第78章 CHAPTER XXXIII(2)
And now a word as regards the delusions of the dear Ross, who remembers, I believe, my letters and Fanny's when we were first installed, and were really hoeing a hard row. We have salad, beans, cabbages, tomatoes, asparagus, kohl-rabi, oranges, limes, barbadines, pine-apples, Cape gooseberries - galore; pints of milk and cream; fresh meat five days a week.
It is the rarest thing for any of us to touch a tin; and the gnashing of teeth when it has to be done is dreadful - for no one who has not lived on them for six months knows what the Hatred of the Tin is. As for exposure, my weakness is certainly the reverse; I am sometimes a month without leaving the verandah - for my sins, be it said! Doubtless, when I go about and, as the Doctor says, 'expose myself to malaria,' I am in far better health; and I would do so more too - for I do not mean to be silly - but the difficulties are great.
However, you see how much the dear Doctor knows of my diet and habits! Malaria practically does not exist in these islands; it is a negligeable quantity. What really bothers us a little is the mosquito affair - the so-called elephantiasis - ask Ross about it. A real romance of natural history, QUOI!
Hi! stop! you say THE EBB TIDE is the 'working out of an artistic problem of a kind.' Well, I should just bet it was!
You don't like Attwater. But look at my three rogues; they're all there, I'll go bail. Three types of the bad man, the weak man, and the strong man with a weakness, that are gone through and lived out.
Yes, of course I was sorry for Mataafa, but a good deal sorrier and angrier about the mismanagement of all the white officials. I cannot bear to write about that. Manono all destroyed, one house standing in Apolima, the women stripped, the prisoners beaten with whips - and the women's heads taken - all under white auspices. And for upshot and result of so much shame to the white powers - Tamasese already conspiring! as I knew and preached in vain must be the case! Well, well, it is no fun to meddle in politics!
I suppose you're right about Simon. But it is Symon throughout in that blessed little volume my father bought for me in Inverness in the year of grace '81, I believe - the trial of James Stewart, with the Jacobite pamphlet and the dying speech appended - out of which the whole of Davie has already been begotten, and which I felt it a kind of loyalty to follow. I really ought to have it bound in velvet and gold, if I had any gratitude! and the best of the lark is, that the name of David Balfour is not anywhere within the bounds of it.
A pretty curious instance of the genesis of a book. I am delighted at your good word for DAVID; I believe the two together make up much the best of my work and perhaps of what is in me. I am not ashamed of them, at least. There is one hitch; instead of three hours between the two parts, I fear there have passed three years over Davie's character; but do not tell anybody; see if they can find it out for themselves; and no doubt his experiences in KIDNAPPED would go far to form him. I would like a copy to go to G. Meredith.
WEDNESDAY.
Well, here is a new move. It is likely I may start with Graham next week and go to Honolulu to meet the other steamer and return: I do believe a fortnight at sea would do me good; yet I am not yet certain. The crowded UP-steamer sticks in my throat.
TUESDAY, 12TH SEPT.
Yesterday was perhaps the brightest in the annals of Vailima.
I got leave from Captain Bickford to have the band of the KATOOMBA come up, and they came, fourteen of 'em, with drum, fife, cymbals and bugles, blue jackets, white caps, and smiling faces. The house was all decorated with scented greenery above and below. We had not only our own nine out-door workers, but a contract party that we took on in charity to pay their war-fine; the band besides, as it came up the mountain, had collected a following of children by the way, and we had a picking of Samoan ladies to receive them.
Chicken, ham, cake, and fruits were served out with coffee and lemonade, and all the afternoon we had rounds of claret negus flavoured with rum and limes. They played to us, they danced, they sang, they tumbled. Our boys came in the end of the verandah and gave THEM a dance for a while. It was anxious work getting this stopped once it had begun, but I knew the band was going on a programme. Finally they gave three cheers for Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, shook hands, formed up and marched off playing - till a kicking horse in the paddock put their pipes out something of the suddenest - we thought the big drum was gone, but Simele flew to the rescue. And so they wound away down the hill with ever another call of the bugle, leaving us extinct with fatigue, but perhaps the most contented hosts that ever watched the departure of successful guests. Simply impossible to tell how well these blue-jackets behaved; a most interesting lot of men; this education of boys for the navy is making a class, wholly apart - how shall I call them? - a kind of lower-class public school boy, well-mannered, fairly intelligent, sentimental as a sailor. What is more shall be writ on board ship if anywhere.
Please send CATRIONA to G. Meredith.
S. S. MARIPOSA.
To-morrow I reach Honolulu. Good-morning to your honour. R.
L. S.