第77章 AROUND OUR HOUSE(3)

Our enclosure,round which this composite of degradations wandered,was of some extent.In one corner was a trellis with a long table of rough boards.Here the Fourth of July feast had been held not long before with memorable consequences,yet to be set forth;here we took our meals;here entertained to a dinner the king and notables of Makin.In the midst was the house,with a verandah front and back,and three is rooms within.In the verandah we slung our man-of-war hammocks,worked there by day,and slept at night.Within were beds,chairs,a round table,a fine hanging lamp,and portraits of the royal family of Hawaii.Queen Victoria proves nothing;Kalakaua and Mrs.Bishop are diagnostic;and the truth is we were the stealthy tenants of the parsonage.On the day of our arrival Maka was away;faithless trustees unlocked his doors;and the dear rigorous man,the sworn foe of liquor and tobacco,returned to find his verandah littered with cigarettes and his parlour horrible with bottles.He made but one condition -on the round table,which he used in the celebration of the sacraments,he begged us to refrain from setting liquor;in all else he bowed to the accomplished fact,refused rent,retired across the way into a native house,and,plying in his boat,beat the remotest quarters of the isle for provender.He found us pigs -I could not fancy where -no other pigs were visible;he brought us fowls and taro;when we gave our feast to the monarch and gentry,it was he who supplied the wherewithal,he who superintended the cooking,he who asked grace at table,and when the king's health was proposed,he also started the cheering with an English hip-hip-hip.There was never a more fortunate conception;the heart of the fatted king exulted in his bosom at the sound.

Take him for all in all,I have never known a more engaging creature than this parson of Butaritari:his mirth,his kindness,his noble,friendly feelings,brimmed from the man in speech and gesture.He loved to exaggerate,to act and overact the momentary part,to exercise his lungs and muscles,and to speak and laugh with his whole body.He had the morning cheerfulness of birds and healthy children;and his humour was infectious.We were next neighbours and met daily,yet our salutations lasted minutes at a stretch -shaking hands,slapping shoulders,capering like a pair of Merry-Andrews,laughing to split our sides upon some pleasantry that would scarce raise a titter in an infant-school.It might be five in the morning,the toddy-cutters just gone by,the road empty,the shade of the island lying far on the lagoon:and the ebullition cheered me for the day.