Marsh, and never before had she
seen a stream of running water. For Motumoe, where she had lived all
her young life, was an atoll--low, flat, and sandy, and although densely
covered with coco palms, there were but few other trees of any height
And now, in Samoa, she was never tired of wandering alone in the deep,
silent forest, treading with ecstasy the thick carpet of fallen leaves,
gazing upwards at the canopy of branches, and listening with a thrilled
delight to the booming notes of the great blue-plumaged, red-breasted
pigeons, and the plaintive answering cries of the ring-doves. Then, too,
in the forest at the back of the village were ruins of ancient dwellings
of stone, build by hands unknown, preserved from decay by a binding
net-work of ivy-like creepers and vines, and the haunt and resting-place
of the wild boar and his mate, and their savage, quick-footed progeny.
And sometimes she would hear the shrill, cackling scream of a wild
mountain cock, and see the great, fierce-eyed bird, half-running,
half-flying over the leaf-strewn ground. And to her the forest became a
deep and holy mystery, to adore and to love.

Quite near to Laulii was another village--Lautonga, in which there lived
a young American trader named Lester Meredith--like Marsh, an ex-sailor.
He was an extremely reserved, quiet man, but he and Marsh soon became
friends, and they exchanged almost daily visits. Meredith, like Marsh,
was an unmarried man, and one day the local chief of the district
jocularly reproached them.

"Thou, Tikki, art near to two-score years, and yet hast no wife, and
thou, Lesta, art one score and five and yet live alone. Why is it so? Ye
are both fine, handsome men, and pleasing to the eyes of women."

Marsh laughed. "O Tofia, thou would-be matchmaker! I am no marrying man.
Once, indeed, I gave my heart to a woman in mine own country of England,
but although she loved me, her people were both rich and proud, and I
was poor. So she became wife to another man."

Pautoe, who was listening intently to the men's talk, set her white
teeth, and clenched her shapely little hands, and then said slowly:--

"Didst kill the other man, Tikki?"

Marsh and Meredith both laughed, and the former shook his head, and then
Tofia turned to Meredith:--

"Lesta, hast never thought of Maliea, the daughter of Tonu? There is no
handsomer girl in Samoa, and she is of good family. And she would like
to marry thee."

Meredith smiled, and then