enough established to remove the effects of the heavy rains.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

THE SEPARATION.

OUR SECLUSION INVADED--SPRING IN THE TROPICS--THE EXCURSION AND ITS
CONSEQUENCES.

"Reviving Nature bounds as from her birth:
The sun is in the heavens, and life on earth;
Flowers in the valley, splendour in the beam,
Health in the breeze, and freshness in the stream."

I resume my narrative, under circumstances widely different from those
in which the preceding chapter was written. The events of the last few
days have completely changed the aspect of affairs in our little world.
The peace, the seclusion, the security, with which in our minds it had
hitherto been invested, exist no longer. Our quiet life, so free from
vicissitudes and alarms, as to seem almost monotonous, has been rudely
broken into, and in a few days we are to take a step which cannot fail
to be attended with consequences momentous to us, but whether fraught
with good or evil, it is impossible to foresee. This, however, is
anticipating the regular course of events.

It is scarcely credible, how short a time after the cessation of the
rains, sufficed to remove every trace of their effects. Three or four
days of sunshine seemed to restore things to nearly the condition, in
which we found them on first reaching the island.

It is true the vegetation now had a fresher look than before, and
slender brooks still murmured through ravines usually dry; the lake,
too, formerly so limpid, was somewhat discoloured by the turbid streams
running into it from the surrounding heights; but the standing pools of
water had evaporated, and the ground had, in most places, become once
more firm and dry.

As soon as the weather was fairly established, we made several
excursions in various directions, though not to any considerable
distance. On visiting Castle-hill, we found nothing left of our house
there, except the foundation; the entire framework, having been swept
away by the wind. A large candle-nut tree, just before the door, had
been struck by lightning, and the blasted and blackened trunk, sadly
marred the beauty of the spot.

Arthur had selected a favourable location on the margin of the lake near
the fish-pond, for a taro and patara patch; and we spent several days in
ransacking the neighbouring woods for roots, with which to stock it.
Yams, we had not yet succeeded in finding, though they are indigenous in
most of the Polynesian isla