orate
Samoan fashion as for a chief of the highest rank.

Colonel and Mrs. Logan very graciously invited the Fields to Vailima
and placed the house and grounds at their disposal.

"It is strange," wrote Mrs. Field, "being here at Vailima. I was so
afraid to come, but mercifully it is not the same. Rooms have been
added, the polished redwood panels in the large hall are painted over
in white; the lawn where the tennis courts were is cut up into flower
beds; many of the great trees have gone; and the atmosphere of the
place has changed so utterly that I have to say to myself 'This is
Vailima' to believe that I am here after so many years. Mrs. Logan
and the Governor came out to meet us when we arrived, and as we turned
into the road and I saw the house for the first time it was the Union
Jack flying from the flag-staff that affected me most. I felt like a
person in a dream as we walked over the house--the same and yet
changed out of all recognition. We had tea, and then in the soft
sunset we went down to the waterfall, no longer a fairy dell of
loveliness but improved with a dam, cement flooring, and a row of neat
bathrooms. In the evening we sat on the upper veranda looking out over
the moonlit tree-tops; the scene was very beautiful, with the view of
the sea and Vaea mountain so green and so close. 'Here we wrote _St.
Ives_ and _Hermiston_,' I tell myself, but I don't believe it."

It had been their intention to have their old missionary friend, Dr.
Brown, conduct the services, but at the last moment word was brought
that he was detained on one of the other islands by storms. For a time
they were much troubled, but at last Colonel Logan lifted a load off
their hearts by offering to read the Church of England service
himself.

The day before that set for the funeral, June 22, it blew and rained,
and there was much anxious foreboding about the weather. In the night,
however, the wind blew away the clouds and rain, and morning broke,
still, sunny, but cool--a perfect day.

The small bronze case containing the ashes, wrapped in a fine mat, had
been laid on a table in one of the rooms that had wide doors opening
on the veranda. The guests began to arrive early, in Samoan fashion,
bringing flowers and wreaths, and soon the table was a mass of lovely
blooms--all colours, for the Samoans do not adhere to white for
funerals. The high chief Tamasese, with his wife Vaaiga, both wearing
mourning bands on their arms, were the