dress herself in
semi-European fashion. The trader's household consisted of himself and
his two servants, a Samoan man named Ali (Harry) and his wife, Leota.
For some years they had followed his fortunes as a trader in the South
Seas, and both were intensely devoted to him. A childless couple, Marsh
at first had feared that they would resent the intrusion of Pautoe into
his home But he was mistaken; for both Ali and Leota had but one motive
for existence, and that was to please him--the now grown man, who eleven
years before, when he was a mere youth, had run away from his ship in
Samoa, and they had hidden him from pursuit And then when "Tikki" (Dick)
Marsh, by his industrious habits, was enabled to begin life as a trader,
they had come with him, sharing his good and his bad luck with him, and
serving him loyally and devotedly in his wanderings throughout the Isles
of the Pacific. So, when Pautoe came they took her to themselves as
a matter of duty; then, as they began to know the girl, and saw the
intense admiration she had for Marsh, they loved her, and took her deep
into their warm hearts. And Pautoe would sometimes tell them that she
knew not whom she loved most--"Tikki" or themselves.

Matters, from a business point of view, had not for two years prospered
with Marsh on Motumoe. Successive seasons of drought had destroyed the
cocoanut crop, and so one day he told Copley, who keenly sympathised
with him, that he must leave the island. This was a twelvemonth after
Pautoe had come to stay with him.

"I shall miss you very much, Marsh," said the missionary, "miss you more
than you can imagine. My monthly visits to you here have been a great
solace and pleasure to me. I have often wished that, instead of being
thirty miles apart, we were but two or three, so that I could have come
and seen you every few days."

Then he added: "Poor little Pautoe will break her heart over your going
away".

"But I have no intention of leaving her behind, Copley. I am not so hard
pressed that I cannot keep the youngster. I am thinking of putting her
to school in Samoa for a few years."

"That is very generous of you, Marsh. I would have much liked to have
taken her into my own house, but--my wife, you know."

Two weeks later Marsh left the island in an American whaleship, which
was to touch at Samoa There he intended to buy a small cutter, and then
proceed to the Western Pacific, where he hoped to better his fortunes
by trading th