together and waited
submissively. Finally, noticing the new boat flag lying on his desk, the
consul took it up in both his hands. "Wilson," he said oratorically,
"this is my flag, and your flag, and it is now Mrs. Wilson's flag, for
I've made her as good an American as the pair of us. Take it along with
you, and if you have children, bring them up to love and honor Old Glory
as we do, and teach them at your knee what it stands for--freedom,
justice; and equal rights for every man born under it. And if there
should ever be any trouble here--war, riot, or any little
unpleasantness--just hoist it above your house, and its bright folds
will protect you as though the whole U-nited States army lay in a
mighty camp around you!"

Jack took the flag respectfully, much impressed by the consul's speech,
and tremendously pleased, besides, that Fetuao should see that an
American, even a common, low-down American seaman like himself, counted
for something in the official world. Would a Britisher, or one of those
stinking Dutchmen, have acted like this consul did? _His_ consul, by
God!--and his breast heaved with gratitude and patriotic fervor.
Afterwards, when Fetuao and he ate their lunch under a tree, he spread
out the consul's gift on the ground beside him, and the words freedom,
justice, and equal rights boomed sonorously in his ears. To Fetuao, in
her simplicity, the bunting appeared a sort of sanction or certificate
of their civil marriage; and when she returned home she explained that
it was all settled, the _faamasino_ having written their names in the
book and given them the _fua Ameleke_!

III

Three years passed. Jack rubbed his eyes and wondered what had become of
them; and he read the answer to his question in his coffee bushes, now
breast high and crimson with fruit, in his trellised vanilla already so
exacting and so profitable, in his sturdy breadfruit trees thickening
with every rain, in the patches of bananas, _taro_, yams, _'ava_,
egg-plant, sweet potatoes, pineapples, and sour-sops that were set out
so trimly in the plantation his ax had won from the primeval forest. His
house, too, had drawn not a little on his capital--his capital of
strength, skill, and perseverance--but he grudged neither time nor labor
in making it the best in Oa. For a house is an important matter to a
family man, even if it weren't a paying thing like vanillar, nor capable
of helping a fellar along like a cow or a boat. It paid you ba