Part 1 (2/2)
Then in his irl on either ar in his tipsy head He would meet a shi+pmate and drop in somewhere for a drink; another shi+p as it went, a general adjournurdies Here they would dance and drink and sing and whoop it up like hell, till--till--Yes, that's ould happen That's what always happened Theood resolutions always ended that way--in smoke He had made them, man and boy, these fourteen years He would make them, he supposed, until the day he died And keep the; he would die a hog--a durned, low, dirty, conte!
He spat in the water to eust, cursed the infernal sun, and then, dipping into the pot again, continued his job
Turning round to rest his arms, he perceived, beneath the deep shade of the Matautu shore, the first sign of animation in that sleepy settle out to a whaleboat that was apparently beingto it, with baskets of food, kegs of beef, a tin of biscuit, and a capacious chest A couple of children bailed frantically in the stern sheets, while a shrill old woe packages of _tapa_ cloth were carried out; bundles of e stone for an anchor, a water dee
These were all thrown in, and stored with noisy good-humor and a dozen different readjustiven the bow, the stern, the center, as though nothing would satisfy it A pig broke loose and was hilariously recaptured A dejected, thin person, somewhat past middle years, in what seemed no costume but his native skin, retired shoreith the parrakeet An old chief, his head white with li with those on shore,an umbrella above his stately head There wereto and fro; a brief reappearance of the undecided parrakeet The young men took their places at the thwarts, the old chief settled the tiller on the rudder head, the woirls, and children crowded in wherever they could, and then, amid shouts and cheers, the paddles dipped and the boat moved slowly seaward
Wilson watched it all with sullen envy Hoas it that these brown savages were free, and he barnacled to a slab-sided bark? Was he not a white man, and their superior? Did he not look down at the race, kindly, tolerantly, contemptuously, as one does on children? And yet who had the best of it, by God? Listen to the dip of the paddles; hear the mellow chorus that times the rowers' strokes; not a care on board, not a face that was not sht have it! His lonely and toiling life!
What fool aes? Look at _them_!
They had none and wanted none; and as like as not they were putting to sea without a dollar aive all his share of it for a place in that there boat, to drive a paddle with the rest of them; to be, what he wished to God he had been born, a durned Kanaka!
The whaleboat dreiftly toward hio beneath the bark on her way to the pass The paddles leaped to a rousing song and crashed in unison on the slopping gunwales Dip, swish, bang! and then the accentuated thunder of forty voices, the , the women's rich, falsetto, and musical In the stern the old chief swayed with every rush of the boat, one sinewy hand clinched on the tiller, the other enfolding a little child In the bow a handso a rifle in the air and dancing to the song of his co roar, the white water splashi+ng under their bow
Wilson dropped his brush and looked on with open mouth Great Caesar! he knew that old fellar in the stern He had se And that girl there, aving and shaking her hand to hihter, who used to look at hih when she iven the dominoes to, and that dress from the Dutch firm, and them beads! Fetuao! Wasn't she pretty as she stood there in the boat calling to hi in the wind, and her brown boso beauty, that girl!
The boat came to a stop beneath him; the paddles backed, and Wilson, with some embarrassment, received the stare of the whole party below
”Poor whiteon a thwart to raise her head to the level of his foot
”Like hell!” said Jack
”Kanaka reed Jack
”Jack,” said Fetuao, ”I go home now, and never see you no more Good-by, Jack!”
She raised her little hand, which the sailor clasped in his big one Her tender, troubled eyes htened on his pal us, Jack”
”Do you erly ”Do you mean it?”
”Oh, Jack, you coood!” cried the old chief
Jack, in a drealances of Hansen and Bates, whoht to the shi+p's rail; then he looked below into the girlish face upraised to his For better or worse, his resolution was taken They es; their stinking shi+p ht sink or swim for all he cared They elcome to what Jack Wilson left behind hihtly into the boat beside Fetuao, and with one arm around her naked waist he shouted to the natives to shove off
”_Fo'e!_” cried the chief, and the paddles ain