"Tell me all about it," said Lucy, following the old woman hither and
thither as she bustled about, talking all the time, and stirring her pan
of ginger over the hot plate.

How it happened, it is not easy to say; the room was very warm, and
Mother Bunch went on talking as she stirred, and a steam rose up, and by
and by it seemed to Lucy that she had a great sneezing fit, and when she
looked again into the smoke, what did she see but two little black
figures, faces, heads, and feet all black, but with an odd sort of white
garment round their waists, and some fine red and green feathers
sticking out of their woolly heads.

"Mrs. Bunker, Mrs. Bunker," she cried, "what's this? who are these ugly
figures?"

[Illustration: "I am so glad to see you. Hush, Don! don't bark so!"

_Page 27._]

"Ugly!" said the foremost; and though it must have been some strange
language, it sounded like English to Lucy. "Is that the way little
white girl speaks to boy and girl that have come all the way from Ysabel
to see her?"

"Oh, indeed! little Ysabel boy, I beg your pardon. I didn't know you
were real, nor that you could understand me! I am so glad to see you.
Hush, Don! don't bark so!"

"Pig, pig, I never heard a pig squeak like that," said the black
stranger.

"Pig! It is a little dog. Have you no dogs in your country?"

"Pigs go on four legs. That must be pig."

"What, you have nothing that goes on four legs but a pig! What do you
eat, then, besides pig?"

"Yams, cocoa-nut, fish--oh, so good, and put pig into hole among hot
stones, make a fire over, bake so nice!"

"You shall have some of my tea and see if that is as nice," said Lucy.
"What a funny dress you have; what is it made of?"

"Tapa cloth," said the little girl. "We get the bark off the tree, and
then we go hammer, hammer, thump, thump, till all the hard thick stuff
comes off;" and Lucy, looking near, saw that the substance was really
all a lacework of fibre, about as close as the net of Nurse's caps.

"Is that all your clothes?" she asked.

"Yes, till I am a warrior," said the boy; "then they will tattoo my
forehead, and arms, and breast, and legs."

"Tattoo! what's that?"

"Make little holes, and lines all over the skin with a sharp shell, and
rub in juice that turns it all to blue and purple lines."

"But doesn't it hurt dreadfully?" asked Lucy.

"Hurt! to be sure it does, but that will show that I am brave. When
Father comes home from the war, he pai