in one's garden.

"Well, sometimes two or three o' these coolies would mutiny and bide in
the woods o' one o' the smaller uninhabited islands. An' the colonists
would have no rest till they hunted them down. So, to keep matters
right, they had to be uncommon strict. It was made law that no one
should spend the night on any but what was called the Home Island
without permission. Every man was bound to report himself at the
guard-house at a fixed hour; every fire to be out at sunset, and every
boat was numbered and had to be in its place before that time. So they
went on till the year 1862, when a disaster befell them that made a
considerable change--at first for the worse, but for the better in the
long-run. Provin' the truth, my lad, of what I was--well, no--I was
goin' to draw a moral here, but I won't!

"It was a cyclone that did the business. Cyclones have got a
free-an'-easy way of makin' a clean sweep of the work of years in a few
hours. This cyclone completely wrecked the homes of the Keelin'
Islanders, and Ross--that's the second Ross, the son of the first one--
sent home for _his_ son, who was then a student of engineering in
Glasgow, to come out and help him to put things to rights. Ross the
third obeyed the call, like a good son,--observe that, Nigel."

"All right, father, fire away!"

"Like a good son," repeated the captain, "an' he turned out to be a
first-rate man, which was lucky, for his poor father died soon after,
leavin' him to do the work alone. An' well able was the young engineer
to do it. He got rid o' the chain-gang men altogether, and hired none
but men o' the best character in their place. He cleared off the
forests and planted the ground with cocoa-nut palms. Got out steam
mills, circular saws, lathes, etcetera, and established a system of
general education with a younger brother as head-master--an' tail-master
too, for I believe there was only one. He also taught the men to work
in brass, iron, and wood, and his wife--a Cocos girl that he married
after comin' out--taught all the women and girls to sew, cook, and
manage the house. In short, everything went on in full swing of
prosperity, till the year 1876, when the island-born inhabitants were
about 500, as contented and happy as could be.

"In January of that year another cyclone paid them a visit. The
barometer gave them warning, and, remembering the visit of fourteen
years before, they made ready to receive the new visi