elling over from her great dark eyes, she bent down,
caught at the Doctor's hand, and held it quickly to her lips.

"Oh, oh, that's all right," said the Doctor hastily, as he drew back his
hand and patted the woman's shoulder.

"Look, uncle, what Dula has brought us!" cried Minnie; and she took from
the veranda table a great bunch of the beautiful white creeper which the
native women were fond of wearing in their black hair.

"Aha!" said the Doctor. "Thank you.--My fee, Archie."

"Not all," said Mrs Morley. "She has brought you one of those horrible
durians;" and as the Doctor's wife spoke Minnie caught up a little,
bamboo-woven native basket, in which, carefully arranged among freshly
gathered fern, was one of the peculiar-looking native fruits, the
produce of one of the great trees so carefully planted and cared for in
nearly every native village. "Don't! Don't touch the horrid thing, my
dear," whispered Mrs Morley.

"What!" cried the Doctor; and he took the great, hard-shelled fruit from
the basket and turned it over in his hands. "Capital!" he cried. "A
beauty!"

"Ugh!" ejaculated Mrs Morley; and Minnie screwed-up her face into a
pretty grimace, as she once more exchanged glances with Archie.

"Doc-tor like?" questioned the woman, with an anxious look.

"Yes," he replied, smiling. "I like them very much."

"Like--very--much," said the woman. "Dula glad." And then, soothing
her child tenderly, she whispered a few words to it in her native
language.

"Oh, come," said the Doctor, "I do understand that. Your mother's quite
right: I sha'n't eat you."

The woman smiled again as she hugged her child closer and kissed it
lovingly, while the Doctor nodded to Minnie.

"Quite comic, isn't it, my dear? What foolish things mothers are,
aren't they? Just as fond of their bairns as Englishwomen, eh?"

"Why, of course, uncle. Such a pretty little thing, too! Look at its
eyes!" and, to the mother's great delight, the girl crossed to her, took
the child in her arms, and kissed it, while the little thing smiled,
raised one hand, and softly stroked the girl's white face.

"There, Archie," she cried; "it is pretty, isn't it?"

"A beauty!" said the young man, laughing.

"Come and kiss it, sir," said the girl imperiously.

"All right;" and without more ado the lad took hold of the child, held
it up, and kissed it twice.

"Oh, take care!" cried Minnie. "How clumsy you are!"

"Well, it doesn't seem to t