened me."

"I am so sorry, my dear. Who are you? Where do you live?"

"Just by the lake, sir, with my father and mother."

"May I come with you and see them?"

"Oh, yes, sir. We have never seen any one since we came here more than
two years ago. When did you come, sir?"

"Only this morning. My vessel is anchored in the little cove."

"Oh, I am so glad, so glad! My father and mother too will be so glad to
meet you. But he cannot see you--I mean see you with his eyes--for he is
blind. When our ship was wrecked here the lightning struck him, and took
away his eyesight."

Deeply interested as he was, Manson forbore to question the child any
further, and walked beside her in silence till they came in view of the
lake.

"Look, sir, there is our house. Mother and Fiji Sam, the sailor, built
it, and I helped. Isn't it nice? See, there are my father and mother
waiting for me."

On the margin of a lovely little lake, less than a mile in
circumference, was a comfortably built house, semi-native, semi-Eur