lightly on the earth, and his breath was good to him again.
Yet was terror still at his elbow; and ever and again, as the wind blows
out a taper, hope died in him, and he saw the flames toss and the red
fire burn in hell.

It was given out in the country they were gone pleasuring to the States,
which was thought a strange thing, and yet not so strange as the truth,
if any could have guessed it. So they went to Honolulu in the _Hall_,
and thence in the _Umatilla_ to San Francisco with a crowd of Haoles,
and at San Francisco took their passage by the mail brigantine, the
_Tropic Bird_, for Papeete, the chief place of the French in the south
islands. Thither they came, after a pleasant voyage, on a fair day of
the trade wind, and saw the reef with the surf breaking, and Motuiti
with its palms, and the schooner riding withinside, and the white houses
of the town low down along the shore among green trees, and overhead the
mountains and the clouds of Tahiti, the wise island.

It was judged the most wise to hire a house, which they did accordingly,
opposite the British Consul's, to make a great parade of money, and
themselves conspicuous with carriages and horses. This it was very easy
to do, so long as they had the bottle in their possession; for Kokua was
more bold than Keawe, and, whenever she had a mind, called on the imp
for twenty or a hundred dollars. At this rate they soon grew to be
remarked in the town; and the strangers from Hawaii, their riding and
their driving, the fine holokus and the rich lace of Kokua, became the
matter of much talk.

They got on well after the first with the Tahitian language, which is
indeed like to the Hawaiian, with a change of certain letters: and as
soon as they had any freedom of speech, began to push the bottle. You
are to consider it was not an easy subject to introduce; it was not easy
to persuade people you were in earnest, when you offered to sell them
for four centimes the spring of health and riches inexhaustible. It was
necessary besides to explain the dangers of the bottle; and either
people disbelieved the whole thing and laughed, or they thought the more
of the darker part, became overcast with gravity, and drew away from
Keawe and Kokua, as from persons who had dealings with the devil. So far
from gaining ground, these two began to find they were avoided in the
town; the children ran away from them screaming, a thing intolerable to
Kokua; Catholics crossed themselves as